Top Barrel-Aged Cigars
Barrel-aging has been around for thousands of years. Spent wine and whiskey casks are used to influence the flavor of all kinds of spirits and beer today – and tobacco. We’ve gone into the barrel-aging techniques some of today’s best-known cigar-makers employ, but here’s a quick list of barrel-aged cigars you should smoke to taste the difference barrel-aging makes. Each selection features tobacco aged in a different kind of cask: cognac, bourbon, and single malt. Decide which ones sound best and add barrel-aged cigars to your collection from the following trio.
1. Arturo Fuente Anejo
Arturo Fuente Anejo cigars are hard to find because they are made in small batches that sell out fast. Carlito Fuente created Anejo following the devastation of Hurricane George in the Dominican Republic in 1998. The storm tore through the country and wiped out a significant supply of wrapper reserves the Fuentes were exclusively aging for their prized Fuente Fuente Opus X cigars. To combat the ensuing shortage of Opus X, Carlito cleverly re-blended the cigar with a special Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper after aging the leaves in cognac barrels. A new and unique masterpiece emerged.
Arturo Fuente Anejo delivers a buttery, full-bodied profile of dark chocolate, hickory, black pepper, and cognac tasting notes. The No. 77 Shark is the most coveted size in the collection, but we encourage you to try this stellar specimen in any shape. The finish is resonant and sweet. Keep tabs on our Anejo page and buy a box the second they’re in stock.
2. Perdomo Habano Maduro
Hands down, Nick Perdomo leads the pack when it comes to barrel-aging tobacco. Perdomo is stacked with barrel-aged cigars. Nick proudly touts the intensive barrel-aging process he relies on to achieve peak flavor in his tobaccos. His bestselling Perdomo Habano series is technically called Perdomo Habano Bourbon Barrel-Aged.
All three blends – Connecticut, Sun Grown, and Maduro – are crafted with premium Nicaraguan tobaccos aged for a minimum of six-years. The wrappers for each blend are matured extensively in bourbon barrels as a finishing step. Each profile is unique, but we’re recommending Perdomo Habano Maduro first because its wrapper is barrel-aged the longest at fourteen months. Notes of dark roasted coffee beans, cocoa, and bourbon rouse the palate with sweet, leathery spices before a luscious finish unfolds. Nick’s value-minded prices make it easy to pick up a full box of the best Perdomo cigars you can smoke today.
3. Davidoff Winston Churchill Late Hour
Davidoff’s popular Winston Churchill series is a bit pricier at around $20 per cigar, but the Late Hour blend delivers stronger flavor than most Davidoff cigars. The blend is named for the wee hours of the evening Sir Winston Churchill spent writing, strategizing, and articulating his thoughts to a tee.
Long-filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and San Andrés are blended under an Ecuador Habano wrapper in a collection of traditional shapes. Unlike other barrel-aged cigars, it’s the Nicaraguan filler – not the wrapper – that is barrel-aged. And in this case, the company rests its Nicaraguan filler tobaccos at precise temperatures in old scotch casks. The process imparts hints of whiskey with coffee bean and wood notes before the profile shifts to a finish of malt, mesquite, and black pepper. The barrel-aging effect is subtle but distinct in the Late Hour. If you can bear to part with a bigger portion of your monthly cigar allowance, Late Hour could be a barrel-aged blend worth exploring.
