Leonard Firestone and Troy Robertson started Firestone & Robertson in 2010 with a vision: create classic whiskey expressions with distinct Texas provenance. Not "bourbon made in Texas," but "Texas bourbon" — different thing. They launched TX Blended Whiskey in 2012, won Double Gold at San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2013, and kept expanding. The operation runs two fully functioning distilleries in Fort Worth. The flagship property is the "Whiskey Ranch," a 112-acre campus sprawled across the landscape like a Texas compound should be. It's not subtle — it's the largest whiskey distillery west of the Mississippi, a statement in itself. Everything is in-house: production, aging, bottling, visitor experience. In 2019, Pernod Ricard acquired Firestone & Robertson. This was a watershed moment — a major French luxury spirits conglomerate bet on Texas bourbon. The distribution network exploded. TX Whiskey went from specialty shops to standard retail. Accessibility increased dramatically. The craft story shifted from scrappy startup to major-label player. That acquisition pivot matters. Before 2019, TX Whiskey was harder to find outside Texas. Now it's on shelves nationwide and internationally. Production scaled. Quality stayed consistent (mostly). The brand became the accessible face of Texas bourbon — more mainstream than Garrison Brothers, more approachable than Balcones' experimental expressions, more widely available than Treaty Oak.
- Largest distillery west of the Mississippi.: The Whiskey Ranch spans 112 acres. Texas doesn't do modest.
- Double Gold at San Francisco, 2013.: TX Blended Whiskey arrived bold and award-winning.
- Proprietary Texas pecan yeast.: Leonard Firestone sourced yeast from a Texas pecan nut. That's the level of terroir obsession.
- Pernod Ricard backing.: When a French mega-company buys into your bourbon, you've made an impression. Happened in 2019.
- National distribution.: Unlike Garrison Brothers (mostly direct) or Treaty Oak (limited), TX Whiskey is easy to find.
- Bottled-in-Bond Texas bourbon.: First one made in the state. Federal certification: one distillery, one distiller, one season, 4+ years, exactly 100 proof.
- The two-distillery operation.: Firestone & Robertson runs production facilities at two Fort Worth locations, managing everything in-house.