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Halloween weekend, the first real fire of the season, and a long night ahead. This is the pairing for when the logs are stacked high and nobody's in a hurry to go inside.
The cigar: Oliva Serie V Melanio Robusto (5 x 52)
The pour: Wild Turkey 101 Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Strength: Medium-full · Smoke time: about an hour
About the cigar. The Melanio is named for Melanio Oliva, the family patriarch who started growing tobacco in Cuba in the late 1800s. It's made in Nicaragua with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler, and it's lightly box-pressed. Expect coffee, roasted nuts, leather and a little caramel. The Figurado size was Cigar Aficionado's Cigar of the Year in 2014.
About the pour. Wild Turkey 101 is bottled at 101 proof from a mash bill of 75% corn, 13% rye and 12% malted barley, aged in barrels with the deepest char. It brings vanilla, caramel, baking spice and a hint of orange peel.
Why it pairs. A fuller cigar needs a bourbon with backbone, and 101 proof holds its own where a softer pour would disappear. The rye spice meets the cigar's pepper head-on, while the bourbon's caramel picks up the sweetness in the Sumatra wrapper. Sip slowly, and let a big cube of ice open it up as the fire burns down.
What you'll need
A double guillotine cutter
A torch lighter, since a fire-pit breeze will beat a soft flame
A heavy rocks glass
A large ice cube mold
A cigar ashtray that can sit on the arm of a chair
