The Gentleman’s Flavor and B.C., Canada’s Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery have collaborated to release a cigar whisky.

“It’s a Canadian first” says Tyler Dyck, Okanagan Spirits’ CEO and President of the BC Craft Distiller’s Guild. “Never before has a Canadian craft distillery – or any Canadian distillery for that matter – made a whisky specifically to be paired with a cigar”.

Okanagan Spirits’ Tyler Dyck draws a whisky sample straight from the barrel

The Gentleman’s Flavor Midnight Maduro Cigar Whisky features a blend of 4 finished whiskies from the Okanagan Spirits’ portfolio; two bourbon-style whiskies, a rye whisky, and a single malt, all distilled from grains grown a mere tractor ride away from the company’s Vernon, BC location (Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery have two BC locations: one in in Vernon, and another in Kelowna).

Pioneers of BC Distilling

The Dyck family, who proudly refer to themselves as “Western Canada’s original whisky family” have been distilling in the Okanagan valley for decades.

Over the years, they have established strong working relationships with numerous local farming families in the area. These farmers produce the grains and fruit used to craft Okanagan’s diverse range of spirits.

Barley grows on one nearby fields in Vernon, British Columbia

The idea to make a Canadian cigar whisky was initially formulated by Kurt Bradley of The Gentleman’s Flavor. Bradley states, “After I laid out details to Tyler of the flavor profile I desired to compliment a full-bodied cigar, he just ran with it. I could see the wheels turning in head when I rambled off about what I was looking for in a finished product. Being the mad scientist he is, he and [sister] Melissa quickly started to experiment with blends and eventually came up with the Pioneer County Process to apply a unique finishing touch by introducing an authentic tobacco element”.

The Pioneer County Process

The recent release, which was made as a very small batch production, features a unique finishing process that Okanagan dub “the Pioneer County Process”.

Before the process was applied, the blend was married together in an ex-Cognac cask to introduce a dark fruit element to the blend of BC grain whiskies. The liquid was then removed fron the cask before the cask was deconstructed and then torch carmelized simultaneously with dark, heavily-fermented tobacco leaf from the tobacco growing region of Esteli, Nicaragua.

Through being torched, the sopping wet staves and the tobacco leaves quickly bellowed smoke and produced a large, blue bubble from the high-60% abv liquid that the staves previously encased. The result was a rapid carmelization of the staves with a prominent tobacco influence.

The staves were then further cut up and placed into a column where the whisky was then slowly gravity-filtered, trickling though a myriad of freshly torched wood to effectively adopt final rich and robust elements of sweet Cognac and tobacco.

The beauty of Midnight Maduro Cigar Whisky lies in its undeniable tobacco influence

Within little time, Tyler and the team at Okanagan knew they had fallen upon something special: “At the outset, we were aiming to create a whisky that was truly decadent and rich enough to compliment a full-bodied cigar. The end result was Midnight Maduro, and it’s unlike anything we’ve made before”, states Dyck.

Soon a tobacco leaf and cigar band motif was created to effectively label and adorn a tall and elegant bottle.

Non-chill filtered and with no added color, the whisky features a label that proclaims, “crafted to serve as a perfect accompniament to a full-bodied cigar”.

A complex, yet refined Cigar Whisky, exuding waves of toasted oak, sticky plum pudding, and a hint of cigar smoke on the nose, followed by the decadence of carmelized cognac, heavily malted barley and honey-combed rye on the palate as this whisky dances its way to a long and luxurious finish.”

– description on the bottle

The cigar whisky’s public debut first took place at the 2024 Kelowna Polo Classic in the Okanagan Spirits Prohibition Lounge which featured a selection of cigars from Havana Room in Kelowna.

Okanagan Spirits’ Tyler Dyck shows off a bottle of Midnight Maduro at the 2024 Okanagan Polo Classic

Within the same week, in Ontario the cigar whisky had its official launch at an exclusive rooftop patio event held at The Smokin’ Cigar in Toronto, where guests received their own bottle of The Gentleman’s Flavor Midnight Maduro Cigar Whisky, a robust Flor de las Antiallas Maduro cigar by My Father Cigars, in addition to a flight of premium Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery whiskies – which included the Midnight Maduro at the finale.

The flight and cigar pairing was led by Kurt Bradley. The evening was peppered with musical performances by The Whisky Hunter who, armed with a ukele, crooned about themes surrounding ‘whisky and smoke’.

Kurt Bradley of The Gentleman’s Flavor

In addition to Midnight Maduro, the flight also featured 3 of the 4 finished Okangan whiskies that comprise the Midnight Maduro blend, which included BRBN (bourbon-style whisky), 1 MALT (single malt whisky) & BC RYE (missing was the BLK BRBN).

As one would expect, the robust Flor de las Antillas Maduro Toro cigar paired swimmingly with the Cigar Whisky.

At the time of writing, The Gentleman’s Flavor Midnight Maduro Cigar Whisky is available through Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery’s website, with shipping available to Canada and the USA.

Extremely small batch and in high demand, this release will not be around for long. TGF