Finding the Best Whiskey Matches for Weller Cohiba and Buffalo Trace Cigars
Pairing whiskeys with cigars can be tricky. Rum is more often enjoyed with cigars and can be a lot easier to pair. But with cigars and whiskeys there are often strong flavors that challenge each other. The main idea is to find complementary flavors that can play well together and create an enjoyable pairing. More about my philosophy for pairing whiskeys with cigars here.
Last year, General Cigar Group partnered with Buffalo Trace to create two cigars expressly designed to go with their namesake whiskeys: A Weller Cohiba and a Buffalo Trace cigar. These were not infused or dipped cigars, but rather cigars blended to partner with those specific whiskeys.
Ever the skeptic, I decided to give these pairings a go and to also try them with my standard lineup of Kentucky Bourbons: Maker’s Mark for a wheated Bourbon, Jim Beam Black a Gold winner at the 2022 New York Internation Spirits Competition for a good solid Kentucky Bourbon profile, and Four Roses (Gold, 2022 NYISC), formerly known as Yellow Label, which is complex enough to pair well with many different cigars. Here are the results of my study.
Cohiba Weller Cigar
I started my pairing this cigar with three Weller offerings: Weller Special Reserve, Old Weller Antique, and Weller Full Proof. It’s not obvious which Weller was intended for pairing with this cigar, so I tried what I was able to get from my good friend and fellow Visiting Professor Sara Havens.
According to the original press release, this 5.5x50 Dominican robusto comes “Dressed in a hearty, full-bodied Honduran San Agustin Ligero wrapper and bound with Connecticut Havano Medio Tiempo, the blend is made with hand-selected tobaccos from Esteli and the remote volcanic island of Ometepe in Nicaragua.”
The predominant tasting notes for this cigar were cafe au lait, walnuts, and cocoa powder.
Weller Special Reserve: The cigar brings out bubble gum and sweet fruity notes in the whiskey, a bit unexpected. The whiskey brings forward earthy bitter chocolate notes in the cigar.
Old Weller Antique: The cigar brings out lovely leather and cardamom notes in the whiskey. The whiskey brings forth the tannic walnut notes from the cigar.
Weller Full Proof: The cigar brings out leather, baking spice, and dark red cherry in the whiskey. The whiskey mutes most of the flavors in the cigar because of the high proof.
Next I paired this one with my standard lineup to see whether it played better with something else.
Maker’s Mark: The cigar causes a funky note of almost leather — naugahyde rather than leather — in the whiskey. The whiskey brings out lovely chocolate milk and coffee notes in the cigar.
Jim Beam Black: The cigar punches up the spice in the Jim Beam Black and brings forth a nice sweetness that is not overpowering. The whiskey brings out a nice sweet chocolatey note in the cigar.
Four Roses: The cigar brings out a corny note that isn’t typically there, almost like corn pudding. The whiskey brings out a cedar note in the cigar.
Old Weller Antique and Jim Beam Black both paired extremely well with this cigar, and the Weller Special Reserve was a close second. It seems like the blenders did a great job accomplishing their mission on this one.
Buffalo Trace Cigar
This cigar is a little more obvious as to what it should pair with — there’s only one Buffalo Trace Bourbon. But again, I was curious how it stacked up against other Bourbons.
The Buffalo Trace cigars come in three sizes: a 5x49 robusto, a 6x52 toro, and a 7x49 Churchill. I smoked the toro. These cigars feature Brazilian binders, Nicaraguan fillers, and Ecuadorian Sumatra wrappers. The predominant tasting notes for this cigar were cedar, white pepper, and espresso.
Buffalo Trace: The cigar brings out sweet apple notes in the whiskey. The whiskey brings out some creaminess and chocolate in the smoke, almost like a cafe mocha.
Maker’s Mark: The cigar brings out taffy notes in the whiskey. The whiskey deadens everything except the cedar in the cigar.
Jim Beam Black: The cigar brings out a nice sweet cinnamon spice in the whiskey. The whiskey brings out a cafe au lait with a sprinkle of nutmeg in the cigar.
Four Roses: The cigar brings out spiced apple cider notes in the whiskey. The whiskey brings out milk chocolate in the cigar.
Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam Black, and Four Roses all go well with this cigar. Again, the blenders understood the assignment here. I think Maker’s Mark tends to pair better with spicier Nicaraguan cigars
The Conclusion
It’s rare for me to find a cigar and whiskey pairing recommended by someone else that I actually enjoy, and here I’ve found two. I teach a method for a reason: I want you to find what is enjoyable for your palate, any suggestions I give are because I found them enjoyable for mine. That’s why I recommend pairing cigars with flights of whiskeys with differing flavor profiles.
The main issue I’ve encountered repeatedly is that people recommend pairing full-bodied cigars with full-bodied whiskeys and light-bodied cigars with light-bodied whiskeys, which created overpowering or underwhelming pairings. I like balance, and I think most whiskey drinkers do, too. These cigars and their namesake whiskeys strike a balance that is rare coming from the cigar world. I definitely recommend giving these pairings a go.
And now there are two brand new releases coming out: a Buffalo Trace Special F and a new Weller by Cohiba that features a perique-process wrapper aged in a used whiskey barrel, much like the Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented Cigar by Drew Estate that came out several years ago (Drew Estate has also just announced the release of a collab cigar with Metallica’s Blackened Whiskey).
Cigars and whiskeys are coming together in interesting ways these days. There’s something for everyone.