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Ron Zacapa Sistema 23 Solera

4 0 3.1k

Power Flavors for the Enthusiast in Cocktails with or AS Dessert!

photo courtesy of Diageo

Whisky Reviewed: Ron Zacapa Sistema 23 Solera
Distiller: Zacapa (Diageo)
Region: Guatemala
ABV: 40%
Suggested Retail Price: $45
Distiller Rating: 92
Rum Howler Blog Rating: 91

Mark’s Review

So I walk into the Carnegie Club for Fine Tobacco NYC’s cigar and whisky event. There, in front of me stands Kelvin. On his small table is a snifter with a dark liquid. I ask, “What’s in the glass?” With the same wide grin he shares with new guests, he lets me smell the contents. Looking odd, I say, “Rum”? Yup! Ron Zacapa 23. He proceeds to tell stories of cigars paired with whiskies and that a good rum is as wonderful an experience as scotch or bourbon.

Feeling every bit of my King Leonidas line, “I’ll put that to the test”, I sat down with a light pour, took out a pen and wrote my impressions, pre-stogie. Right off the bat, BANG! Sweet sugar smacked me upside the head. The force kept straight through the mid palate and as it eased down my throat, fleeting Broadleaf flavors emerged.

This is a splendid drink for the Enthusiast seeking life beyond the usual brown dram. I also knew any strong stick would be a perfect match, provided it had a gentle fade to allow other external tastes to emerge.

So guess what I did? You bet! I lit up! Maybe my evening smolder was not the precise pair but, nonetheless, the combo weaved its magic.

A true benefit here is that this spirit can amplify any cocktail made with it. I mentioned to Kelvin that a pina colada with Zacapa 23 drizzled on top would bring a smile to any cynic’s face. But, even if you don’t smoke, a Glencairn neat or with a cube could be fantastic with vanilla ice cream, banana cream pie or by itself after dinner.

One note, the “23” is Sistema 23 not the minimum age in the bottle. The end product of a Solera process, the number really represents the oldest whisky; the youngest being six years old. That said, I just care how great the power transfer is and how it works with a nice Montecristo #2 Torpedo.  Bliss!

Mark Garbin’s Evaluation

Aromas & Flavor Appeals to: Optimal Client Type Great For:
Subtlety Aficionado Apprentice Cocktails
Power Flavor Admirer Enthusiast Neat Before Dinner
Balanced Devotee Adventurer With Food
Chameleon Lover Hedonist Dessert or Afterwards

 

Distiller rating: Ron Zacapa 23 Sistema Solera Rum is enduringly one of the most pleasurable dark rums to sip neat. At first the sweet notes of roasted coffee, butterscotch, vanilla and dark chocolate appear, then some fresh citrus and apricot refresh the palate with green herbal accents, nutmeg and ginger. The long finish includes flavors of caramel, pipe tobacco, cedar and roasted nuts. –Amanda Schuster

Rum Howler Blog: (Edited) I have noted in the past, that this rum can at times seem to carry just a little more honey sweetness and vanilla. Dry fruit (raisins and dates in particular), pecans and walnuts, and cocoa are all highlighted in the exit which reveals just a touch of bitterness in the exit (which perhaps is the perfect foil for the honey-like sweetness which characterized the entry). The palate is left with lingering impressions of molasses and baking spices. My final score of 91/100 reflects that I have a high opinion of the Ron Zacapa Centenario (23 Solera) Rum. If I were to have a gathering of close friends and family and I wanted to serve a high quality spirit which everyone could enjoy. This rum from Ron Zacapa would be a very good choice. –Chip Dykstra

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Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve

4 0 2.3k

A Flavor Chameleon for the Enthusiast Neat Before Dinner or After

Whisky Reviewed: Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve
Distiller: Dalmore
Region: Speyside
ABV: 44%
Suggested Retail Price: $125
Distiller Rating: 90
Wine Enthusiast Rating: 95

Mark Garbin’s Review:

Yes. You can drink this gem even if you don’t smoke. On the nose, relish in floral aromas with highlights of light pound cake, malty cinnamon biscuits and a holiday wood fire.

What? You expected the typical Dalmore profile? Think again. It’s a new day for Enthusiasts.

Scores of flavors follow those scents including vanilla ice cream, toffee and caramel. After that, gentle sherry notes and orange slices emerge at mid palate. Finally, the finish generates a slight bitterness and more fireplace memories.

But then, WOW!

The taste sequences shuffled and reshuffled. I didn’t know where each began or ended. I further found that slow-drinking this dram, allowing for more air in the mix, created a velvet sensation unlike others in the product line. Water only strengthened those traits. This whisky’s inbred chameleon nature is best enjoyed without food after which it depends on your stogie choice; if desired.

Various writers suggest a strong Churchill. Allow me to retort! Don’t blow away your senses. The many varied qualities in your glass go better with a mild companion such as a Fuente Don Carlos Robusto. You might step out on the wild side and add one-half teaspoon of Grand Marnier or Cointreau to your snifter or Glencairn and savor the unfolding magic.

In summary, with Cigar Malt Reserve, the more you ease into the night’s conclusion, the more you’ll enjoy it.

Mark Garbin’s Evaluation

Aromas & Flavor Appeals to: Optimal Client Type Great For:
Subtlety Aficionado Apprentice Cocktails
Power Flavor Admirer Enthusiast Neat Before Dinner
Balanced Devotee Adventurer With Food
Chameleon Lover Hedonist Dessert or Afterwards

 

USC rating: The nose on this complex Highland whiskey offers bright orange peel, rich aromas of figs and raisins followed by dry Baker’s chocolate, nutty sherry notes and just a whisper of delicate smoke. The palate is robust with ripe tropical fruit, raisins and orange zest. This is followed by dark chocolate, vanilla and unctuous sherry notes. This whiskey finishes long & spicy with hints of fennel, sharp ginger & rich vanilla notes. –Ryan Conklin

Wine Enthusiast rating: Aged in a series of barrels—first American oak, then transferred to a former oloroso Sherry cask and finished in used Cabernet Sauvignon barriques—this Scotch would be an outstanding dessert accompaniment too. Look for dusty cocoa and lots of Sherried dark fruit, like figs and dates, wrapped in caramel and baking tones that linger on the spicy finish. –Kara Newman

Gran Habano Corojo #5 Gran Reserva 2012 Corona Gorda Review

6 0 3.3k

George A. Rico of Gran Habano has been blending cigars in his Honduran factory for years using high quality tobacco from a number of countries and developing many unique and stylish blends. His Gran Habano Gran Reserva Corojo No. 5 is rolled in Honduras and uses a Nicaraguan wrapper and binder with a Costa Rican and Nicaraguan filler leaf. The size for this review is the new corona gorda, which I really enjoy as I feel the vitola is excellent to showcase flavors with.

We shall see how this cigar measures up. Enjoy!

Blend Specifics

  • Cigar Reviewed: Gran Habano Corojo #5 Gran Reserva 2012 Corona Gorda
  • Wrapper: Nicaragua
  • Binder: Nicaragua
  • Filler: Costa Rica & Nicaragua
  • Size: 5 5/8”x 46

Appearance & Construction

The Gran Habano Corojo #5 Gran Reserva 2012 Corona Gorda has an appealing though not overly creative red and gold embossed band supporting the top and bottom with the words “Gran Reserva” and “Gran Habano 2012” in the middle. The cigar is encased in a cedar sleeve with a secondary band at the foot with “2102” printed on it. Trying to remove the sleeve proves difficult and it seems basically sutured on. I have to tear at the bottom of the secondary band and pull apart the tape attached, then break apart the cedar to undress the cigar. A bit much.

Once removed, I find a semi dark wrapper with minimal veins and an oily sheen to it. There are significant soft spots up and down the cigar to the touch when pressed.

Flavor & Smoke Characteristics

With my Wooly Mammoth Xikar cutter, I make a straight cut to the cap of the cigar. I take a dry draw and the taste of must and oak are prevalent. As I light the Corojo #5, the first few puffs are of maple and oak. The sweetness of the maple and wood notes play well on my palate. There’s a bit of hay on the retrohale with some bitter undertones. As the cigar develops, flavors of graham cracker and cinnamon came on strong, and the cigar is on the mild to medium bodied side.

The Gran Habano #5 develops bitter notes as it reaches the midway point. The ash is gray and flaky, falling apart several times during the smoke. After several more puffs, coconut coats the palate with bing cherry on the finish. The cigar requires a relight upon which oak flavor starts to dominate. I take another retrohale, and cedar and balsa wood resonated in the back of my mouth. The cigar then becomes linear in flavor for the better part of the second half of the smoke.

Gearing up toward its end, the Gran Habano #5’s wood notes give way to a sudden creaminess that becomes almost buttery. This is an overwhelming although not an unpleasant taste profile. Along with cream, a vanilla sweetness creeps up that quickly dissipates to a bitter finish. At this point the Gran Habano goes out and since it’s toward the end the option to relight does not feel necessary.

Conclusion

I’ve smoked a lot of cigars from George, with some really grabbing me with lots of complexity and flavor, and some a bit one dimensional. I would say the Gran Habano Corojo #5 Gran Reserva 2012 Corona Gorda is somewhere in the middle. It started off as a flavorful medium bodied cigar with maple, oak, cinnamon and graham cracker but then the overwhelming wood flavors coupled with some bitterness hurt the experience.

For the most part I enjoyed the taste profile although the cigar could’ve been more balanced for me.

Final Rating: 87

Reviewers note: this was a non-blind review

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Craigellachie 10 Year – Single Cask Nation

4 0 2.9k

Power Flavors for the Hedonist in Cocktails (BOOM!) or After Dinner

Whisky Reviewed: Craigellachie 10 Year – Single Cask Nation Bottling
Distiller: Craigellachie
Region: Speyside
ABV: 67.3%
Suggested Retail Price: $125

Mark’s Review

To paraphrase a mid-20th Century joke: Do you have Sir Walter Raleigh in a scotch bottle? Well, let him out! That happened the instant I poured a spot of this beauty. Sweet Virginia tobacco and pineapple phenol smells freed themselves from captivity. The aromas transited my nose into the sinuses with ferocity and lodged there awaiting sip’s first release. The palate matched the scents and was hot as expected given the ABV.

Still, unlike many Craigellachie offerings, this had little sulfuric bitterness. But after a few seconds . . . BAM!! a ginormous never-ending peated mouthfeel emerged. Each of my nearby sidekicks did double takes. I offered that it equaled being on the receiving end of a Mike Tyson KO punch AFTER you stole his tiger! Adding water unleashed strong robusto qualities to further the heat.

This whisky is for the Hedonistic Power Lover who craves a smack upside the head. Try this in a cocktail. Don stated this was a “one and done” Rob Roy! Otherwise find a La Bomba Warhead II stogie. Cigar Advisor calls it a smoke that “pummels you like an undercover drug narc at a Hells Angels rally”. Craigellachie 10 is a perfect match for it. The combo will kick your ass so hard it needs a warning label.

Mark Garbin’s Evaluation

Aromas & Flavor Appeals to: Optimal Client Type Great For:
Subtlety Aficionado Apprentice Cocktails
Power Flavor Admirer Enthusiast Neat Before Dinner
Balanced Devotee Adventurer With Food
Chameleon Lover Hedonist Dessert or After Meal Cigar

Whisky Intelligence: This cask bottling, distilled in May 2008, spent ten years maturing in a refill bourbon hogshead. It was bottled at cask strength in May 2018 at a whopping 67.3% ABV! Cask #900305 yielded 288 bottles.

Long and warming with lingering barrel char, dark chocolate with sea salt, more confectioner’s sugar, and damp oak. Known for it’s typically heavy style of whisky, this Craigellachie falls right into line. Its departure, however, is in the heavily peated character of this spirit. Dank and pungent with earthy smoke, however, don’t fret, rich fruits, an oily mouthfeel, and a bread-like malty backbone remain.

Perez-Carrillo Encore Valientes Review

6 0 4.0k

I smoke a lot of cigars every year. Almost 100 cigars reviewed, and a few more outside of the reviews. That means smoking some really great cigars, and some not-so-great cigars. So I’m always excited to smoke a blend that received scores like the Cigar Aficionado 96-rated Perez Carillo Encore.

Although EP Carrillo is a well-established cigar company with popular blends like the “Inch,” it isn’t a brand I’ve had a ton of exposure to. So here’s to smoking something new and finding out how it performs.

Blend Specifics

  • Cigar Reviewed: EP Carrillo Encore Valientes
  • Wrapper: Nicaragua
  • Binder: Nicaragua
  • Filler: Nicaragua
  • Size: 6 1/8 x 52

Appearance & Construction

The Perez Carrillo Encore Valientes is a meticulously branded cigar, with ornate double banding, a rich gold color palette, and white foot band. The outer Nicaraguan wrapper has a couple of minor veins but is otherwise flawless. On closer inspection, the cigar seems strangely lightly packed, with a lot of give when squeezed even lightly. We’ll see how that affects combustion and smoke production.

Off of the foot, I pick up whiffs of cashews, baking spices, and light woody aromas. The cold draw is sweet, with granola, oats, and touches of spice.

EP Carrillo Encore El Primero Review (1)

Flavor & Smoke Characteristics

Ones fully lit, the EP Carrillo Encore Valientes produces copious amounts of toasty, medium-bodied smoke. There’s a decent amount of generic spiciness up front, followed by a core of sweet woodiness and a buttery finish. Before too long, a nice vanilla apricot note sneaks in on the palate, with the spice building more and more on the retorhale. Overall, it’s a start that seems to emphasize the sweet, savory, and spicy flavory categories most, though the wood does contain some noticeable bitterness.

By about an inch in, the cigar is having some trouble staying lit, requiring me to puff a bit faster on average than I’d like to. Probably the result of the cigar’s light packing. Otherwise, the draw is good, and a salt and pepper ash that hangs for an inch plus and a straight burn line.

Heading in to the second third of the EP Carrilo Encore, the cigar is even toastier than before, resembling toasted cinnamon bread. Unfortunately, it’s also at the beginning of the second third that the construction issues begin to emerge more noticeably. The burn strays significantly, requiring a few purges and then a touch up to correct. Otherwise, the flavors continue to develop, with a subtle cocoa note hitting that palate that’s quite enjoyable. As nice as the flavor development is, its continually sabotaged by the speed that I have to puff to keep the cigar fully lit, leading to overly heated smoke and likely more strength than intended.

Unfortunately, the race to keep the EP Carrillo Encore lit continues well into the final third. Still, the cigar manages to remain quite enjoyable, which is a testament to the quality of the tobaccos and the blend itself. The baking spice that characterized the first half of the cigar shifts to something a bit more savory, more along the lines of cooking spices. Other notes include earth, toasty cedar, red pepper, and some cream in the aroma. The cigar continues along in this fashion up until the end, when the smoke heats up too much to continue on.

Conclusion

The EP Carrillo Majestic Valiente has a lot going for it. A great combination of flavors, good smoke production, and an easy draw. But construction issues ultimately got the better of it, with the light packing requiring the cigar to be smoked too fast to fully enjoy.

Still, construction is easily the most variable part of any cigar. They are hand made after all. So I still recommend giving this smoke a try, if only for the fact that it claimed Cigar Aficionado’s #1 cigar award of 2018, albeit in the Majestic size (something closer to a robusto).

Final Rating: 86

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