Pairing Cigars & Alcohol – Union Distillery 8 Year Old Bourbon Cask Collection King of Fighters
Cigars and alcohol. Two luxury products that go hand in hand, and sometimes even meet on business level. Aging tobacco in whisky, rum, or cognac barrels is a practice several brands do to achieve extra flavour to the wrapper for certain lines.
The famous bourbon brand Maker’s Mark has their own cigar, sold in tubes with the signature wax coating. Drew Estate works with Pappy van Winkle and used to make Kahlua cigars. Mombacho used to have the Diplomatico series but Mombacho no longer exists. General Cigars works with Sazerac, which resulted in Fireball cigars, Weller by Cohiba and collaborations with Buffalo Trace. And there is the Diesel Whisky Row, a collaboration with Rabbit Hole Distilleries. Fratello Cigars also sells craft beer.
Most famous are probably the Cuban collaboration between Martell Cognac and Cohiba. Dominique London, the European retailer with more than 20 shops in the UK, Belgium, Switzerland and the Canary Islands takes it one step further. They bought a distillery in Wales and produce whisky, gin, rum, vodka and liquors.
Union Distillery 8 Year Old Bourbon Cask Collection King of Fighters
This is a private bottling for a Taiwanese company with Brazilian whiskey. The 8 year old bourbon cask is a set of three different whiskies, non-peated, lightly peated and peated. Now, I didn’t have the set but a friend brought over a bottle of the lightly peated when he came over for a smoke, and I took the opportunity to write about this gem, of only a 1000 sets were made.
Union Distillery Malt whisky company was founded in 1948 and has over 60 years of experience in the production and preparation of alcoholic beverages. It has been producing malt whisky since 1972. Union Distillery’s origins were in wine production until 1972, when the Borsato and Ziero families took control of the company and changed the focus of the business to the production of malt whiskies.
Distilling takes place at their two sites in copper pot stills, using a combination of traditional techniques and the latest technology married together by half a century of distilling experience. The team make great use of their location too – the pure crystalline waters and the climate of the Serra Gaucha valley providing the perfect raw ingredients, to which they add the finest malts, maturing in oak barrels until the spirit inside embodies the authentic nature of the Union Distillery.
This limited edition set contains 8 year old whisky produced in Brazil, matured in bourbon casks and bottled at cask strength in 2021. The lightly peated version has an ABV of 58%. The labels feature characters from the King of Fighters ’97 fighting game, produced by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home console.
Neat
As always, the first pour goes in a Glencairn glass to experience the best nose possible. The nose has quite some ethanol, but also barley, green apple and peat. Even though they claim this is lightly peated, it’s too peated for me. The peat overpowers the sweetness and the red fruits flavours combined with apple. For lovers of peated whisky, this could be a very interesting distillation, as there are some nuances in the profile, with some complexity. Because of the peat I would go for a stronger cigar.
In a rocks glass the ethanol is not as dominant but the peat still does. There is a little black pepper in the nose now with the barley and the green apples. The whisky is warming and the peat is less pronounced in a rocks glass. The red fruit flavours are gone too, it feels like a completely different whisky in this type of glass. More like a winter drink, with black peppercorn instead of the apple flavour, more oak as well. And because of that, I would pair it with a medium to full bodied cigar with a woody flavour profile.
Old Fashioned
The nose is orange with a hint of peat. Only peaty whiskies have more on the nose than just orange when it comes to an old fashioned and this whisky confirms that rule again. The angostura bitters enhances the peat and the dark flavours of the whisky. The apple and fruit from the neat version in the Glencairn is nowhere to be found. This is a dark and strong drink, not something for a summer night, but great for a cold winter night, sitting in front of a fireplace with a nice dark and thick Maduro cigar.
And now for the Old-Fashioned recipe:
1 sugar cube
3 dashes of bitters
2 oz or 60 ml of whisky
orange peel
Put the sugar cube in a highball glass, add the dashes of bitters and a splash of water. Muddle the sugar cube. Add ice and the whisky. Stir for 10 seconds, then add an orange peel.
Mr. & Mrs. Romance
Okay, I made a mistake, I used too much honey as the honey was less syrupy as I thought and when I wanted to pour a bit in the mixing glass, more poured into the glass than I expected.
The nose is lemon with ginger and the peaty, smoky aroma of the whisky. Surprisingly, it is very nice, something I was not expecting from reading the specs. Honey sweetness, freshness from the lemon, heat from the ginger and the peat from the whisky all get their moment to shine, all while it is very balanced and friendly. Go for an earthy cigar or a woody cigar and you’ll have a great match.
And now for the Mr. & Mrs. Romance recipe:
2 ounces or 60ml of Bourbon or Whisky
2 ounces or 60ml of hot water
½ ounce or 15ml of Lemon Juice
½ ounce or 15ml of Honey, or double that in honey syrup
3 slices of ginger
Pour hot water over the ginger and muddle. Add the honey and stir to dissolve. Add ice, stir again till its all chilled. Add the other ingredients and stir again, to combine. Double strain into a rocks glass and garnish with a burnt lemon peel.
Inspector X
