Nose - salted caramel, burnt brown sugar, candied pecan, cinnamon bun dough, vanilla, peanut butter, leather, tobacco, frosted wheat, dark chocolate, toasted marshmallow, rich oak, black pepper, allspice, nutmeg, moderate to high ethanol burn. Taste - rich caramel, vanilla, baked apple, cherry, coffee, brown sugar, chili pepper, dark chocolate, pecan, leather, tobacco, peanut, marshmallow, spicy oak, clove, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon toast, moderate to high alcohol bite, finishing long with salted caramel, strong baking spice, chocolate, and candied nut flavors. After a fairly mediocre experience with Honeydew yesterday, we’re back to Garrison Brothers’ bread and butter with this ten-gallon hat of a bourbon. The nose is beautiful. It has all the aromas I want in a bourbon. Dark chocolates and caramels, candied nuts, huge baking spices, and rich, brooding oak. Very little changes on the palate. All the notes from the nose transfer over with a bit more fruitiness presenting, along with a buttery cinnamon toast flavor that jettisons me back to memories from my childhood. So is this just baby Cowboy bourbon? Is it equivalent to Cowboy for around $100 less? Well, I guess I’ll have to pour some 2019 Cowboy (for science!) and compare them side by side. Interestingly, this is slightly darker than Cowboy, even though it’s three years at 59.15% compared to Cowboy’s five years at 68.65%. Cowboy is somehow deeper, darker, and more brooding on the nose. The single barrel is much brighter with a powdered sugar effervescence. That same difference holds true on the palate. This one is fresh and almost light compared to Cowboy’s massively thick, oily, rich profile. The single barrel is also much hotter. It astounds me every time I taste Cowboy that Garrison Brothers was able to get nearly 140 proof, five year old whiskey to be so amazingly graceful. I could go on, but the long and short of it is that Cowboy is a masterpiece and continues to reign supreme over all other bourbon (really, almost everything) I’ve tasted. Nonetheless, this particular single barrel is fabulous and is most likely a better value at $150 than Cowboy is at $250. If you need me, I’ll be posted up here double fisting some of the absolute best whiskey America has to offer. And I’d be remiss not to mention that this is yet another amazing bottle that was most generously gifted to me by @pkingmartin, who it seems has been singlehandedly supporting my growing addiction to Texas whiskey.