The Stogie Guys

Does “single malt” and “Texas” sound strange to you? It certainly does to me. But with my Texas roots (nearly half of my family lives in the state) I figured it would be worth a shot—even with a price tag just under $70.

Plus, it’s not like Balcones Distillery hasn’t won any awards. In addition to being named “American Craft Distillery of the Year” by Whisky Magazine, their various spirits have racked up accolades including a handful of prizes for this single malt from the Lone Star State.

On their website, Balcones describes their “1” Texas Single Malt, which was first released in 2011, like this: “A unique style of malt whisky, Texas made, Texas proud. This product is born of hundreds of years of distilling tradition transformed by a deep sense of place. Mellow notes of sautéed pears and ripe fruit mixed with a lingering toasty malt character.”

With all that in mind, I got down to business to try this 106-proof creation from the Waco, Texas-based operation. “1” Texas Single Malt is a medium copper color. The nose is surprisingly traditional (scotch-like), with burnt sugar, dried fruit, and a little oak barrel and vanilla.

On the palate, it has a rum-like sweetness (not that unlike the Edradour 10 I recently wrote about), along with roasted pecans, grain, and maltiness. The finish is short and leaves the mouth a bit dry, while anticipating the next sip.

Complex, yet surprisingly classic, the “1” Texas Single Malt is best paired with a mild or medium-bodied cigar. I’d particularly recommend a Connecticut-wrapped Davidoff Grand Cru or E.P. Carrillo New Wave Connecticut.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

As a whiskey fan and a New Yorker, I’ve always been quick to give New York spirits a shot. Such was the case when I came across this whiskey from Breuckelen Distillery in Brooklyn.

Breukelen is made in Sunset Park, barely a mile from the neighborhood where I grew up. While I hadn’t heard of the operation until I saw it in a Park Slope wine shop, the distillery seems to have cut its teeth making small batch boutique gin and, more recently, moving into whiskey.

They call their whiskeys “77 Whiskey” and they come in two varieties: Black Wax (made from 100% New York wheat) and White Wax, which I picked up for $42 for a bottle. White Wax utilizes local New York grains (90% rye and 10% corn).

The whiskey is relatively young (just 235 days to be exact) and demonstrates surprising complexity for its age. Light and copper-colored, it features a bright nose with sugared dates and cherries. The palate has tropical fruit, oak, and pepper with a gritty mouthfeel and quite a bit of alcoholic heat. The medium-length finish has oak and dried fruit.

It’s an interesting spirit that goes well with a variety of cigars, particularly full-bodied cigars. I tried it with a Tatuaje Halloween Mummy, RoMaCraft Aquitaine, Oliva Serie V, and an Aging Room Quattro, while all of which paired very well.

Essentially a rye whiskey, the youth of the 77 Whiskey leaves quite a bit of grittiness, but it still has plenty of interesting flavors. I suspect Breuckelen Distilling releases this so young in part because the cost of aging it longer would tie up too much capital, and yet if they ever decide to leave this spirit in barrels for a few years I think it could be fantastic. Still, it’s an interesting, artisanal whiskey with lots of character.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

While I’m hardly an expert on the thousands of varieties of scotch, I’ve gotten to know my way around most of the better-known brands and a few lesser-known malts. So when I noticed a bottle I hadn’t seen before at my local Virginia ABC liquor store (I’m still getting used to the fact that in Virginia liquor stores are a state-run monopoly), it piqued my interest.

Edradour is billed as “Scotland’s smallest distillery” and the numbers support the claim, although recently even smaller distilleries have opened. Edradour is a three-man operation (though I read they recently are down to two) and it produces only 95,000 liters per year, or 12 casks a week. (By comparison, Glenlivet, the best-selling scotch in the U.S., produces just under 6 million liters a year.) Interesting fact: With 100,000 visitors a year, Edradour is almost certainly the only whisky distillery in Scotland with more visitors than liters produced per year.

While the distillery traces its roots to 1825, it upped its quality in the past decade when new owners took over. Before that it was known for variation from batch to batch. With those problems behind them, it now makes a variety of single malts, including a number of special finishes using Bordeaux, Sauternes, and port barrels.

The only variety available at my store was the 10 Year, which I picked up for about $50. It’s bottled at 86-proof and is copper amber in color. The nose shows sherry, dates, and candied almonds. On the palate, it’s thick with rum notes, toffee, dried fruit, and toasted barley. The relatively short finish features more dried fruit, cream, and hints of vanilla.

It’s hardly the most refined single malt I’ve tried, but its rich mouthfeel and thick sweetness make it an excellent pairing with a fine cigar. It stands up to full-bodied Nicaraguan smokes. I tasted it with both the Tatuaje TAA Edition 2012 and the Cuenca y Blanco (now known as CyB), and found both to be excellent with a straight pour of Edradour 10.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Single malt scotch whisky tends to be aged in bourbon and sherry casks, which makes this relatively new addition to the Balvenie line particularly interesting. After a period of aging in a traditional oak bourbon barrel, this 14-year-old single malt is finished in rum casks.

Introduced in 2010 as a U.S.-only release, the 14 Year Caribbean Cask Balvenie sells for around $60. It’s a bit more expensive than their 12 year Doublewood (an excellent value) but similar in price to Balvenie’s 15 year Single Barrel.

The whisky pours a golden straw color that’s not as dark as I would expect. The nose is where the unique character of the Caribbeam Cask starts to shine through as citrus and tropical fruits join with toffee and muted oak.

Once you get down to sipping your dram, you’ll find burnt sugar, a bit of smokiness, oak, dried fruit, and maltiness. It has a great roundness on the palate, not heavy, but crisp and lively. The finish is medium-long with both sweet and dry flavors.

A very good single malt, the lightness surprised me, but it wasn’t a bad thing. It’s the type of Scotch that goes well with a milder cigar, something with a Connecticut shade wrapper and Dominican filler (or a milder Cuban like an H. Upmann). No matter the cigar, the Balvenie 14 Year Caribbean Cask Single Malt is a tasty whisky with it’s own character that leaves a hint of the tropical influence of its production.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Bourbon often gets more costly (and usually also better) as you go from large production, to small batch bourbons, to single barrel expressions. Saint George Spirits—a small “artisan distiller” in Alameda, California, that’s been in operation for 30 years—took a different approach when it created its Breaking & Entering bourbon whiskey.

Dubbed a “super-bourbon,” B&E is the result of blending approximately 80 different barrels of bourbons from different sources all ranging from five to eight years in age. Through what they call “barrel thieving,” Saint George selects their favorite barrels from various Kentucky distilleries, then blends them together.

The result, according to their website, is “greater than the sum of [its] parts…a criminally delicious bourbon whiskey shaped by a Kentucky pedigree and California ingenuity.” At around $40 a bottle, I figured it was worth a try.

The first striking element of B&E is its deep bronze color. Even more notable is the nose: sweet fruit and lacking in spice, it has an almost cherry cola aspect to it.

When you finally get down to the business of tasting this “super-bourbon,” you find a chewy combination of corn, moonshine, fig, oak, toast, and caramel. It’s nicely balanced and very complex. The finish is bright and clean.

While it’s different from many other bourbons being made these days, it’s a winner in my book. Dink it neat and you’ll find a sweet, complex whiskey that goes down smooth.

It pairs very well with both the Honduran puro Camacho Corojo or the multi-country blend (super-cigar?) E.P. Carrillo Short Run 2010. But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find many good cigars that don’t go well with this versatile bourbon.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Yesterday was Columbus Day, which means summer is firmly in the rear-view mirror and the temperatures are dropping. If you’re smoking cigars outdoors, you may be looking for a drink pairing that will help keep you warm in the cold. Here are five drinks that will do the trick.

Hot Toddy — A classic that can be made with scotch (save the single malt, use a blend), bourbon, or even brandy. It’s simple to make. Just add sugar, lemon, and cloves to boiling water and your spirit. Hot toddies pair well with Connecticut-wrapped, milder cigars.

Stonewall Jackson — An American classic consisting of hot cider and bourbon (but rye, Tennessee whiskey, or even spiced rum fill in nicely). As I’ve written before, it’s a late fall drink that pairs nicely with stonger cigars, like the 601 Green or Fausto.

Hot Buttered Rum — Perhaps my favorite of the bunch, hot buttered rum is a little more complicated to make than the above drinks, but after you make it a few times you’ll find that it’s really not to difficult. Drink yours with a medium-bodied Honduran or Nicaraguan cigar.

Mexican Hot Chocolate — While there are lots of recipes out there, “normal” Mexican hot chocolate is spicy and intense with unsweetened chocolate, cinnamon, and chiles. Adding some tequila kicks it up a notch. While I use something similar to this recipe, I might also add a splash of triple sec. Sip on one with a cigar wrapped with a San Andreas maduro wrapper.

Coffee — There are lots of ways to make coffee (have you seen a Starbucks menu lately?). It still remains my regular pairing with a cigar. And although you can add almost any spirit to it, I almost always take mine black or with just a splash of milk. It will keep you warm while you enjoy your cigar, and coffee pairs well wih almost any cigar out there.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Almost everyone has a story about the time (usually in their younger days) when they did too many tequila shots and swore they’d never drink the stuff again. Most seem to return to tequila later, albeit likely in smaller quantities of higher quality tequila.

Most people, if they’ve heard of mezcal at all, think of it as bad tequila. The reputation comes because inexpensive mezcal often includes a worm at the bottom of the bottle, a marketing gimmick designed, one can only imagine, to attract frat boys on spring break in Mexico who prove their toughness by drinking poor quality mezcal. But mezcal need not be harsh, cheap, or gimmicky, and Wahaka Mezcal is proof.

Mezcal, for the uninitiated, is similar to tequila. Actually, technically all tequila is mezcal, but all mescal is not tequila. This is because mezcal can be made with any type of agave while tequila must use the blue agave variety. Also, mezcal is known for it’s smokier flavor, because the agave is roasted while tequila is always steamed.

Wahaka Mezcal Joven Espadin, which I picked up for $45 (though it can be had for around $30), is made using traditional means using 100% organic mezcal grown Oaxacao, the center of mezcal production. “Joven Espadin” distinguishes this variety from the other varieties produced by Wahaka. According to a label included with the bottle, after 10 years in the ground the agave is harvested (this batch was harvested in spring 2011), milled using millstone turned by a donkey, cooked and smoked 3-5 days, fermented 12 days, then distilled twice in copper stills.

The resulting spirit has an inviting nose that’s sweet and floral with a hint of smokiness and pine. The taste is clean, with just a bit of sweetness, light smoke, pepper, salt, and butter. The finish is smooth and fleeting.

Despite the harsh reputation of mezcal, Wahaka is a mild spirit that needs a mild or medium-bodied cigar as a pairing. The medium-bodied CAO Concert (pictured), while an excellent cigar, was as full-bodied a cigar as a I would want. A milder cigar like the Oliva Connecticut or a Davidoff Mille series would be an even better pairing.

While Wahaka isn’t as smoky as most mezcal I’ve tried, it makes an excellent introduction to mezcal while being plenty interesting for the more seasoned drinker. If you’re interested in branching out beyond the worm, it’s well worth trying.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys