Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon (2019 Release)

Rich sweet leather nose, full, heavenly, by far the best from Garrison

Wow This is a great pour Drinks way way lower then a crack below hazmat So much flavor Incredible sweetness FRESH CORN Shines!!! Long delicious finish This is a very unique whiskey but so familiar 😉 Cheers

Rating: 20/23 I'm rapidly becoming a big fan of the Cowboy. I'm hoping that my love of this line continues with this one. N: Spicy yet sweet baking spices, with maple and polished wood. A bit of mineral and a surprising faint vegetal hint. Fairly rich and full. Not the most exciting, but it has that necessary Cowboy boldness. P: Spicy, but not with too much of a bite. There is a burn to it, but it also has sweet cinnamon with cloves, black pepper, and fainter ginger. There's a surprising cherry flavor adding some fruity sweetness and also tartness. It's kind of like a brandied cherry. I also get faint maple and a touch of dry minerality. There is some of that sawdusty Garrison Brothers wood in here, but not more than a touch of the usual chocolate. Maybe a touch of vanilla too. There is also a sort of lightly vegetal, barbecue flavor to this that strikes me as a bit off and reminds me of my bottle of Garrison Brothers Balmorhea (2021), which I am underwhelmed by. Hints of ancho chili. Still, this is very tasty. F: The minerality stands out a bit more, and so does that hint of barbecue. I get sawdust and lingering spices (including the ancho chili) for sure. There's a dry, tart vanilla flavor coming out here that I missed before. It's pretty big, actually. - Conclusion - This is great, but It's not blowing my mind. I'd take Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon 2020 (22/23) over this for sure. And by a substantial margin. This isn't as rich or interesting and I'm not a big fan of that barbecue flavor. It does show less alcohol, but the difference there isn't enough to really impress me. Compared with my bottle of Garrison Brothers Balmorhea 2021 (17/23), this is less complex, but also richer with less weirdness going on. This seems clearly superior. It's somewhere between the 2021 Balmorhea and the 2020 Cowboy - so a 19 or 20, most likely. I'm currently thinking that this is closer to the 2020 Cowboy than it is to the 2021 Balmorhea, but let's do some more side-by-sides. I'm pretty confident that this is better than Wild Turkey Rare Breed 116.8 (18-19/23), but the gap isn't huge. In terms of value, I'm sure that the Wild Turkey beats this. In terms of raw quality tough, this wines.I'm now thinking this could be as high as a 21. Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Barrel Proof (21/23) is sweeter, more decadent, and more viscous than this is. It burns a bit more, but it doesn't have any of those weird flavors and there is a substantial amount of depth to it. This is not going to beat a 21. I'm thinking a 20 or a 21, with a 20 seeming more likely right now. This is just a bit less composed. Yeah, it's a 20. This is another case of me adoring a Garrison Brothers product, but concluding that it costs twice what it's worth, unfortunately. This is certainly not as good as the 2020 Cowboy (22/23), which was the first Garrison Brothers I concluded could be worth the money. A big thanks to @pkingmartin for this delightful pour!

On this eve of Halloween eve, I find myself on a eerie Northeast evening. Wind is eerily blowing. Storm is brewing. A damp chill in the air. Time for a warming dram. The color pours as a rich mahogany with maroon hues. Immediately, upon initial pour, an aroma of candied pecans jumps out and dominates. You can sense other notes wanting to come through but it cannot penetrate the dominance. Time will remedy that. As it settles and loosens up, those blocked aromas begin to seep through. Milk chocolate, toffee and a vanilla mix provide a robust sweetness. But wait, there’s more!: sawdust, dried hay, leather, burnt marshmallows, cinnamon, maple syrup. A plethora or aromas. I think I could smell the kitchen sink. The initial sip, unlike the sweet nose, is more earthy. Medium-dense, soft and velvety texture. Successive sips are hot but without burn, which is confounding as the pour is at 68% Abv. A leather base where those pecans continue from the nose. Cinnamon, allspice and root beer is all I can detect as the alcohol bite makes it tough to get more. Time for some water. Tree bark, vanilla, peanut brittle, cigar tobacco leaf bring a wonderful earthiness tempered with a touch with of sweetness. Leather, wood and char stay with the palate for quite some time. Candy corn eventually seeps out that hits with a touch of sweetness. Ultimately, the palate remains woody, dry and wanting another sip. I have had good fortune to taste some wonderful bourbon/whisky. Of those, a handful I can still conjure up without tasting. Midwinters Act 2, Cragellachie 51 amongst some others. This one ranks right up there. There’s a uniqueness to this one. Earthy and sweet packed with some muscle. That muscle, though, is all grace and style. Ballet vs kickboxing. This had an abundance of aromas which is rare. Most drams have pop in a few points (caramel or vanilla or leather). This had it all. All perfectly harmonized. The palate is rich, full and dense with flavor the keeps on line with the nose. A top line whiskey. Time and patience is a must to fully take it all in. If there is a downside to this, as others before have mentioned, is the price. Thanks @pkingmartin for this wonderful sample. [97/100][Tasted: 10/29/21]

Smells like sugar coated pecans, tastes like smokey leather and finishes with burnt caramel notes