The Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of “buy,” “hold,” or “sell.”

Last year La Flor Dominicana’s Coronado blend returned after being discontinued in 2013. In smoke shops, though, it seemed the cigar never went away at all, like the one where I found this Double Toro (7  x54) from the original run. (You can tell the new version by the new band which prominently features “LFD” in the center, while the old version only says “Coronado by La Flor” in small letters at the bottom.) The cigar features heavy oak, light cream, a little pepper, and a dusty, powdery element. It’s medium- to full-bodied with excellent construction that requires a deliberate slow pace. The original Coronado might not have sold well—hence the remaining availability despite the line being pulled from the market years ago—but I always enjoyed Coronado, and this was no exception.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Chattanooga’s Burns Tobacconist put itself on the national radar with its annual “Chattanooga Tweet-Up” event featuring a litany of cigar companies and personalities. More recently, the Tennessee cigar shop further expanded its national profile by introducing a series of exclusive cigars.

Earlier in 2015, a La Aurora 100 Años Cameroon Lancero and Sabor de Chattanooga by Guayacan Cigars (also a lancero) were introduced as store exclusives. Late last year, a Corona Gorda version of Blind Man’s Bluff by Caldwell Cigar Co. was added to the lineup.

Like the three regular Blind Man’s Bluff vitolas, the Corona Gorda (5.75 x 46) is made at the Davidoff-owned Agroindustria LAEPE, S.A. factory in Honduras, which is home to Camacho. It sells for $7.50 each, or $120 for a box of 20 (when you add the discount code BMB4LE).

The blend uses an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper that is medium brown and dry with some visible veins. Underneath is a Honduran Criollo binder, and the filler consists of Honduran Criollo Generoso and Dominican San Vicente.

Pre-light, the Corona Gorda features sweet earth and dried fruit. Once lit, it imparts a combination of wood and damp earth with salt and pepper notes and a slight vanilla sweetness.

As it progresses, the pepper spice falls off slightly as charred oak emerges along with some creaminess. There is a light cocoa powder on the long finish.

Although the cigar feels slightly under-filled, it doesn’t suffer any combustion problems. The draw is ideal, the ash solid, and the burn, while not perfectly straight, is not a problem.

All around, this is an enjoyable cigar. It’s rich with just the right touches of spice, cream, and wood. It has solid construction and decent balance, all at a reasonable price. That earns the Caldwell Cigar Company’s Blind Man’s Bluff Corona Gorda a rating of four stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

[In order to help our readers ring 2016 in right, we’re republishing this tip about how to pair cigars and champagne. Enjoy!]

Pairing brown liquor with  cigars is the more obvious choice, but champagne (or other sparkling wines) can go surprisingly well with a smoke. Not to mention the celebratory nature of the bubbly. To enhance your champagne and cigar enjoyment, here are a few basic tips:

Save the top-dollar champagne.

Champagne can be fantastic, but unless you have unlimited funds, the vintage Dom Pérignon should be held back if you’re smoking a cigar. You pay a price for the champagne name (meaning it’s from the Champagne region of France). There are plenty of good champagne-style sparkling wines that can be had for a reasonable cost. Spending $50 or $100 on brand name French bubbly will probably be a waste (considering you’re going to lose some of the complexities due to your cigar). Spanish Cava, in particular, can be had for a fraction of the price.

Stick with mild cigars.

Champagne doesn’t have the heft of rum, whiskey, or even beer or coffee. The best champagnes are the most subtle, so the same subtlety is needed in the cigar you pair with your sparkling wine. Stick with mild cigars that have balance. Too often Connecticut-wrapped cigars feature bitterness, so look for those with age and balance. Extra-aged Cubans can be a great pairing, and a special mention is deserved for the Illusione Epernay, which is named after the Champagne region and was blended with a champagne pairing in mind.

Age your cigars and your champagne.

Smoking a cigar with champagne calls for a cigar that is smooth, mild, complex, and subtle, all of which can be the result of aging a cigar. Some cigars just lose their flavor with age, so be careful, but others are enhanced by months or years aging properly in a humidor. Some of the same things happen to aged champagne which, while not for everyone, loses some of its bubbly crispness but adds creaminess and depth along the lines of a well-aged white burgundy. Usually you pay extra for vintage champagne. But if you can get some of those same qualities by just putting aside a good champagne and waiting, don’t be afraid to give it a try. (Not long ago I had some non-vintage Champagne Tattinger with a decade of age, and the result was very impressive.)

Cheers!

–Patrick S

photo credit: Wikipedia

While we do publish an annual list of our highest-rated cigars (check back next week for the 2015 edition), we’ve generally not named a top individual cigar. Unsurprisingly, we’ve also never given much thought to naming a whiskey or bourbon of the year.

We’re not going to start doing so now. But if we were, the Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition 2015 would probably be my top contender. When checking out the 2014 version, I wrote: “The 2014 Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition is a delicious bourbon, and it only makes me look forward to the soon-to-be-released 2015 Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition even more.”

Luckily, I was able to grab a bottle of the 2015 ($100 retail, although it frequently sells for more). Not only did it live up to the very good 2014, but it exceeded it by leaps and bounds. Perhaps that shouldn’t have been a surprise as this was long-time Four Roses’ Master Distiller Jim Rutledge’s final limited edition selection, as he retired in September after 49 years in the spirits industry.

For this year, the small batch used four bourbons from three of Four Roses’ ten recipes: OBSK (16 years), OESK (15 years), OESK (14 years), and OBSV (11 years). The barrel-proof combination comes in at 108.6-proof (54.3% ABV). The rich, amber-colored bourbon features an inviting nose with vanilla, red apple, candy corn, and a hint of mint.

On the palate, the bourbon boasts creamy notes with cinnamon spice, dried fruit, fresh apples, burnt caramel, and honey-soaked oak. The finish lingers on the tongue with more apple, spearmint, and clove.

You can add a splash of water to this barrel-proof whiskey if you like, but given the mild (for barrel-strength) proof it really isn’t necessary as it drinks better neat. I haven’t tried every new bourbon introduced in 2015, but I’ve tried many of the high-profile ones, and at least so far this is the bottle that impressed me most with a rare combination of intensity and integrated, balanced flavor.

Pair it with a balanced medium- to full-bodied cigar (for example Sobremesa, Tatuaje Black, Padrón Serie 1926, or Cuban Cohiba Siglo) and enjoy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

In our gift guide, we recommended picking up a special Cigar Rights of America sampler, which includes, among other cigars, this toro-sized Fuente Forbidden X. The Forbidden X blend features tobaccos from the same Dominican farms as the Opus X line, although the wrapper is shade-grown and the filler leaf is aged in Calvados (French apple brandy) barrels. The result is 90% of the strength of the Opus X and 50% more balance. It’s a nice medium- to full-bodied smoke with lots cedar, salt, and pepper, and a hint of red pepper spice that lingers on the lips and the roof of the mouth. Construction is good, despite a necessary touch-up towards the final third.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

With Christmas next week you may be scrambling to pick out some last-minute gifts. If your giftee imbibes, here are a few suggestions depending on the type of gift you want to give. (Note: While Pappy Van Winkle or any number of other rare bourbons make for an amazing gift, I’ve limited options to things you are actually likely to find on the shelves of a well-stocked liquor shop.)

Non-Whiskey Gifts

A bourbon gift doesn’t need to be booze. Here are some ideas Amazon will deliver for you:

Glencairn Whisky Glasses – The gold standard whisky glassware is designed to bring out the best in bourbon, rye, and single malt (it’s also good for drinking cognac and aged rum). Even if they already have some, a few more will let them taste some side-by-side, or host a tasting with friends.

A Good Bourbon Book – For a good overview of the the story of bourbon from the 17th century to present, I can recommend Chuck Cowdery’s Bourbon, Straight: The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Although I haven’t read it (yet), I’ve only heard good things about Reid Mitenbuler’s new book, Bourbon Empire. Finally, for a next level bourbon drinker, even a particularly well-versed aficionado will enjoy Cowdery’s follow-up, Bourbon, Strange.

Inexpensive Bourbon

Bourbon has some great values, so inexpensive doesn’t mean it isn’t good. For under $20 you can’t go wrong with Four Roses Yellow Label ($18), Evan Williams 1783 ($16), or Old Forester ($20, 1L). They are perfect for your office Yankee Swap (if your office is fun) or a secret santa gift with a spending cap.

Bourbon for the Cocktail Aficionado

For a proper cocktail you want something that will hold up and is flavorful but won’t break the bank. Old Grand Dad 114 ($23) and Wild Turkey 101 ($24) fit the bill. Also consider a nice set of cocktail bitters.

Fine Bourbon

Now we’re getting to something special. No real bourbon drinker will ever turn their nose down at Eagle Rare 10 Year ($30) and Four Roses Single Barrel ($40). Blanton’s ($55) is an excellent bourbon that also looks great on a shelf with its distinctive bottle. Booker’s ($60) is barrel-proof and not for amateurs, but it’s consistently excellent, especially for the bourbon-on-the-rocks drinker.

Bourbon to Make an Impression

Well-aged bourbon is in demand these days, especially since people tend to identify older bourbon as better, which has, in turn, made such bourbon tougher and tougher to find. Two such bourbons that you can actually find, though you’ll have to shop around a little more, are the recently released I.W. Harper 15 Year ($75) and Blade and Bow 22 Year Old ($150). Each comes in a fancy bottle (the I.W. Harper’s decanter bottle is particularly sharp) and fortunately the bourbon inside is excellent too. These will impress your bourbon collecting father-in-law or boss.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

This “limited production” offering from Robert Wright’s Pura Soul Cigars is made by CLE in Honduras. Barber Pole features Corojo and Maduro wrappers around Honduran binder and filler tobaccos. The medium- to full-bodied smoke has plenty of cedary spice along with notes of roasted cashew, unsweetened chocolate, and hay. The box-pressed Robusto burns well and has excellent combustion qualities. Although the $11 price tag isn’t the best value, this is still a well-made, pleasant cigar.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys