Post Hurricane Smoke and Pour

It's been a crazy couple of days at the Barleyvine house.  Our fair area got slammed by Beryl, a purported Category 1 storm that caused way more damage than any Cat 1 storm I have ever seen.  We were lucky.  We lost some limbs from our oak, and a small tree got blown over in our back yard, but otherwise, no damage.  Our fence is fine while many in our neighborhood were blown completely down.  Our house sustained no damage, not a single shingle missing. So we count our selves lucky.  Our power went out, but it is back while many remain without power around the city.   I am thankful things were not worse, our neighbors and friends are all OK and that is what counts.  It with that in my mind that I sat down for a pour and a smoke.  A time to sit and contemplate these last few days and be thankful for everything that we have.

The Whiskey

Michter is a distillery out of Kentucky, while they have recently returned to distilling, the name Michters has a long history of making American whiskey stretching back to the 1700s.  This particular expression is their Bourbon.  Sweet caramel corn up front, then comes some oaky toasty notes, cinnamon, stone fruits, peppery, maybe cherry notes.  A lovely bourbon, not overly complex, but smooth, satisfying, with just enough underneath to keep you sipping looking for more.

The Cigar

I have spoken about Ezra Zion out of the DFW area before.  Its a wonderful cigar company that does a great job of sourcing tobacco from around the world and then selling direct to consumer, which cuts down costs and allows folks to try cigars that are much cheaper than they would be otherwise.  This particular expression called Naughty Bits Vogue LTD is just such an example.  A cigar with a different wrapper name on it would be much more expensive.  This is a medium strength 6x52 classic toro.  Wrapper is a beautiful creamy 10 year aged Colorado leaf.  The first smoke is creamy silky milk chocolate, and brown sugar.  As you smoke notes of black pepper, vanilla bean and candied nuts comes out, mixing with the milk chocolate.  It burns even and smooth, not hot at all.  It's not an overly long smoke, around an hour.  This went well with the bourbon.  The bourbon was good, but simpler, this is more complex, so one doesn't overwhelm the other.  I appreciate the flavors and smoked it down to a numb.  Delicious.