This was my second tasting of Garrison Brothers Ranch Reserve PX Sherry Cask Finished Bourbon. Whenever a whiskey gives me a strong or unexpected first impression, I like to revisit it after the bottle has had some time to open up. It also gives me a chance to make sure my palate was on target the first time around. Unfortunately, the characteristics that stood out during my initial tasting were still very much present the second time around.
Nose
The nose starts with sour, bitter oak and a pronounced burnt quality. There’s a small amount of black pepper and cinnamon underneath those initial, somewhat unpleasant notes, along with molasses and honey. Unfortunately, I simply cannot get past that acrid, sour-burnt character. It dominates the aroma and makes it difficult for the sweeter notes to fully emerge.
Palate
Some of the PX Sherry influence manages to fight its way through the heavy barrel char, providing a much-needed sweeter dimension. There’s brown sugar, molasses, honey, and an interesting sourdough bread note. The palate is hyper-sweet, even more so than I would normally expect from a PX Sherry finish. That intense sweetness creates an unusual contrast with the heavily charred, bitter oak. At times, it feels like the rich PX sweetness and aggressive barrel influence are competing rather than complementing one another.
Finish
The finish lingers nicely, but unfortunately so do the burnt molasses and bitter oak notes. Dry tannins emerge alongside black tea, leaving a slightly astringent quality behind. There is certainly no shortage of staying power, the flavors hang around for quite some time, but the dominant flavors aren't necessarily the ones I want lingering.
Overall
After two tastings, I feel comfortable saying my initial impression wasn't simply an off day for my palate. There are aspects of this bourbon that I enjoy, particularly the rich molasses, honey, brown sugar, and PX-driven sweetness. The problem is that those flavors are fighting against an aggressive combination of sour oak, heavy char, bitterness, and burnt molasses.
The PX Sherry finish brings plenty of sweetness, perhaps even too much, but it never completely integrates with the underlying bourbon for me. Instead of the dark fruit and decadent sweetness of PX rounding out the barrel influence, the whiskey comes across as a battle between two extremes: hyper-sweet PX richness on one side and heavily charred, bitter oak on the other.
There's certainly intensity here, and the finish has impressive length, but intensity and length alone don't necessarily translate into balance. After giving this whiskey a second opportunity and some additional time to open up, that lack of balance remains my biggest issue.