BOURBON BLOG

The Hill Country of Texas has no need for a Chamber of Commerce— Mother Nature handles the sunrise and she’ll handle the brochures as well. Still, when the PBS Hidden Gems team rolled into Hye with a truckload of cameras and a host who’s logged more air miles than most satellites, I wondered what fresh […]

The news out of the Texas Hill Country this holiday weekend has been devastating. Before dawn on July 4, as much as 20 inches of rain fell in just a few hours, pushing the Guadalupe River far beyond its banks and sweeping away camps, homes, and entire stretches of roadway. We personally know several of […]

Out here in Hye, Texas, we like to say that July 4th doesn’t need much dressing up. A warm breeze. A cold drink. Something sizzling on the grill. A flag catching the wind just right. That’s enough. Still, there’s something about Independence Day that sneaks up and grabs you by the collar. Maybe it’s the […]

By—just a fella who knows his way around a mash bill and a tall tale Dawn in Hye, Texas, doesn’t sneak in—it stretches wide across the hills, rattles the cicadas awake, and washes the bottling room windows in warm, amber light. Inside, a line of volunteers—many of them veterans—are dipping bottles of our Small Batch […]

Hill Country Hush Most seasons announce themselves in the Hill Country with a fistful of color. Spring barges in on bluebonnets. Autumn drapes the canyons in sweet-gum reds. Even winter, what little we get of it, carves its initials on cedar trunks with a north wind that smells like mesquite smoke and frost. But late […]

Once upon a time—not so long ago, yet worlds away in spirit—bourbon was nothing but whiskey. You might find it distilled by moonlight in copper stills nestled deep in Appalachian hollows or bottled by bootleggers who cared less for tradition and more about evading the law. It was America’s working-class elixir, enjoyed by farmers after […]

In Texas, nothing good ever happens fast. The land takes its time—rivers carve canyons over millennia, oak trees stretch skyward for centuries, wildflowers bloom in their own season, unbothered by schedules or expectations. Lady Bird Johnson understood that. She knew lasting beauty isn’t built overnight—it’s cultivated with patience, care, and an unwavering belief that the […]

Out in the West Texas desert, where the wind kicks up the dust and the horizon stretches forever, there’s a place that doesn’t make a lick of sense. It’s an oasis—cool, clear water bubbling up from underground, feeding the largest spring-fed pool in the world. We call it Balmorhea State Park. If you grew up […]

September 21st, 2024, will go down in history for the lucky few who gathered at Garrison Brothers Distillery in Hye, Texas. The excitement in the air was as thick as the heat, with fans, collectors, and bourbon enthusiasts lining up to get their hands on this year’s edition of Cowboy Bourbon. There’s something special about […]

It’s a quiet morning on the Texas coast, and the first light of dawn is breaking over the Laguna Madre. The saltwater lagoon, a hidden gem known only to a few, sparkles with an ethereal beauty that’s hard to put into words. Stretching over 130 miles, this shallow body of water is a sanctuary for […]

In the sprawling plains of the Texas Panhandle, where golden fields of wheat and corn stretch to meet the horizon and cattle roam freely under vast skies, life is as rugged as it is beautiful. This region, known for its agricultural wealth and the resilient spirit of its inhabitants, faced a harrowing ordeal earlier this […]