Cyrus Noble is an old brand that has been revived. According to the Midas Criteria Registration of Trademarks, the brand dates back to 1863 when Freiberg & Workum of Cincinnati created Cyrus Noble Rye. Sometime later the brand passed to Lilienthal & Co. of San Francisco, who released a Cyrus Noble Old Bourbon Three Crown in 1874. They followed this up the next year by releasing a One Crown and a Two Crown version of the brand. The trademark does not mention any age statement, but it is safe to assume that the difference in the brands was the age of the whiskey in the bottle. The brand was revived by Haas Brothers, an importer of spirits and a marketer of domestic spirits, founded in San Francisco in 1851. They sent me a bottle of this Bourbon some months ago, but Matt and I have had so many bottles to taste, that it kept being put on the back burner until the other day. My apologies to Haas Brothers, because it is a very good Bourbon and should have been reviewed sooner. Here are our tasting notes.
Cyrus Noble Bourbon
Proof: 90
Age: No Age Statement
Nose:
- Mike: Vanilla, apples, baking spices and oak wood.
- Matt: Caramel, Andes Mint, oak wood.
Taste:
- Mike: Vanilla, apples, cardamom, ginger and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and milk chocolate comes out to join the party. Tasted with a pecan and a rich caramel comes forward.
- Matt: Chocolate, cardamom and oak wood. The dried cranberry brought out notes of apple. The pecan brought out the mint previously detected in the nose.
Finish:
- Mike: Medium long with oak wood, baking spices and lingering apple. The dried cranberry made the spice a strong ginger. The pecan took the spice down a notch but enhanced the apple notes.
- Matt: Medium long with oak wood and chocolate. The dried cranberry added some cardamom spice to the finish. The pecan enhanced the chocolate notes in the finish.
I would pair this Bourbon with a cigar that has vanilla and chocolate notes in the smoke. I would reach for one of my favorite cigars, a My Father The Judge cigar.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller