Garrison Brothers Launches Ranch Reserve Series: Texas Bourbon Gets a Spanish Accent
Out on the rolling, wildflower-flecked acreage of Hye, Texas, where the Hill Country sun bakes the earth nine months out of the year and the smell of sweet corn mash drifts across unpaved roads, Garrison Brothers Distillery has never been content to stand still. Two decades after Dan and Nancy Garrison planted their flag in a place where most people said bourbon had no business being made, the distillery is launching its most ambitious new product line yet: the Ranch Reserve Series.
Garrison Brothers Distillery, the first and oldest legal whiskey distillery in Texas and the first distillery outside of Kentucky to produce authentic, handcrafted, corn-to-cork bourbon whiskey, announced the Ranch Reserve Series in late May 2026. It is a new collection of limited expressions that explore exceptional finishing casks through the lens of bold Texas bourbon. The inaugural release drops on June 27, and it brings something that has never existed in quite this form before: eight-year-old Texas straight bourbon that spent half its life in Spanish sherry wood, bottled at a serious proof and offered to a bourbon market hungry for something both familiar and genuinely new.
What Ranch Reserve Actually Is — and What It Isn't
The name alone carries weight in the Texas bourbon universe, and Garrison Brothers is deliberate about what it means. Ranch Reserve is where Garrison Brothers explores exceptional finishing casks, and only the barrels that truly come together make the cut. These are very limited releases, born in Hye, Texas, then guided deeper by time, patience, and character-rich casks.
The philosophy behind the series is worth understanding in full, because it separates Ranch Reserve from the flood of finished whiskeys that have cluttered the American spirits market over the past several years. A lot of those releases are finished because they're different — because the novelty of a rum cask or a port barrel is enough of a hook. Garrison Brothers is making a different argument. They start with bold Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey made from scratch at the distillery in Hye, Texas, then move select barrels into character-rich finishing casks and taste them month after month until the balance is right. These releases are not bottled because they are different. They're bottled because they're worthy.
Ranch Reserve also carries forward a part of the distillery's history. Years ago, the spirit of experimentation that gave rise to Balmorhea, Estacado, and HoneyDew helped show what finished bourbon could be in Hye. Ranch Reserve is the next evolution of that idea. It's more focused, more selective, and more exacting — a series built not on experimentation for its own sake, but on a standard of quality that disqualifies most barrels before they ever get close to a bottle.
The First Two Releases: PX and Oloroso Sherry Cask Finished
The first two releases — a PX Sherry Cask Finished and an Oloroso Sherry Cask Finished — will debut at the Hye, Texas, distillery on Saturday, June 27. Both carry a price tag of $149.99 and a production run that makes allocation the name of the game from day one.
The Architecture of an 8-Year Texas Bourbon
Before getting into what each expression becomes, it helps to understand what they start as. Both expressions begin as Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey aged four years in new, toasted, and charred white American oak barrels. That foundation matters enormously in Texas, where the climate does things to bourbon that would be impossible in Kentucky. Due to the very hot summers in Texas, Dan Garrison had to develop specially made barrels from American white oak with extra thick staves to withstand the intense heat, which allows the whiskey to mature much faster. The consequence is a bourbon that punches above its age — dense, extracted, and already carrying more wood character at four years than many Kentucky bourbons achieve at twice that.
Then, instead of going to bottle, these barrels go somewhere else entirely. The new whiskeys spent an additional four years in Spanish sherry casks after aging in new American oak barrels. Eight years total. Four in American oak under the blazing Texas sun, four more in casks that carried some of Spain's most celebrated wine traditions. The result is a category of one.
PX Sherry Cask Finished: Dark, Lush, and Unapologetically Decadent
Image credit: Garrison Brothers
The PX Sherry Cask Finished expression draws its name from Pedro Ximénez, a grape variety central to a legendary sherry tradition in Spain. Pedro Ximénez sherry is made from sun-dried grapes that are pressed and fermented into an intensely sweet, almost syrupy wine — deeply dark in color, thick with dried fruit, raisins, and molasses. The barrels that once held this wine carry those characteristics deep into the wood grain, and what they impart to bourbon is unmistakable.
Four years in new, toasted, and charred white American oak, then four additional years in PX 59-gallon sherry casks. Dark, rich, and decadent, PX Sherry Cask Finished takes the Texas bourbon in a lush direction. After four years in white American oak, it spends four more in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks from Spain, where it picks up notes of raisins, figs, and toffee without losing the bold character that makes it unmistakably Garrison Brothers.
Official tasting notes from the brand describe toffee, caramel, figs, and candied fruit with a long, luxurious finish. It is bottled at 109 proof and carries a suggested retail price of $149.99. At 109 proof, there's enough horsepower here to carry those sweet, sticky sherry flavors without collapsing into syrup — the Texas backbone keeps the whole thing honest.
Oloroso Sherry Cask Finished: Savory, Structured, and Built to Sip Slowly
Image credit: Garrison Brothers
If the PX expression is the decadent one, the Oloroso is its lean, angular counterpart. Oloroso sherry is a dry, oxidatively aged wine — darker and more complex than a Fino but without the sweetness of a PX. It typically shows walnuts, leather, dried fruit, and a deep nuttiness that comes from years of slow oxidation in solera systems. In a bourbon finishing cask, it adds structure and savory depth rather than sweetness.
The Oloroso Sherry Cask Finished bourbon rests in Oloroso casks sourced from a single producer in Jerez, Spain. Bottled at 110 proof, the brand's official notes highlight walnut and baking spices, describing it as a savory, structured bourbon. Savory, structured, and built for slow sipping, Oloroso Sherry Cask Finished shows a different side of Ranch Reserve. After four years in white American oak, it spends four more in Oloroso sherry casks from Spain, bringing out notes of walnut, fig, and baking spices in a bourbon that still speaks with a Texas voice.
Sourcing from a single producer in Jerez is a meaningful detail. It means the cask character is consistent and traceable — not a blended hodgepodge of barrels from various origins. Jerez, the historic sherry-producing town in Andalusia, is where the Oloroso tradition runs deepest, and sourcing exclusively from there provides a level of provenance that serious whiskey buyers will appreciate.
What Master Distiller Donnis Todd Had to Say
Donnis Todd has been at the center of Garrison Brothers' production story for years. Todd believes a combination of elements make Garrison Brothers bourbon extraordinary. First, there's the water, high in calcium and lacking iron, straight from the ground. Then there's the relationship with local farmers who grow the grains. And then there's the custom barrels and the brutal Texas summers, where temperatures soar above 100 but drop into the 70s and 60s, causing slight leakage in the barrels. That concentrated, heat-driven extraction is the backbone of everything the Ranch Reserve series builds upon.
On the new releases, Todd was direct and enthusiastic. "These two releases share the same Texas bourbon backbone and deliver two different sherry traditions. One dark and decadent and the other, savory and structured. These are beautiful in color and remarkable in taste," said Donnis Todd, Master Distiller, Garrison Brothers. The brevity of that quote shouldn't be mistaken for lack of care — Todd is a man who lets the whiskey do most of the talking, and the eight years these barrels spent maturing say quite a lot.
A New Bottle Design That Signals a New Chapter
Garrison Brothers has always paid close attention to packaging. The hand-dipped wax tops and Texas star stamps that have defined their bottles for years are part of the brand's identity — a physical reminder that every bottle was touched by human hands in Hye, Texas. The Ranch Reserve series gets a design treatment that feels like a step forward without abandoning what makes the brand recognizable.
The Ranch Reserve Series introduces a new bottle design featuring a leather band motif and walnut-colored wax dipping, with the "Ranch Reserve" label prominently displayed. The front of the bottle bears a designed leather band and walnut-colored wax dipping. The leather band motif is a nod to Texas ranch culture — the kind of weathered, well-worn material that shows up on saddles, belts, and hatbands across the Hill Country. The walnut-colored wax differentiates these bottles immediately from the rest of the Garrison Brothers lineup, signaling to any collector or enthusiast that this is a different tier of release.
Limited Production: The Numbers That Matter
The allocation situation is straightforward and unambiguous for anyone hoping to get their hands on one of these. Each expression was produced in a run of 6,000 bottles. For a distillery with national distribution and a devoted following that extends well beyond Texas, 6,000 bottles per expression is a tight run. Both the PX and Oloroso expressions are going to move fast.
Both will first be available at the distillery beginning at 8 a.m. on June 27, with online sales and distribution to select markets to follow. That means the best chance to secure a bottle on release day is showing up at the distillery in Hye — something that's become a ritual for Garrison Brothers loyalists during major releases. The Garrison Brothers Distillery in Hye, Texas, welcomes thousands of visitors annually for tours, volunteer bottling, special events, and one-of-a-kind bourbon experiences, and it is currently ranked in the top 10% of places to visit in the world from reviewers on TripAdvisor. Expect that release day crowd to reflect the demand.
The Distillery Behind the Bottle: A Pioneer in American Whiskey
To appreciate why Ranch Reserve matters as much as it does, it's worth understanding just how improbable the entire Garrison Brothers story really is. In 2006, the distillery was granted the first stiller's permit for bourbon outside of Kentucky and Tennessee, which makes it the oldest legal bourbon distillery in Texas.
The man who made that happen came from nowhere near the bourbon world. Dan Garrison was unemployed after the Enron scandal of 2001 bankrupted the software company where he worked, and he started writing a business plan during a tour of Kentucky distilleries. Some experts advised that he'd need to make vodka to stay afloat in the early, lean years; that he'd need to source some whiskey to start; or that bourbon couldn't come from Texas. He ignored all of it. He drove to Kentucky, sought out the legends of the industry, asked the right questions, and came back to Hye with enough knowledge — and stubbornness — to build something that had never existed before.
The early years were not without genuine crisis. During his first summer aging whiskey, the Texas heat cracked a barrel stave, causing a massive leak, and he later found success with custom-made barrels with thicker staves after many sleepless nights. The problem of the Texas climate — which could destroy a barrel just as easily as it could accelerate maturation — took years to solve. The angels' share can be up to 40% at Garrison Brothers, significantly higher than in Kentucky where it is around 15%. What survives that evaporation rate is concentrated, intense bourbon that reflects the terroir of the Hill Country in a way nothing else does.
Every drop is made from Texas-grown grain, distilled and aged under the blazing Hill Country sun, proofed by pure rainwater, and bottled by hand at the ranch. That's not marketing language — it's a production philosophy that has held since the first barrel was filled. To bring the alcohol to drinking strength, pure Hill Country rainwater is used, which is collected from the roofs of the ranch and filtered with UV rays.
Founded in 2006 by Dan and Nancy Garrison, the distillery first brought its bourbon to market in 2010 and now offers nine expressions available nationwide and in five countries, with more than 800 awards to its name. That trajectory from impossible idea to 800-award institution in roughly fifteen years is one of the great craft spirits stories in American history.
Why Sherry Finishing Makes Sense for Texas Bourbon
Sherry-finished whiskey is not a new concept in the broader spirits world — Scotch distillers have been using sherry casks for well over a century, and some of the most celebrated single malts in existence owe their character almost entirely to time spent in ex-sherry wood. What's different here is the base spirit.
Texas bourbon, by its nature, arrives at the finishing stage already carrying more caramelized wood sugars, more vanilla and oak extract, and more overall density than a Kentucky whiskey of comparable age. Utilizing Texas-grown organic corn and pristine Hill Country spring water, the distillery takes full advantage of the scorching Texas climate for barrel aging. This intense heat accelerates the maturation process, giving the bourbon a robust, full-bodied character unlike any other. That density creates a bourbon with enough structural mass to absorb the influence of sherry casks without being overwhelmed by them.
The choice to use two very different sherry styles — one sweet and lush, one dry and oxidative — is a smart way to demonstrate the range of the finishing program. PX and Oloroso represent nearly opposite ends of the sherry spectrum. By launching with both simultaneously, Garrison Brothers is inviting drinkers to make a direct comparison using the same Texas bourbon backbone as the baseline. It's a sensory education presented in two bottles at the same price point, and it's the kind of release that gives serious bourbon drinkers something substantive to argue about.
The sourcing decisions reinforce the seriousness of the project. The Garrison Brothers Oloroso Sherry Cask Finished starts as a 4-year aged bourbon in new, toasted, and charred white American oak and then rests four years in Oloroso 59-gallon sherry casks from one source in Jerez, Spain. Using a single source for the Oloroso casks — rather than blending barrels from multiple sherry producers — ensures consistency in the flavor contribution and speaks to the attention to detail that characterizes everything in the Garrison Brothers production process.
Where Ranch Reserve Fits in the Garrison Brothers Lineup
The existing Garrison Brothers portfolio already spans a wide range of proof points and styles. Each and every bottle of Garrison Brothers is milled, cooked, distilled, barreled and aged at the distillery in Hye, Texas, and with expressions ranging from 80 to 140-proof, there's something for every bourbon lover to enjoy. At the top of the lineup, the legendary Cowboy Bourbon — an uncut, unfiltered barrel-proof release — has become one of the most sought-after annual drops in American whiskey. Garrison Brothers' flagship Cowboy Bourbon consists of a few thousand barrel-proof bottles released each year. The first batch was released in 2013, and a new batch has been released each year since 2015.
Ranch Reserve occupies a different space. Where Cowboy is an exercise in raw, unmodified Texas bourbon at maximum expression, Ranch Reserve is about transformation — about what happens when you take that same foundation and redirect it through something ancient and complex from the other side of the Atlantic. The $149.99 price point places both Ranch Reserve expressions squarely in the premium tier, above the Small Batch and Bottled-in-Bond releases but accessible to any serious enthusiast willing to invest in a bottle worth sitting with.
Ranch Reserve is not a catchall for every finishing idea that comes through the gate. It is a home for the barrels that rise above the rest. That selectivity is what gives the series its credibility before a single bottle has been opened. The distillery is committing to a standard rather than a schedule, which means future Ranch Reserve releases will arrive when the barrels are ready — not when the marketing calendar demands them.
What Comes Next
These first two releases speak with Spanish accents — one dry and savory, one dark and lush. Stay tuned for future Ranch Reserve releases that Donnis has deemed worthy of the Garrison Brothers name. The language there is deliberate: it is Donnis Todd, the master distiller, who determines worthiness. Not a release committee. Not a sales forecast. The future of Ranch Reserve depends on barrels that pass muster under Todd's palate, and that's a standard with real teeth.
The implications for the broader Texas bourbon industry are worth noting. Garrison Brothers has always been a pioneer in the state — when the distillery opened its doors in 2006, it became the first legal whiskey distillery in Texas since Prohibition, and since then Garrison Brothers has become one of the most recognized names in Texas bourbon. The Ranch Reserve series, with its deliberate sourcing of premium European casks, its extended aging program, and its strict selection criteria, sets a new benchmark for what finished Texas bourbon can look like at its absolute best.
For collectors and enthusiasts who have been following the Garrison Brothers story since the early days, Ranch Reserve feels like a natural evolution — not a departure. It's the distillery using twenty years of accumulated knowledge, hard-won insight into how Texas heat shapes a spirit, and serious connections in the world's best sherry-producing regions to make something that could only come from Hye, Texas. Spaniards make the world's finest sherry. Garrison Brothers makes Texas bourbon unlike anyone else on earth. The Ranch Reserve Series is what happens when those two traditions spend eight years getting acquainted inside a 59-gallon cask.
