Ok, so he’s not the Mayor anymore but for 12 years, Oscar Goodman served as Mayor of Las Vegas. His wife now occupies the Mayoral office but during his time in that seat, Mr. Goodman did a lot for the city of Las Vegas. He also smoked a lot of cigars. There was an article in Cigar Aficionado [...]

Initial Thoughts Well first off, this is the first Padilla brand cigar that I’ve ever smoked. I haven’t seen them around locally too often, I typically see them online and I see their ads in CA when I’m thumbing through. They’re hard to miss with the giant lion head as their logo. I’m always afraid [...]

An Introduction: Avalon winery’s home is Graton, California, a small town about 30 miles Northwest of the Sonoma wine country. As part of the well-known Purple Wine Company (http://www.purplewine.com/), Avalon’s grapes are sourced from different areas of the West Coast. While Avalon has several different grapes and blends in their repertoire, their specialization is in [...]

Initial Thoughts The Feral Flying Pig seems to be one of those cigars that you can never find. Everyone is all the cigar forums talks about them, and how great they are. For some they seem to have no issue tracking these cigars down, for others it’s like trying to find the Golden Ticket from The Willy [...]

Quick Review The Perfecto Cigar Holder was made by a company called the ‘Perfecto Cigar Holder.’ Who knew? The product was made for cigar smokers who often find themselves in a predicament of placing their cigar down in an otherwise not-so-great spot or setting. Many times we don’t have an ashtray or the right place to rest our [...]

Consistently Excellent Four Roses Distillery has a reputation for excellence. They recently received their 3rd consecutive award for “Whiskey Distiller of the Year – America” by Whiskey Magazine’s international judging panel. As a matter of fact, they have won 4 of the last 6 years. In 2010 they also won the Silver Medal at the San Francisco World [...]

Initial Thoughts The last time I was at my local B&M (UPtowns Smoke Shop) I decided I needed to pick up some more classic brands of cigars. That’s what led me to the AF Anejo, and this Punch Rare Corojo. I wanted to smoke some of these ‘classic’ brands that have been around forever. The brand name [...]

An Introduction: After reviewing and greatly enjoying the A Portella - (a 100% Mencia grape from Spain) I was intrigued by the Altaroses which was suggested to me by the wonderful folks at my East Nashville B&M. The Altaroses comes from the region of Catalonia which is in the far Northeastern corridor of the country, due [...]

Initial Thoughts I’ve been smoking some ‘newer’ cigars lately, meaning, sticks that have been made by companies that are relatively new to the industry. Not all of them have been great so I’ll admit I was hoping this Nomad Renegade would be something different, especially since I’ve heard good things. The night I smoked this cigar was [...]

History: In terms of age, the Woodford Reserve brand is entering the height of it’s teen years. The brand was introduced in 1996, by the Brown-Forman company. However, it’s roots and it’s distillery go way back. Nestled in Woodford Country outside of Versailles, KY the distillery itself was built in 1838, making it the oldest bourbon distillery in [...]

Initial Thoughts For years I’ve been hearing about this legendary Arturo Fuente yearly release. Everyone talks it up and it usually leads to forum threads titled “They’re baaaaaaaccckkk”. I would called this Arturo Fuente Anejo the McRib of cigars. As I said I always hear about these cigars when they are released, yet I’ve never been [...]

Initial Thoughts If you haven’t been paying attention to the cigar industry in the last year then you might not have heard of the La Palina brand. Personally, I’ve noticed the brand pop up and start showing up everywhere. The reviews for their ‘Goldie’ blend have been on all the review sites, except for this [...]

With the Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo happening the same weekend this year, there may be some important decisions to be made: Wide-brimmed portrait hat or sombrero? Whiskey or Tequila? If you’re opting for whiskey, Ryan Asay, head mixologist at the Windsor Court in New Orleans, has come up with a refreshing mint julep. Derby [...]

We all know the economy hasn’t been the best these last several years, after the financial boom in the 90′s and the fizzle in the mid 2000′s. Everyone took excess to the highest points possible, just to watch it all fall back to earth and hit us with a dose of reality. Everything was overdone [...]

Colección de la Casa, Reserva 2012– Port Cask Finish is First of its Kind in a Series of Unique Styles of Tequila Tequila Herradura, today announced the release of the first of a series of small-batch tequilas, Colección de la Casa, Reserva 2012, Port Cask Finish. Each year, a new tequila will be released that will offer [...]

It’s six days before the second anniversary of the legendary Alejandro Robaina’s death and I felt the need to reference a Cigar Aficionado article I read from back in April, 2010, just after he died. Alejandro Robaina is noted as ‘The Godfather of Cuban Tobacco.’ His farms produced some of the best crops ever and [...]

In my daily wanderings for wine news on the web, I constantly see a lot of bland chatter and general internet noise that doesn’t seem to educate or inspire. Today, however, while perusing the GQ website, I came across a delight of an article by the amazing, decorated, brilliant Alan Richman. If you don’t know [...]

An Introduction: Maison Louis Jadot was officially established in 1859, although the land and vine’s history dates back decades earlier. The vineyards are situated in the Burgundy region of France located centrally (North to South) in the Eastern portion of the country, about 160 miles from the Western Swiss border. The Burgundy region is one [...]

Initial Thoughts I came across this La Flor Dominicana Cameroon Cabinet #4 after searching high and low for the chisel tip vitola. I couldn’t seem to find the chisel tip after it had been named to the top 25 on this year’s CA list. That’s typically how things go. Once you hit the top 25 it’s very [...]

Initial Thoughts Every year I try to make it my mission to smoke all the cigars from CA’s top 25 list. I typically stay away from trying to smoke the Cubans because they are really difficult to get and plus… they’re illegal. This Tatuaje Cojonu 2012 Sumatra was on the top ones on my list. In the [...]

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Initial Thoughts As I mentioned in the specs, there are five different tobaccos, which make up this blend but it’s somewhat of a secret. I was intrigued to try this, knowing that I wouldn’t know exactly where the flavors came from. As Michael Giannini stated, the Foundry cigars are ‘like enjoying a meal from a [...]

Initial Thoughts As I said, there were only 3,000 boxes of this cigar sent out worldwide while only 800 boxes were made available in the US. That being said, I felt lucky to have this cigar and able to review it. This is the Easter edition of my reviews. Right now, it’s about 8pm on [...]

On the heels of us reporting that our Nashville brethren, Corsair Artisan Distillery, was on the shortlist for Whisky Magazine’s 2013 Icons of Whisky in two categories (Whisky Distiller  and Whisky Brand Innovator), we learned today that our fellow Nashvillians, the historically rich, yet relatively new Belle Meade Bourbon was awarded the silver medal in the 2013 San Francisco World Spirits [...]

Background Atsby Vermouth is the brainchild of founder Adam Ford. After spending some time with Adam at the launch party I got a great sense of how passionate he was about Vermouth. Inevitably the question came up, “Why Vermouth?”. Well the story behind the why, is a great one, Adam tells it with such excitement [...]

It’s come to the attention of the Stogies on the Rocks team that our Nashville neighbors (by way of Bowling Green, KY) and creators of the delicious spirits, Corsair Distillery’s extremely tasty whiskey was on the short list for the Whisky Magazine’s 2013 Icons of Whisky in the Whisky Distiller  and Whisky Brand Innovator category. I’ve had the pleasure [...]

Intro Several weeks ago I spoke with my friend PJ about the week following St. Patty’s Day. I knew the week was going to be crazy because my wife and I were closing on our first home. Fortunately, when you have great friends they will always be there to help when you need them most. Several of these [...]

Having lived in Nashville for over 10 years. I’ve seen firsthand, the city begin to grow and blossom into a, for a lack of a better word, ‘hotbed’ of culinary and libation arts. I feel like every week there are new restaurants that pop up and everyone says that the latest crop is better than [...]

As you may or may not know, Mint Julep season is upon us. I know what you’re thinking, Siz, why the hell are you so fired up about Mint Juleps? Well I’ll tell you why. Last year I went to Churchill Downs in Louisville and spent the day at the races. There is nothing more [...]

There may not be fire. It may just be the scent of tobacco cologne; an intriguing musk brought to you by the folks at Portland General Store. The description on the site reads, “Sweet tobacco with some floral elements. Top notes of bergamot, lavender, and neroli open to tobacco, leather, and wood. Tonka beans, with their [...]