Alec Bradley and Starlight Distillery has released its second “Uncut Series” collaboration, this time with a pairing featuring the Alec Bradley Gatekeeper and the Starlight Single Barrel Bourbon Finished in Vino de Naranja casks. This is the third release within Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s (STG) Uncut Series.
When working on this collaboration, Starlight Distillery’s Christian Huber, a seventh-generation master distiller, and Alec and Bradley Rubin, legacy cigar makers, sampled cask-strength bourbon straight from the barrels with the intention of finding nuanced differences among the barrels. The Rubins selected the barrel they believed captured the perfect, subtle essence of orange, derived from aging the Starlight bourbon in casks that had been previously used to age the Vino de Naranja, a fortified Spanish wine, with orange peels.
“It would be an understatement to say that a lot of effort went into the selection process for this collaboration,” says Alec Rubin, Alec Bradley’s brand manager of strategic partnerships. “Some might say it bordered on obsession. And while we didn’t set out with a Vino de Naranja-finished bourbon in mind, once we landed there, we were fixated on finding the precise barrel to pair with Gatekeeper. This is a private barrel bottling that will never be replicated. It represents Starlight’s whiskey-making expertise and our fascination with cigar pairing. It’s a real pleasure to partner with Starlight Distillery again, to release this one-of-a-kind bourbon and cigar experience.”
Huber added: “For us, the enjoyment of cigars, like whiskey, has always represented one of life’s true pleasures. Yet for as much as we have enjoyed cigars over the years, our appreciation for fine, handcrafted cigars increases every time we’re in the company of Alec and Bradley Rubin. That’s what this pairing represents to us at Starlight Distillery. It is about deepening the enjoyment of one passion by layering in another finely-crafted indulgence. To us, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Starlight Single Barrel Bourbon Finished in Vino de Naranja Casks (112.1 proof/56% ABV) is described as being a “velvety and complex spirit aged five and a half years. Notes of orange zest, warm cinnamon buns and milk chocolate abound, cascading to a warm, rich finish.” This bourbon pairs well with the Alec Bradley Gatekeeper and its notes of leather, oak and dried dates. The cigar has an Ecuadoran Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and mix of Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.
Only 132 pairing packages, each including four 5 1/8 x 42 Alec Bradley Gatekeeper Corona cigars and one 750 mL bottle of Starlight Single Barrel Bourbon Finished in Vino de Naranja Casks. Each package will have a suggested retail price of $99.99. This pairing package and can be ordered by clicking here.