American Whiskey Review #66: Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon (2020 Release)

Distillery: Garrison Brothers

Region: Texas

ABV: 66.95%

Age: NAS. “Distilled & Barreled in 2015”, age would be around 4-5 years.

Corn Variety: Food Grade #1 White from farms in South Texas

Bottle No: 6572 (?)

Color: 1.8, Old Oak.

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Nose Before you can even get the glass up to your nose, you can smell the leather oozing out of it. There’s so much leather here with maybe a tinge of tobacco. Lots of oak as well.

Palate: Mouthfeel is fairly rich. While there’s a distinct note of wood, it is most definitely not oak. I was reminded heavily of cedar with a slight almost nuttiness to it. The cedar dominated proceedings for the most part and only gave bits away to the earthier notes of leather, leather polish, and some tobacco.

Finish: Very long, very nutty. That rich cedar from the palate just lingers forever and a day.

Conclusion: Yesterday, a friend of mine and I walked into his local bar and the bartender immediately set this bottle down in front of us to try. I have to say, it’s quite different from any other bourbon I’ve ever had. It’s probably the strongest whiskey I’ve had at a whopping 66.95% ABV but in all honesty, you can never tell. It drinks like a far lower proof whisky (which is probably a recipe for trouble if we drank much more of it than we did) and I didn’t add any water to it until the end. The nose teases that it’s going to be an earthy one and the rest of it absolutely delivers. The note of cedar that dominates proceedings is very different and I found it a lot more pleasant than the usual over-oaking bourbon can get at times. Not bad, though a tad one dimensional. Would I buy a bottle? Probably not at the $200+ this goes for but it’s definitely worth trying.

Final Score: 82.

American Whiskey Review #66, Bourbon Review #53, Whisky Network Review #314

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.

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