There’s a certain kind of treasure you only find in Texas. It isn’t always something you can hold in your hands. Sometimes it’s a place. Sometimes it’s a memory. Sometimes it’s a bottle of bourbon that carries a whole stretch of this state inside it.

Over the years, we’ve made a lot of whiskey out here in Hye. But a few of our expressions have taken on a life of their own. They carry more than grain and barrel and proof. They carry pieces of who we are. These are our Texas Treasures.

Balmorhea

If you’ve ever driven west long enough for your eyes to forget what green looks like, you know what it feels like to pull into Balmorhea State Park. Out of nowhere, in the middle of all that desert and dust, is this spring-fed oasis. Clear, cold, impossible water. The first time I took my family there, I watched my kids jump into the pool like they were diving into another world. It reminded me that miracles show up in the strangest places.

When we made Balmorhea Bourbon, that feeling came rushing back. We give it two rounds in new American white oak. Two different barrels, two different ways of shaping the same spirit. It felt right to name it after a place that proves good things can thrive where nobody expects them to. And when that park needed help, we found ourselves doing everything we could to support its restoration. A treasure ought to be protected.

Lady Bird

If you spend enough time with my wife, Nancy, you understand what grace looks like when it grows roots. Her family has long ties to the Wildflower Center, and she has always admired Lady Bird Johnson, a woman who refused to let people forget the beauty of this state. Nancy carries that same quiet but steady belief that the land deserves care.

Lady Bird Bourbon came from that spirit. We took our straight bourbon and finished it in Cognac casks, then married it with Texas wildflower honey. It’s smooth, warm, floral, and strong in all the right ways. When we bottled it, Nancy looked at it like she was seeing generations of Texas women standing together. She’s proud of that. And she should be. Lady Bird was a force. So are the women who pour themselves into our distillery every day.

Guadalupe

Texas rivers have a way of telling stories. The Guadalupe is one of the best storytellers we’ve got. It cuts through limestone and cypress roots, through towns that have been around longer than most maps, through land that carries the past in its bones. I’ve always had a deep respect for that river. It feeds the Hill Country. It draws people together. It reminds us that water shapes everything. Guadalupe Bourbon is finished in port wine barrels. It’s rich, layered, patient. The kind of whiskey you pour when the day slows down and you want to remember where you come from. You can’t borrow a name like Guadalupe without giving something back.

Sonora

There’s a place under the Texas earth where the world turns quiet. The Sonora Caverns are full of formations that look like they were carved by time itself. When we created Sonora Bourbon, we wanted it to carry that same sense of wonder. But the real story isn’t the caverns. It’s the people. Sonora was led by Nancy, our distiller Sam Olvera, and a whole team of women who are the backbone of this place. They shaped it from start to finish. Three years in new American white oak, three more in exceptional rye bourbon barrels, and a nose full of dark chocolate and cinnamon. I’ll say this plainly. I’m proud that this bourbon was born from the strength and talent of the women of Garrison Brothers. They earned every drop.

Laguna Madre

In high school and college, I’d spend my weekends fishing the flats along the Gulf Coast. The Laguna Madre is a long, quiet stretch of water that sits between the mainland and the island. At sunrise, the whole bay lights up like it’s made of glass. Those mornings stuck with me. They smelled like salt air and the morning tide.

Years later, when I tasted bourbon that had been aged eight long years in the Texas sun and finished in French Limousin oak, I knew exactly what to call it. Laguna Madre. My marketing director hated the name. Fought me on it. Told me nobody would know what it meant. He was wrong. And he’s the first one to admit it. That bottle carries my memories from the coast, Donnis’ love for the water, and a promise to protect one of the most delicate places in Texas.

Cowboy Bourbon

There’s a moment in every distillery’s life when something changes. For us, it happened the first time Donnis and I tasted a barrel so bold and fierce and unapologetically Texas that it refused to be tamed. We didn’t cut it. We didn’t filter it. We didn’t dress it up. We let it ride. We called it Cowboy Bourbon. And that bottle put Garrison Brothers on the national map. It carried the grit of this state into every glass it touched. People didn’t just drink it. They talked about it. They hunted for it. They lined up for it. Cowboy turned us from a scrappy Hill Country experiment into a distillery people all over the country started paying attention to.

Hye, Texas

People think we chose Hye. Truth is, Hye chose us. When Nancy and I moved here, this wasn’t a bustling tourist stop. It was a small, resilient, tight-knit community that had seen good years and hard ones. And they welcomed us like they’d been expecting us all along. That’s the kind of hospitality you can’t manufacture. It’s the kind that keeps you honest.

Every bottle we make carries a piece of this place. The heat, the dust, the long days, the laughter on bottling line breaks, the neighbors who show up with a tractor when yours gives out. Hye is the heartbeat of everything we do. It’s not a treasure because we make bourbon here. We make bourbon here because it’s a treasure.

These are our Texas Treasures. Not because of the awards or the scarcity or the price. They’re treasures because each one carries a place, a memory, a moment when someone at this distillery poured a little more of themselves into the work.

Texas gives you a lot if you’re willing to listen. We just tried to bottle some of it.

Salud

Dan Garrison