Cigar Spirits: Angel’s Envy Cask Strength (2014)

This is a fun time of the year for bourbon enthusiasts, with many excellent limited releases heading to stores. If you’re lucky enough, you may find a bottle of the annually released Pappy Van Winkle, the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, Four Roses Small Batch Cask Strength, or Parker’s Heritage.

In recent years, you could add Angel’s Envy Cask Strength bourbon to that list of highly sought-after but hard-to-find limited offerings released in the fall. Angel’s Envy port-finished bourbon and rum cask-finished rye (a personal favorite of mine) are now offered year-round. Like the widely distributed Angel’s Envy bourbon, the limited Cask Strength offering is finished in port barrels after extended aging in standard new charred oak barrels.

The 2014 Cask Strength is a hearty 119.3-proof, and only 6,500 bottles (an increase over previous years) are being released. The suggested retail price is $169—for better or worse a fair price given the huge demand for such limited-release bourbons in the increasingly hot bourbon market.

The Angel’s Envy Cask Strength pours a deep copper color. The nose features a tightly wound combination of cherries, toffee, and vanilla. It’s barely a speed-bump compared to what’s to come.

On the palate, the full force of this bourbon comes to bear. Thick clove, dried fruit, charred oak, and butterscotch. The finish lingers with much of the same, plus a hint of ginger spice. It drinks very well neat, but a splash of spring water opens it up.

Angel’s Envy has quickly filled a niche in the American whiskey scene as a brand without a distillery (though they have started work on a Louisville distillery). Simply reselling whiskey made elsewhere is a tough business when you’re competing against the companies that make it themselves, but by adding the twist of unique barrel aging, Angel’s Envy has quickly become an established and respected addition.

Deep, intense bourbons like this one are made for cigars. And rich, full cigars are the way to go. Connecticut Broadleaf-wrapped cigars like the Drew Estate Liga Privada No. 9 or Tatuaje Reserva fit the bill.

The price, understandably, will make some people hesitant to pick up the Angel’s Envy Cask Stength release—especially considering you can buy three or four excellent bottles for the same price. But this is a special, limited, and unique offering. Pass up the opportunity to buy one at your own peril.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys