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Heaven Hill held an event last night in Bardstown to introduce their new whiskey and cigar experience, Smoke and Oak. This is going to be part of their tours on the Bourbon Trail. For $65.00, you get your choice of Alec Bradley cigars and they will furnish four whiskeys to pair with the chosen cigar. It was a great event. It started with an opening cocktail in their Bardstown visitor’s center. The guests milled around the gift shop and museum. I took this opportunity to sign my books for them and Matt Kohorst, my guest at the event, and I purchased a couple of bottles. I picked up the Bernheim Barrel Proof and Matt picked up an Elijah Craig Toasted Rye. Matt ran the bottles out to the car while I talked with Maggie Kimberl and Alec Bradley Cigars founder Alan Rubin and his son Bradley. The cigar company is named for Alan’s sons, Alec and Bradley, a true family owned company.

After a while, they took us into the theater room in the visitor’s center where tables were set for a wonderful dinner. There were two drink tickets at each setting and a bar was serving cocktails. Matt ordered a cocktail they named The Illusion that was designed to taste like a cigar. It was a good cocktail, but a little sweet. The whiskey sours that another guest at the table ordered looked to be a better cocktail. I refrained from getting a pre-dinner cocktail because we were going to be drinking whiskey with the cigars after dinner and I have cut back on my drinking since my heart surgery.

The dinner started with a salad, followed by braised short ribs and a trifle for dessert. All of the food was excellent. However, we did not come for dinner, we came to smoke a cigar and pair it with whiskey. After dinner, we were moved to a tent that was set up outside the visitor’s center. On the way out we were given a gift bag with five cigars, a cutter and a lighter. The cigars were Prensado, Fine and Rare, Gatekeeper, Kintsugi and Safe Keepings. The idea was that everyone would choose the cigar of their liking and pair it with four fine whiskeys. The whiskeys were Elijah Craig Toasted Rye, Elijah Craig 18 year old, Heaven Hill 19 year old Wheat Whiskey and Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 18 year old Bourbon. I chose the Prensado and Matt chose the Fine and Rare.

The tasting was led by Maggie Kimberl with Bradley Rubin and three other Heaven Hill people. They each took a different cigar and Maggie told the guests who were first time smokers how to light their cigars. She then led the way through each whiskey by first taking a sip of the whiskey and then a puff of the cigar, and then a good puff on the cigar and then a taste of the whiskey. She asked everyone to note how the whiskey affected the cigar smoke and how the cigar affected the taste of the whiskey. Matt and I both like the 19 year old wheat whiskey with our cigars, but many others liked their cigars with other whiskeys. After Maggie finished with the tasting, we all finished our cigars and mingled with the other guests. Matt and I talked with Jason C of Mash and Drum for a while and I invited him over to have drinks on the porch the next time he is in Louisville. A couple of the other guests came by to talk and one even did a selfie with me as he had just purchased my book from the gift shop. It was a very good time.

The Heaven Hill Whiskey and Cigar experience will not include dinner, but for $65.00, you will get a fine Alec Bradley cigar and four solid whiskeys. The whiskeys will not be the ones that we on the night, but I would have rather paired the cigar with whiskeys that I could get on a regular basis, rather than the limited edition whiskeys we tasted. I love the 10 year old Henry McKenna with a cigar and would have loved to have had that whiskey as part of the tasting. For me, the best tasting whiskeys with a cigar would be Evan Williams Black Label, Mellow Corn Bonded, Pikesville Rye and Henry McKenna 10 year old. I look forward to going back and trying the experience again.

Photos Courtesy of Matthew Kohorst and Michael Veach