Been a week or so since I have had the time to sit down and make a post but I went back through my photos and found this pairing from a recent visit to the beautiful yet rainy Ilse of Cape Breton Nova Scotia. I was traveling with work, as we do an executive retreat here every year. It allows us to discuss the major issues and challenges that may come up during the next year, debrief the year that was, and allow for some bonding and some goodbyes.
Once we had a solid day one under our belts, I snuck away to take on this pairing of FdLA from My Fathers Cigars and Glendronch 12 year old. The FdLA was Cigar Aficionado's cigar of the year in 2012. The first time i smoked it I could see why. It hits that nice medium level in terms of strength and even in Canada has a great price point of under $15 for the Toro. This cigar is always one of my go to's and when I saw that my small little tobacco shop in my small little town had a box, I bought them. All of them. Sorry, not sorry. haha
The Glendronach 12yr holds a special place in my heart as it was the first bottle of scotch I purchased when I wanted to start to experiment with this pairing thing. I was recently given a bottle as a token of thanks for my work at my job, so I thought it fitting to bring it along as some of the folks attending our retreat, had never had it, or had never really tried scotch before. This is a great starter scotch.
I was hoping these two would become fast friends......
Once we had a solid day one under our belts, I snuck away to take on this pairing of FdLA from My Fathers Cigars and Glendronch 12 year old. The FdLA was Cigar Aficionado's cigar of the year in 2012. The first time i smoked it I could see why. It hits that nice medium level in terms of strength and even in Canada has a great price point of under $15 for the Toro. This cigar is always one of my go to's and when I saw that my small little tobacco shop in my small little town had a box, I bought them. All of them. Sorry, not sorry. haha
The Glendronach 12yr holds a special place in my heart as it was the first bottle of scotch I purchased when I wanted to start to experiment with this pairing thing. I was recently given a bottle as a token of thanks for my work at my job, so I thought it fitting to bring it along as some of the folks attending our retreat, had never had it, or had never really tried scotch before. This is a great starter scotch.
I was hoping these two would become fast friends......
Pairing Hots:
Not a shocker that I really enjoyed this pairing, literally two of my favorites. But what would have been the point of setting myself up for failure when the retreat was about leveraging strengths and sharing solutions. This was my contribution in pairing form to the spirit of the week.
Seriously though, both the cigar and scotch are great for someone just starting out with cigars or scotch or both. Why smoke a shit stick for your first one, spend a couple more bucks and get an award winner. As for the Glendronach, it is not super well known in these parts of the world, anyone starting is going to probably go with something super smokey and hate it or something that is so flavourless. Glendronach 12 has a great hit off the nose, lingers well on your tongue and pairs like a dream because of the sweetness it adds to your cigar.
As usual, just my opinion, give it a go for yourself and let me know if I was on point or way off the mark.
If you want to read more on the construction of the cigar or the history of the scotch, check out these links:
http://myfathercigars.com/
https://www.glendronachdistillery.co.uk/
Hope you have something pairingtastic!!
Sean "BigBoyRunning" Ryan
- Price point for both cigar (less then $15) scotch ($65)
- Sweet spice of the scotch with the nutty spice of the cigar
- The company while smoking
- Great burn, draw, flavour changes
- Cape Breton was rainy and cold
- I didnt bring more FdLA's
Not a shocker that I really enjoyed this pairing, literally two of my favorites. But what would have been the point of setting myself up for failure when the retreat was about leveraging strengths and sharing solutions. This was my contribution in pairing form to the spirit of the week.
Seriously though, both the cigar and scotch are great for someone just starting out with cigars or scotch or both. Why smoke a shit stick for your first one, spend a couple more bucks and get an award winner. As for the Glendronach, it is not super well known in these parts of the world, anyone starting is going to probably go with something super smokey and hate it or something that is so flavourless. Glendronach 12 has a great hit off the nose, lingers well on your tongue and pairs like a dream because of the sweetness it adds to your cigar.
As usual, just my opinion, give it a go for yourself and let me know if I was on point or way off the mark.
If you want to read more on the construction of the cigar or the history of the scotch, check out these links:
http://myfathercigars.com/
https://www.glendronachdistillery.co.uk/
Hope you have something pairingtastic!!
Sean "BigBoyRunning" Ryan
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