I know many who follow my blog may have been a little surprised at my post last week. Even my friends asked me, “Cigars and art, really?” But let me begin by saying that it was a piece that I had written a few weeks earlier and I thought it would be a nice change of pace. After all, I spent an entire week talking about my IPCPR 2013 adventures and I just felt that maybe there was a little too much, “look at how much fun I am having” for one week.

Of course after writing about art, a subject that required a bit of research on my part, I had to think of the perfect subject that would bring me back to my comfort zone. Not that there is anything wrong with art, but it was time for me to pull my man card out of my wallet and show it to everyone. What better subject to get me back in the good graces than cigars and beer. To tell the truth, the subject of today’s blog is something that just happened by accident. I grabbed a great new beer from one of our stores and when I got home went straight for a cigar that I thought would pair well with this beer. The beer in question is Gentlemen’s Club Bourbon Barrel, a collaborative effort between Cigar City Brewing of Tampa, Florida, and Widmer Brothers of Oregon. The companion smoke is a Sam Leccia Black.

First let’s discuss the beer. It doesn’t get more macho than a beer made by Cigar City, named after the town’s stellar reputation in the adult entertainment industry, and just happens to be aged in bourbon barrels. Another interesting thing about this beer is that it is probably the only beer you will read about this week in the State of Florida that’s not named New Belgium. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Fat Tire, but we have an army of beer consultants that have this Colorado brewery’s much anticipated rollout into the Sunshine State covered. There have been so many roll out parties and red carpet events for New Belgium this week, someone would think that George Lucas was premiering his version of Friday the 13, Jason vs. Darth Vader. Settle down SciFy Channel lovers and Sharknado fans, Jason vs. Darth Vader is not a real movie.

Back to Gentlemen’s Club, it is an exquisite beer very worthy of its own release extravaganza. The bottle will tell you that it is 90% ale brewed with cherries, lemons, and oranges and aged in bourbon barrels and 10% ale. I’m not sure if those proportions are correct and if I should take that to be the literal recipe, but I will tell you that it works quite nicely. The oak and citrus work well together and make this beer well balanced and not leaning too strongly to one side of the taste spectrum.

So where does the cigar come in. Let me first say that the first time I smoked a Sam Leccia Black I was amazed at the nice flavor the fire cured tobacco gave to the cigar. It was a new touch, something that hasn’t been used a lot in premium cigar production in recent years. The filler in the Black is a blend of Nicaraguan, Honduran, Brazilian Mata Fina, and a touch of Dark-Fire. Dark fire is the name for the tobacco that is fire-cured, meaning that oak is burned during the air curing process, which gives the tobacco a woodsy-whiskey aroma. The wrapper is a beautiful Ecuadorian Habano, and the binder is Nicaraguan Rosado.

I must admit that when I first smoked this cigar I thought to myself, this is a perfect match for a glass of bourbon. The two were meant for each other. My only question was, what ever gave Sam the idea to do this? Not only did he decide to incorporate a very unique tobacco to this cigar, but he did it for his first new release since his two year hiatus from the cigar world. When I had an opportunity to talk with Sam about his choice of tobaccos and what gave him the idea, his answer was quite simple. It seems that he
already had an idea for the blend of the Black well before the idea of using “Dark-Fire” ever entered into the equation. He decided to add some into the blend and see how it would enhance things. He didn’t want to overpower the original blend, just add a little something extra. It wasn’t until I smoked the new Fire-Cured stick from Drew Estate that I realized Sam did exactly what he sat out to do. Don’t get me wrong, I like the MUWAT Kentucky Fire Cured from Drew Estate, but Jonathon Drew was definitely looking for a more pronounced oak flavor in his cigar while Sam wanted just the nuance. Both accomplished their mission and I am glad that both decided to experiment with this tobacco. Consumers will have a choice in a cigar, that before this year, there were none on the market. I can’t wait to get my hands on a few more KFC sticks so I can do a comparison with some bourbon. I may need a well-aged Pappy to compliment JD’s bold oak flavors.

Back to the Leccia Black, pairing it with this beer was an absolute homerun. A cigar with a hint of oak and hand crafted ale with the same qualities is a match made in heaven. It’s like peanut butter and jelly, not too complicated but brilliant at the same time. But let me say that the cigar is a joy by itself. I smoked three of these alone before paring with the Gentlemen’s Club and it is one that I strongly recommend. It’s a medium to full-bodied smoke, which not only provides a nice oak flavor, but there is a subtle sweetness that I am certain is attributed with the Mata Fina. I can’t wait to get these into our stores, for I smoked my last one while working on the blog. You may need to go out and buy a few of these Gentlemen’s Club beers as they will probably get snatched up well before the Leccia Blacks are adorning the shelves in our humidors.

Long Ashes,

Chris Gwaltney. Follow me on Twitter @abccigarchris