The Stogie Guys

In October, I wrote about the new Señor Rio Diamanté, introduced by Jalisco International Imports, which owns and distributes Señor Rio tequila. The Diamanté was one of two cigars created by company co-founders Jonathan Gach and Debbie Medina.

Both are cigar smokers, and each created a cigar tailored to their tastes while visiting Nicaragua. The Ecuadorian Habano-wrapped Diamanté was Medina’s selection, while the Añejo was created for Gach’s tastes.

The Señor Rio Añejo has a Mexican wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos from the Condega, Estelí, and Pueblo Nuevo regions. Like the Señor Rio Diamanté, the Señor Rio Añejo is made by A.J. Fernandez at his Tabacelera Fernandez factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

The Añejo comes in one size, a box-pressed toro (6 x 52) that sells for $9.99. I smoked four samples provided to me by Jalisco for this review.

From the start, the influence of the Mexican wrapper is evident. There’s dry notes of dark char, oak, and black coffee. As it progresses the flavors become more complex with damp earth, leather, and a slightly syrupy sweetness. There’s also some red pepper notes that hit on the lips.

From start to finish the dryness of this cigar is its most notable trait. The solidly constructed cigar leaves a layer of chalky, dense smoke on the palate.

While not the most balanced cigar, it’s a cigar with a distinct character, which I’ll take every time over a smooth but dull smoke. And the Añejo’s profile does indeed pair well with Señor Rio Añejo tequila, whose sweet honey, light oak, and fruit flavors contrast brightly but nicely.

Señor Rio has created two distinct, interesting cigars. And while I personally prefer the more subtle and complex Diamanté, the Señor Rio Añejo still earns a commendable rating of three and a half stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Bourbon is getting increasingly popular, especially well-aged bourbon. The problem is, you can’t just whip up a batch of well-aged bourbon. It takes time. Literally decades.

And yet many of the most sought-after bourbons are those of the extra-aged variety: Pappy Van Winkle 20 and 23, George T. Stagg, Eagle Rare 17, William Larue Weller, and Elijah Craig 20-22. While the suggested pricing of these bottles varies, unless you get lucky you can expect to pay hundreds of dollars for each of these limited offerings.

With that as the background, whiskey giant Diageo (they own Bulleit and George Dickel, plus numerous well-known scotch brands) introduced its Orphan Barrel line of 20+ year old whiskeys that were acquired, one might speculate, from its purchases of Shenley and the closed Stizel-Weller distillery. The first three released Orphan Barrel bourbons were Old Blowhard (26 years old), Barterhouse 20, and Rhetoric 20. (For the record, my favorite of the three is Rhetoric.)

There are lots of details and debate about the Orphan Barrel series bourbons, but one detail that caught my eye about Lost Prophet is that it was distilled at the George T. Stagg Distillery (now renamed Buffalo Trace). According to Whiskey Advocate, it was distilled with the same “high rye” mashbill as Blanton’s and Elmer T. Lee, two favorite bourbons of mine.

Orphan Barrel Lost Prophet 22 Year Old Bourbon is a deep copper color that shows the age of the 90.1-proof Kentucky bourbon. The nose is rich with baking spices, wood, and hints of caramel, though you wouldn’t necessarily assume it’s an extra aged bourbon.

On the palate it really flexes its maturity. There’s intense oak, clove spice, vanilla, and leather. It’s got the woodiness that demonstrates its years, but isn’t as cloying as the previous Orphan bourbons.The spicy finish fades quickly on the roof of your mouth, but lingers on the back of the tongue.

The bourbon’s traditional proof and finesse mean you don’t want an overly bold cigar. I recently reviewed the Illusione Fume d’Amour, and it’s just he kind of cigar you’d want with Lost Prophet: flavorful yet not full-bodied.

Judging a $120 bottle of bourbon can be tough, especially when there are so many fine bourbons available, many for around $30. Still, Lost Prophet has a lot going for it as an excellent representation of why people seek out extra-aged bourbon. It just came out so there’s actually a chance of finding it on shelves right now. If this sounds good to you, move quickly.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Dion Giolito, the man behind the Illusione brand, has fastidiously resisted the cigar industry trend to add new cigar lines annually. Many years at the industry trade show his booth seems purposely quiet, as if he intends to let his Illusione cigars do the talking.

One result of his resisting the temptation to always come out with something new is that when a new Illusione cigar is finally released, it’s worth an extra good look. Which is why I eagerly awaited Illusione’s new Fume d’Amour line.

Fume d’Amour  comes in four sizes—at least for now—ranging from petit corona to large toro: Lagunas (4.5 x 42), Clementes (6.5 x 48), Viejos (5 x 50), and Capristanos (6 x 56). For this review I smoked four of the robusto-sized Viejo vitola.

Fume d’Amour is a Nicaraguan puro made at the TABSA Factory in Jalapa, Nicaragua, with Aganorsa tobaccos. While the blend is based on the original Illusione line, it also shares something in common with the Epernay blend: a lack of any ligero leaf.

The result is a cigar that tastes like a hybrid. It’s more powerful than the Epernay, but not as spicy as the original Illusione core blend. Still excellent. The flavors are a whirlwind combination of dry woodiness, hay, roast nuts, light honey, and maybe a hint of muted black pepper. The cigar starts off medium-bodied but slowly ramps up to a more medium-full profile.

It doesn’t have the elegance of the Illusione Epernay, which is still my favorite Illusione line, but that’s a matter of personal preference and not any criticism of the composition of Fume d’Amore, which is as complex and well-rounded, just punched in body and strength.

The Fume d’Amour line can certainly be considered one of the best cigars introduced at the 2014 industry convention. The Fume d’Amour Viejos earns four and a half stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: 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.”

I don’t buy a lot of cigars by the box, but the Curivari Buenaventura is one I’ve been keeping on hand lately. The Nicaraguan puro is medium-bodied and especially well-balanced. It has subtle wood spice, cocoa, and earth. I’ve never had any issues with the construction. The quality to price ($5-6) ratio on this cigar makes it perfect for smoking yourself or handing out to either seasoned cigar smokers or novices.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

In this latest segment of Random Thoughts from the Humidor, I think about what the new year will bring for Cuban policy and the FDA, plus the potential impact on the cigar industry of a new Nicaraguan canal construction project.

Watching, Waiting on the FDA

Since passage of the FDA bill in 2009, we have been warning of the danger it poses to the cigar industry. Last year, when the Deeming Document and proposed rule were released, more people finally caught on to the disruptive potential. Now we wait.

This chart explains the nine-step process. It’s important to remember the FDA is currently on step 7, which includes reviewing all the public comments. But that process doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Politics will play a role, along with science, public opinion expressed in the comments, and the legislative mandate.

That’s why continuing the push for legislation to exempt handmade cigars from the FDA remains critical. While having the bill become law would obviously be great, even without passing the legislation it can influence the FDA to think twice about going against the wishes of a significant number of members of Congress. So with a new Congress starting earlier this week, let your representatives hear from you today.

Could the Nicaraguan Canal Impact Cigars?

Here’s a story to keep an eye on. Construction has just begun on a $50 billion construction project to build a canal across Nicaragua. The murky Chinese-funded project is projected to be completed in five years and will allow ships too large to pass through the Panama canal to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic by traveling through a series of canals connected through Lake Nicaragua.

So what’s the cigar impact? Too early to tell exactly, but it could be significant. The canal could make shipping cigars from Nicaragua to the U.S. even easier, and it could result in more Nicaraguan cigars being exported to other countries, especially China. However, there are potential downsides too. Some have raised concerns about the environmental impact, especially on Lake Nicaragua, which is where the volcanic island of Ometepe is located, also one of the four notable growing regions for Nicaraguan cigar tobacco. Thankfully, no one is proposing using nuclear bombs for construction of the canal this time.

I Heard they Legalized Cuban Cigars

I expect retailers will get questions from occasional cigar smokers asking about Cubans. That’s because the announcement just before Christmas wasn’t particularly clear, nor did the media do a good job reporting what it meant. (We clarified everything here, but the short version is, unless you are visiting Cuba with the explicit permission of the U.S. government, nothing has changed.)

As for more action on the Cuban embargo, I would be shocked to see any in the next two years. Ending the embargo takes an act of Congress and the president’s signature. Plus, as long as Florida remains a key swing state for presidential elections, changing Cuban policy will be a risky play for anyone with national ambitions. So any talk that the recent announcement was the first step towards a quick end to the embargo is unwarranted.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Flickr

Small barrels can be a bit controversial when it comes to American whiskey. Some say small barrels are the key to making young whiskey taste like old whiskey, while others say it just makes lousy whiskey.

My feeling on the matter is a little more nuanced. Small barrels don’t necessarily make lousy bourbon, just a different style. But small barrels certainly aren’t a substitute for extended traditional barrel aging. With that in mind, I was looking forward to trying this new 86-proof release from Jim Beam. (I wrote about the regular offering to the Signature Craft series, the 12 Year Bourbon, here.)

Although Beam’s new limited release Quarter Cask Finished Bourbon ($40) has finished in the name, it isn’t used the way you’d come to expect, like the way Angel’s Envy is bourbon finished with a period of aging in port barrels. Rather, Beam’s Quarter Cask is a blend of traditional barrel bourbon and bourbon aged in smaller barrels.

Here’s how Beam explains it in a press release: “[It] starts with premium Jim Beam Bourbon aged at least five years and is finished with a variety of fine quarter cask bourbons, and all aged at least four years in smaller barrels. By building on a base of mature liquid and finishing it with quarter cask aged liquid, the inspired distillers at Jim Beam were able to craft just the right balance of rich vanillas of a mature bourbon profile and the extra oak notes of the quarter cask bourbon.”

The deep gold bourbon features a nose with vanilla and candied orange. On the palate it has that classic Beam yeasty funk, vanilla, and sweet corn, but with the added depth of roasted nuts, oats, woodiness.

There’s a lot a vanilla sweetness here (no surprise since it’s a defining characteristic of Beam bourbons from standard White Label to Booker’s 25th Anniversary), but it also is nicely balanced between sweetness, grain, and dry wood. The finish is surprisingly long with a woodiness that lingers on the roof of your mouth.

The profile pairs well with a medium-bodied cigar with a little woodiness. I found that the E.P. Carrillo 5th Anniversary Limitada is an excellent accompaniment.

While Jim Beam Signature Craft Quarter Cask Finished Bourbon won’t blow you away, it’s a nice bourbon and an excellent reminder that Beam is about a lot more than its ubiquitous White Label rail bourbon. This expression is plenty drinkable neat and does nothing to deter me from wanting to try future Signature Craft offerings.

–Patrick S

photo credit: 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.”

In September I reviewed the Tatuaje WCD 127, the cigar made by Tatuaje exclusively for the Washington-based W. Curtis Draper cigar shops. The large vitola (7.6 x 56) boasts an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper around Nicaraguan binder and filler. The additional aging time has only made this cigar better. It still features plenty of roasted flavors: coffee, leather, and a bit of pepper spice. There’s also a charred savoriness to the oversized double corona. If you’re offered one, jump at the opportunity to try it.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys