750mL Bottle- ~$55
- Bottled gifted
- Cigar was about $18 from Small Batch Cigar
Background
The Burning Chair is a relatively new Bourbon on the market from Savage & Cooke. I was given a bottle of it for Christmas in 2019 and after several drams I thought it would be a good review subject.
S&C sources small batches of 4-year-old Bourbon from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. After blending, the whiskey is finished in Cabernet barrels from Napa Valley. It is titrated to 88 proof (44% ABV) using pure water from Northern California. It uses a mash bill of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. As for the name and the photo used on the label, there is no information on the company’s website.
Notes
In the glass, The Burning Chair was medium amber in color. It had a light caramel aroma with a slight oak note. Taking a sip, I got the sweet caramel notes up front, along with more oak and baking spice on the back end. The finish was smooth without much in the way of spice or alcohol burn.
I paired the bourbon with a Sin Compromiso, one of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust’s premier cigars. This is a Nicaraguan blend I thought would stand up well to a good medium-plus-bodied whiskey. It opened up with earth and espresso bean and pepper, backed up with a slight chocolate sweetness.
Taking a sip of Burning Chair after a puff, I noted that the cigar and whiskey played well together with the bourbon adding much more sweetness to the proceedings. Not that this was a surprise, since I will tell anyone who will listen that a good bourbon will pair up pretty well with almost any cigar without even trying.
The more I sipped of The Burning Chair, the more the wine barrel finishing became apparent, with notes of berry sweetness creeping into the mix of vanilla, caramel, and oak. This is a really nice Bourbon that will pair well with virtually any Nicaraguan blend you care to throw at it. Whether it’s worth the extra-premium price tag or not…well, for me, I would say no, but you’ll have to make that determination for yourself.
