Texas bourbon is often discussed in terms of climate and bravado — fast aging, hotter summers, and bigger flavors. True to Texas bold whiskey terroir, Garrison Brothers has embedded intentionality into every facet of their identity. It’s a Texas Hill Country distillery built on collaboration, lineage, and the belief that bourbon should reflect the land and the people who shape it. Their newest expression, Sonora – a seven-year-old bourbon finished in Texas rye whiskey barrels – captures their art of weaving community and sense of place into one of their most complex releases to date.
This new addition represents both a technical and cultural evolution for the distillery. “Sonora is a seven-year expression — but truly, it’s the story of every woman who touched it. Samantha [Olvera] had her hand on the still, but all of us shaped it along the way,” says Garrison Brothers co-founder Nancy Garrison. Sonora is the result of more than 30 women across the Garrison Brothers distillery working together under the steady guidance of Samantha Olvera, the first Latina in Texas to craft bourbon from grain to glass, alongside her mentor, Master Distiller Donnis Todd.
Shaped by Texas, Refined by Intention
Sonora may begin with four years in new white American Oak barrels, but its identity is forged in the long, volatile Texas seasons that follow. “[Sonora] is very different than anything else of a second barrel finished bourbon that we've done,” Garrison says. “There’s a sweetness that comes from being a wheated bourbon…but those summers in that rye whiskey barrel give it this wonderful pepper note.” By finishing Sonora in rye barrels for additional maturation across several hot Texas summers, the result is an incredible wheated bourbon shaped by both intention and environment — a bourbon that earns its complexity through patience, restraint, and an almost geological sense of time.
Sonora opens with aromas of candy corn, a hint of oak, and butter pecan before settling into a palate of honey, graham cracker, and a bold surge of black pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The finish lingers in a warm, spicy simmer that softens into honeyed sweetness. With a couple of drops of water, the bourbon turns sumptuous and buttery, amplifying the spice and revealing a brioche-rich French toast note. While I enjoyed my Sonora neat, I could easily go for this premium 108 proof pour in a spirit-forward cocktail such as an Old Fashioned – which is just the way the distillery team envisioned this limited-edition bourbon. “We wanted to make sure that the way that we do this can continue to be versatile because all of our expressions really are. Sonora can be an everyday sipper, or it can be put in a cocktail,” Olvera notes.
Texas weather has always been central to the Garrison Brothers’ DNA. Hot days, cool nights, brisk early mornings, and sudden temperature swings force a constant conversation between spirit and wood. With Sonora, those conditions become part of the narrative: a bourbon that needed not just years, but the rightyears, to find equilibrium. “Throughout the process, there was one point when I looked at Donnis, and I was like, ‘It's not ready. I don't like it,’ Olvera adds. “This happened last year, the year that we were supposed to release it.” The decision to delay its release — to allow the rye whiskey barrel influence to settle, rebalance, and harmonize — underscores the distillery’s commitment to letting the whiskey dictate the timeline, not the calendar.
This deliberate process also reflects the evolving imagination of the Garrison Brothers team. Finishing bourbon in rye barrels isn’t unprecedented, but doing so within the unpredictable rhythm of the Texas Hill Country climate creates a profile that could never come from anywhere else. The peppered edge of the rye, the softened sweetness of the corn and wheated mash bill, and the deeper oak tones born from rapid expansion and contraction form a layered bourbon that feels both familiar and entirely new.
Moreover, Sonora is a testament to how Garrison Brothers sees innovation as expansion versus deviation — a way of honoring their longstanding process while embracing the creativity of the next generation of distillers. And in Sonora’s case, that creative energy is grounded in the leadership of the women who guided its journey from barrel to bottle. Their fingerprints — literal and figurative — shape the bourbon’s profile and the philosophy behind it.
This is where the legacy meets the imagination to create a bourbon that respects where it comes from while refusing to be limited by precedent.
When Craft Becomes Community
While Sonora’s flavor profile tells part of its story, the deeper narrative lies in how it came together. Garrison Brothers has long emphasized collaboration, but this release marks a rare moment in which their internal community becomes part of the whiskey itself. As mentioned at the outset, more than 30 women across the distillery contributed to the project — from production and blending to branding, design, research, and hands-on bottling. Thus, Sonora is a product of shared stewardship.
At the center of this collaboration is Olvera, whose rise from distillery hand to distiller reflects both her technical mastery and her influence within the team. Her mentorship under Todd forms a throughline in Sonora’s story: a relationship built on trust, curiosity, and the willingness to challenge conventions. “Little does Donnis [Todd] know that over the last 11 years, I've been watching him, but also slowly picking his brain into the genius of how his mind works when he tastes and chooses barrels,” says Olvera. This dynamic allowed her to lead with both intuition and grit, pushing the bourbon forward while grounding every step in Garrison Brothers’ core approach.
But Sonora also became a canvas for women across the company who rarely get to work side by side. From branding to weighing in on flavor direction, each woman brought a distinct perspective that strengthened the final expression. For many, it was the first time their roles converged around a singular creative goal. The collaboration was less about visibility and more about presence — the collective partnership of women whose daily contributions often unfold behind the scenes.
“Women have been the backbone of the whiskey industry for a very long time. It's just that we were in the background because it was such a male-dominated industry,” Olvera says in reflection of the whiskey world. “Now we’re coming forward, and we are a force to be reckoned with. I just hope that we continue to have each other's backs, share, and educate one another as well.”
That spirit of communal craftsmanship extends beyond the Hye, Texas-based distillery grounds, too. With every bottle sold, $5 goes to the Texas Cave Management Association, supporting the conservation of the Caverns of Sonora, a natural wonder that mirrors the whiskey’s themes of time, transformation, and hidden beauty. “Those caverns of Sonora in West Texas are incredible, to-be-discovered, and very mysterious. And that’s what we want this bourbon to be as well,” Garrison says.
The collaboration affirms the distillery’s conviction that making bourbon is inseparable from caring for the land, stories, and histories that give it meaning. Sonora ultimately becomes bigger than just a mere annual expression, but an entire Texas cultural moment. This moment is where craft becomes community, heritage meets evolution, and a team of women steps into the foreground to leave their mark on Texas whiskey lore.
