The Stogie Guys

These days there are plenty of bourbons and ryes that appeal to their esteemed heritage to justify a premium price point. It usually goes something like this: In 18XX, Captain John so-and-so was the first to create this amazing American whiskey, which was renowned for its special distilling techniques and smooth, complex flavor. Today, his great-great-grandson has re-created that recipe to introduce this special whiskey, which sells for $50-80.

Usually such stories are stretching the truth at best. This is particularly true of new whiskeys that tend to rely heavily on marketing hype to justify a higher price because they don’t make their own whiskey, but buy wholesale and need to sell it for more because they’re a glorified middle-man.

Rittenhouse isn’t such a whiskey. It’s a bottled-in-bond, 100-proof rye made by Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, that sells for $25. (Heaven Hill also makes Elijah Craig, Evan Williams, Larceny, Parker’s Heritage, and a number of other bourbons.)

The burnt umber-colored spirit features a fairly standard nose with vanilla, oak, and a hint of citrus. But it’s on the palate that the Rittenhouse gets interesting with fudge and marshmallow, orange marmalade, and hints of pine. Spice comes through on the finish, with wood and ginger zing.

This is an incredibly rich rye for just $25, with a lot more than just the woody spice you’d expect from a non-age statement rye. It’s perfect for a Manhattan (which, although it will likely be made with bourbon, traditionally rye was used) or other rye-based cocktails. I enjoy it straight.

Pair it with an earthy cigar like the Cuban Cohiba Maduro, Liga Privada No. 9, or Tatuaje Noella Reserva.

No matter what you choose, I highly recommend Rittenhouse as an American whiskey that provides tremendous value for an incredibly reasonable price. People seem to have caught on to how good Rittenhouse is, which is why it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find. It’s well worth seeking out.

–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.”

 

This very unique limited edition cigar ($15) from RoMa Craft is rolled entirely by hand with a blend that seems to take a bit from each of their regular production lines: Ecuadorian Connecticut and Brazilian Ariparaca wrapper, U.S.-grown Connecticut Broadleaf binder, and Cameroon and Nicaraguan filler. Each box of 10 pyramide-shaped cigars features nine cigars with a closed foot and one without (I smoked the latter). The cigar has lots of dark earth and wood flavors, and a good bit of syrupy sweetness, though not much spice. Even though it’s made without any molds, construction is free of problems. The sweetness and wood go well with a wheated bourbon like the W.L. Weller 12 Year.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

New Year’s resolutions are a annual tradition. And even though they are a few days late (nine, to be exact), here are my cigar-related resolutions for 2014:

Smoke More Socially – I smoke plenty of cigars, but not enough in the company of fellow smokers. Part of the reason is I smoke a lot of cigars for reviews, and plenty others while writing other content for this site. But even when I just smoke a cigar to relax, too often it’s just me and a couple fingers of bourbon. (Don’t feel bad for me, I have plenty of friends; just not many who enjoy cigars.) So this year I’m hoping to sit around the table more with my cigar-smoking buddies.

Don’t Neglect the Big Cigar Makers – While I reviewed plenty of cigars this year, a very small proportion of them were from the larger cigar makers like Altadis, General Cigar, Fuente, and Davidoff. Those companies make a disproportionately large percentage of handmade cigars. Yet I reviewed very few of their cigars last year. They make some excellent cigars, so while I won’t be ignoring the smaller, boutique makers, I plan on making a point to review more of the largest cigar companies new releases.

Update Old Reviews – StogieGuys.com has been around for nearly eight years now. And while cigar makers may refuse to admit it, the truth is a cigar can change over such a long period of time, and I don’t mean because of aging. A cigar we reviewed five years ago may be a very different cigar today, even if it shares the same name, size, etc. So while there’s no shortage of new cigars to review, this year I’d like to revisit some of the cigars I reviewed in the first few years of the site.

Share My Favorite Affordable Spirits  – I wrote about twenty-some bourbons over the past year and a handful of other fine spirits. That includes a lot of my favorites, but perhaps it skews towards the limited edition, hard-to-find variety. One of things I find so amazing about bourbon is the high quality of easily found, non-expensive bourbons. So this year I want to focus on the $20-40 bourbon range, and share my favorites with you.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

I had multiple people send me this article from the National Review. In it, conservative write Jonah Goldberg describes his fondness for cigars and the democratic nature of cigars and cigar smokers:

I can often be found on the twelfth-floor balcony of the American Enterprise Institute, also with stogie in hand. A friend and former colleague and I gave this balcony a nickname, “The Remnant,” in homage to Albert Jay Nock’s notion of an irreducible sliver of right-thinking humanity separate and apart from the “Neolithic” masses.

Nock’s was a thoroughly elitist conception, which is ironic, since smoking cigars may be the most democratic thing I do. At the cigar shop, the clientele is mixed in nearly every way, though you wouldn’t say it “looks like America.” A large proportion of the African-American regulars are D.C. cops. In terms of professions, the crowd leans a bit too heavily toward lawyers (as does the nation’s capital). But there’s no shortage of contractors, manual laborers, college students, and retirees.

Politically, there are all types. As far as I can tell, the most ideologically conservative regular (me included) is a federal employee. The gender mix is thoroughly lopsided, of course. Women do occasionally come into the shop, but when they do, all eyes go up as if a unicorn had sauntered into a library. Dennis Prager, another gentleman of the leaf, has written that cigar shops may be the last place in America where men can congregate and talk as men.

It’s worth a full read, even though I’m sure there are aspects – especially the political parts – that some readers will disagree with. (Personally, I’m not sure I’d agree his opinion on who is “the capital’s best tobacconist” but that’s really besides the point.)

The quoted passage above characterizes one of the best parts of cigar smoking. It’s not simply the enjoyment of the cigar, there’s much more to being a cigar smoker than that.

Quite simply, cigar smokers are a community. Even if you smoke alone, you’re flying a flag that says other cigar smokers are welcome to stop by for a chat.

Cigar smokers regularly approach other cigar smokers they’ve never met before to strike up a conversation. That doesn’t happen anywhere else these days. I may be a NY Giants fan, but I wouldn’t walk up to someone wearing a Giants jersey and strike up a conversation, unless he was also smoking E.P. Carrillo.

And that brotherhood of cigar smokers is one of the reasons we enjoy cigars so much.

–Patrick S

photo credit: National Review

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 case you haven’t noticed, bourbon is having a bit of a renaissance right now. Look no further than Pappy Van Winkle, which regularly commands ten times the price it did just a few years ago. And the trend isn’t limited to old, rare, or established whiskeys. Dozens of small operations have popped up to produce so-called “artisanal” bourbon.

Some aren’t much more than a marketing story and some bourbon they bought from someone else, but others are making their own bourbon their own way. Garrison Brothers is the latter, with an emphasis on their own way. The company produces bourbon in Hye, Texas, which it releases in very small batches.

The fall 2013 release consists of just 24,000 bottles. Its recipe includes Texas Panhandle corn from the 2009 harvest, and it was distilled in 2010. My bottle was 3 of 37, which makes clear that Garrison Brothers uses small barrels (some say this accelerates the aging process). That would also explain the color, which is a surprisingly deep mahogany for such a youthful spirit.

It’s bottled at 47% ABV, or 94-proof. The nose is very basic: raw corn and oak along with some clove and green apple. On the palate it’s a surprisingly complex combination of cinnamon, dry cocoa, fudge, and cornbread. The finish is short with corn and clove.

The nose is a awfully intimidating and raw. But don’t let that fool you. There’s more finesse than you might think, especially given its youthfulness. Garrison Brothers suggests dropping an ice cube into this bourbon; I enjoyed it neat.

Seventy dollars (that’s what the suggested retail price is on the website) is an awful lot for a bourbon that has to display it’s age because it hasn’t reached its fourth year, which is the year it can be legally called “straight bourbon whiskey” without an age statement. But let’s face it: Comparing this to, for example, a $25, 9-year-old Kentucky bourbon would be pretty useless. It’s apples to oranges (or maybe eggplant).

I was pleased and surprised by this bourbon. It’s plenty unique and interesting. While it reminds me from time to time that it’s young, it also lets you forget that fact and just enjoy its complexity. Pair it with a spicy Honduran or Nicaraguan cigar like Camacho, Illusione (Rothchilds particularly), or something from Pepin (My Father, San Cristobal, or Tatuaje).

It’s not the type of bourbon I’d recommend to beginners. But as you branch out beyond the classics you’ll probably start to try some of the new, micro-disilleried whiskies being made in America. Most are just overpriced, rushed, and undistinguished. Garrison Brothers, however, is proof that this different style of American bourbon can be rewarding in its own unique way.

–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.”

 

The latest annual limited release from Ernesto Perez-Carrillo is an attractive toro (6.1 x 54) featuring a blend with a Mexican San Andres wrapper, dual Brazil and Ecuadorian binders, and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos. It’s medium-bodied, very balanced, and rounded. It has the taste of a well-aged cigar with a unique combination of hickory, bread, and oak. The finish is smooth. It also has excellent construction. Despite a wrapper that isn’t my personal favorite, it’s a very tasty, well-made cigar.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys