Port is a sweet wine with flavors of raspberry, blackberry, caramel, cinnamon, and chocolate sauce. Older, fine Tawny Ports have an even wider array of subtle flavors, including graphite, green peppercorn, hazelnut, almond, butterscotch, and graham cracker. Naturally, these flavor characteristics have great appeal to a bourbon maker. What a tremendous accent such sweet spices might bring to a creamy, buttery straight bourbon whiskey.We would not be denied this bourbon. So Donnis began importing tawny port barrels from Portugal about the same time the original Estacado was released. He was enamored with what the super wet port casks did to the finish of our bourbon. Port wine is typically richer, sweeter, heavier, and higher in alcohol content. Most would say the same thing about Garrison Brothers bourbon. Donnis discovered that the magic maturation combination was four years in white American oak casks and then two additional years in the tawny port casks.

He selected 90 thirty-gallon bourbon barrels that had been originally filled in 2016. The Angel’s share losses were about 13 gallons per barrel, meaning there were just 1,530 gallons of bourbon to be used. This liquid was entered into twenty-six 59 gallon port casks in 2020 and is arguably the best bourbon we’ve ever made.