From Barrel to Blend: The Craft of Elite Cigars Aged in French Oak

Today, we’re diving deep into the world of barrel-aged blends. We’re talking about those elite cigars that have had the luxury of basking in French oak barrels from Flint Knoll Wines.

We’re peeling back the layers of what makes these smokes so damn special. It’s not just about aging; it’s a transformation – a dance of flavors, where charred oak meets tobacco in a harmonious blend. We’ll explore how this aging process adds complexity, depth, and those oh-so-delightful notes that can only come from the finest of French oak. So, light one up, kick back, and join me on this journey through the art of barrel aging. It’s time to get up close and personal with some of the most luxurious cigars out there!

Join the Cigars Daily Nation:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cigarsdailyofficial/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cigarsdailynation/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/cigarsdaily/
Email updates (contain larger discounts): http://eepurl.com/dk_AOD
Twitter: @Cigars_Daily

follow Tim on social media:
Instagram @smokeviking
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timhswanson

#cigarsdaily #cigarsdailynation

Hey everybody I’m Tim here with Aaron michis of Flint n wines and it’s time for a master class in Barrel aging you’re watching cigars Daily get even more out of this video when you join the community on cigars daily plus and for this video we’ have both just lit up the Macanudo Flint null a high-end finded barrel-aged blend that comes out of French Oak barrels used to age the Flint null cab sa that we both

Have in front of us here what a hell of an experience man there’s an amazing marriage of flavors but Arin I got to dive into the barrel aging process for you because what you’re doing here is like it’s like a pioneering of barrel aging ex like exploration here so uh

What the hell where did this come from like did you go to the like do peyote in a teepee for three days come up with this idea with Aaron with the other Aaron Rogers yeah we did it we did it y yeah for sure dude take me into this man

I first of all I know you’ve been a big wine guy for a long time a cigar guy for even longer we talked about that previously in the last video we did together uh but now you’ve got a result of of your process here uh and you’ve

Done it with Barrel aging man I’m so intrigued to hear about this Tim thank you you know we’re very fortunate my husband and wife here in Napa Valley creating some really beautiful Napa wines with our incredible wine making team phip Mela at the helm creating some worldclass wines really incredible

Vineyards using the best French Oak from France to add these Beautiful Textures and nuances to our wines but being a lover of cigars and growing up and originally falling in love with wine because of working in a cigar shop right next to a wine shop thought it would be

A lot of fun to take an American broadleaf tobacco and throw throwing those into our French Oak barrels that made our world class Cabernet one of them and giving a Nuance to that binder to the wrapper to the fillers and giving you the smoker an incredible experience

Nuances of French Oak the fruitness of the cab and giving you layer of layer of just delicate sexiness dude this is this is what I’m pulling out of this is like you say layer and layer of sort of delicate uh flavors here and it that is absolutely what there is you’ve

Mentioned in this flavor a little bit of vanilla and there is really nice accessible vanilla on the back end of the Retro Hill I pick out some of that nice Oak note there but you’re also not the first one to do barrel aging right like other people have done this before

There are other lines that are Barrel aged and even some guys go as far as the barrel fermentation that’s not what you’re doing right not Barrel ferment we’re just aging the binder the American binder in those barrels that produce produce from release one is the 2018 Royal appointment the second release

Which you’re smoking right now is the 2019 Royal appointment or Cabernet from the valley floor and really shows that growing season on the farming in this wine region called Napa Valley and adding that personality to the smoking experience to the cigar those just little characteristics are going to show the

More fruit forwardness of the 19 which you’re smoking right now because it was a little bit of a riper year 2018 was a little more Bolder more obious on the palet no fermentation happening here it’s just the Aging of that binder and those that pulling those flavor from the

Oak and from the wine and giving a sweetness a fru in a very delicate way and then like the white pepper and that like again that little soft touch of vanilla and giving just this really beautiful coating of your palette with the smoke so tell me about this blend

You know before you Barrel age this it’s a very different cigar and and if I’m not mistaken what you’re Barrel aging is underneath an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper leaf on the outside very silky coffee with cream in it colored wrapper Leaf underneath that yes is a dark American broadleaf binder and that’s

What’s gone into your French Oak barrels for the for release number one and number two am I right yep that’s correct and then we use a mapina from Brazil as a filler on halapa and a poto chor in in the fillers to give even more of a

Balance in the flavor and kind of pulling everything in you know it it is not meant to be knock you off your your socks powerful we didn’t want to use too many strong tobaccos but we wanted to give them all to kind of create this really beautiful Symphony of flavor and

If we were to use too many stronger tobaccos they would have mask because of the French Oak and the and the wine is not super pronounced so if we used too strong of a tobacco we would have lost those beautiful things that we were wanting to show so we used that Hardy

Ecuadorian Connecticut and then that sexy broadleaf which is very hearty and sturdy and does well especially Aging in the French Oak and really absorbs its environment so when you take a cigar and you age it in an aging room and you have it in the cedar or whatever you’re aging

And it that tobacco is going to take on those nuances and that’s what we wanted to do to this B really built for combustion and a little bit of flavor but let’s kick it up at a really exotic uh amount with using these French Oak barrels which are produced by a company

Called darnu which are Super premium highly allocated very expensive and we you know we use eight barrels every year to produce this Cabernet that are new and uh you know they’re around you know $1,800 a $2,000 brand new a pop just to make one vintage of wine and then those

Barrels after they make the wine we ship them to the Dr and they’re AG in this tobacco now I’m curious about this you’re probably one of very very few people that have had this blend right here uh as it as it stands by itself and then with that barrel-aged binder Leaf

What to you are the key differences what do you what do you get from the barrel what part of this flavor is contributed that you would be missing without it the missing piece the missing piece especially when you age it when you had the first one you noticed that they was

Getting a little more spice I think these are such great aging cigars as well um because you start getting more and more of the oak when they when it ages when they’re younger you’re going to get a little more of the wine and a little more of that sweetness and the

Berry of what’s going on there it’s not this like kind of like added sweetness but it’s just you can kind of get this fress of like when you think of coffee versus you know um coffee from Africa and and you’re going to get those different regions that are

Going to give you this spiciness and then you get different you know coffee from Colombia which is going to give you a different Nuance this one with these cigars when they’re younger you’re going to get a little more of that fruit and kind of that little more acidity in the

Cigar and then with age you’re gonna get this more softer and then you’re GNA start really getting the oak flavors in this like white pepper and like toasted cashew thing going on and it’s really really fun just to watch it evolve these These are charred barrels right yeah

Medium toast is what we use you can get them from lightly toasted to medium medium plus to heavy toast what that’s going to do to the wine that you’re producing it is going to give you more tannin going to give you a little more stronger the more you toast it it’s

Going to give you a bigger mouth feel so you’re really going to get that dryness on your palette when the heavier the toasting it’s and it’s going to kind of pull back the sweetness of the Oak and give you a little little more tan and a little more grip and for like longer

Aging wines but when you’re working with this fruit that we’re working with in the valley floor really subtle really more elegant and you know umptious Cabernet so you don’t want to mask that with too much tannin so we were using this medium plus which doesn’t give it

Too much Char it’s going to really give you more Oak and a little more fruit flavors in your wine this occurs to me as a cigar that you know for the nuanced flavor I it’s not a it’s not a smoke it while you’re doing yard work cigar it’s not a

Smoke it for me while I’m driving around in my truck cigar you know and and those are some of my favorite times to smoke a cigar but certainly this like when you reserve a time to sit down and smoke where you can get rid of some distractions and really dive in the

Flavor this is a flavor that’s deeper it’s a wide flavor there’s a lot of complexity but there’s a there’s a nice depth to this that if you can like set aside the rest of the world and really ask yourself what you’re getting out of it there’s a lot to attain even for a

Developing pallet out there I mean I’m impressed as I sit you know normally when I smoke cigars I’m at my desk I’m typing away on the computer I’m making graphic art or I’m shooting a video or something like that and this just sitting here diving into this flavor it

Feels like I haven’t even quite touched my toes to the bottom of the deep end quite yet you know experiencing the Retro hail again and again I mean for you like what are the key components to getting every bit of flavor out of this you we’re talking about Barrel aging but

I want to hear from you like for you to capture all the flavor from a cigar do you have a routine or a ritual I agree with you I when I smoke cigars It Is by myself typically it is after entertaining A lot of people and sharing

Our our blessings here in Napa Valley and showing our wines but that time to just shut down and reflect and just enjoy the rewards of our hard work is to light up a cigar and to not really let anything distract me and when we created this cigar it is supposed to

Build when you’re smoking it I think some of the best cigars start one way and by the time that you finish it it takes you on this little journey that is what I think the cigar world is is gives a lot of people there’s a lot of things

I talk about that I love with cigars I love that cigars are about Community we get together and we smoke you know I love that they’re about flavor but certainly there’s a there’s a point where the cigars that really def our love for cigars tend to be almost that

What you said it’s almost like a spiritual experience like you you’re like oh yeah the flavor is so good it’s an aha moment for you and yes for everybody who’s watching this I’ll ask you to drop a comment what was that cigar for you that just you know

Shattered your perception of what good flavor is if you’re looking for refinement of flavor and a cigar that gives you access to that aha moment sitting down putting away some distractions maybe poor a glass of wine or even a glass of coffee pour yourself a nice bourbon something that you want

To pair with but this cigar has complex flavor that goes very deep and is a hell of an experience as a guy personally Erin I’ll tell you I have been on a massive kick of very strong cigars recently I spent probably my first 15 or so years in cigars being really into

Connecticut shade really into mild stuff just in the last year or so couple of years I’ve been really delved into the stronger stuff the Mexican San Andreas the broad Leafs and so oh yeah like for me to pull out a cigar like this that is a that is a mild to medium strength

Cigar and still get that unbelievable depth of experience well a I don’t find other Connecticut cigars that are giving a lot of other Connecticut cigars that are giving that much of that right now and B this has got that what I call that level of refinement right you can get a

Good Connecticut and it’s it’s good they’re decent there’s a lot of them out there but it’s the difference between sort of your Mallen and like the Mallen 12 year right or like Special Reserve 25 or oh yeah oh yeah stuff you pay a lot EXT you really get it’s like liquid

Caramel and you’re like oh boy we just yeah no one talked to me let me finish this Scotch you know that’s what this has been for me in a Connecticut blend and so I thank you so much man I am so unbelievably grateful for this cigar and

The whole experience of doing all of this with you I can see you’re at the V there now tell me what’s the next big thing to expect from you we’re playing with some of our Hillside single Vineyards some of the most sought-after really incredible Vineyards here in Napa

We make some of these big powerful cabs from these Vineyards all in the Hills this Royal appointment is from the valley floors you’re going to get these really more fruit for and elegant wine but we’re going to use those barrels that we made those really really really

Intense Cabernet and we’re going to do the same thing and kick it up a notch this is the little rollsroyce beautiful elegant singing one but we’re going to kick it up a notch probably a little more of a profile what you’re smoking right now uh just to kind of play with

It because we’re learning as we’re doing this because this is uh you know the first time that I know of anybody really working with French Oak barrels that make really honed in small production Vineyards to really give those different nuances in complexities amazing so everybody watching at home you can look forward to

A lot more from Flint null and if you haven’t tried it I do recommend it an excellent pairing cigar uh as Aaron already mentioned a blend that’s primed for aging and gives you a whole lot just in and of itself as a nice complex deep Connecticut Aaron thanks again so much

For joining me brother Tim thank you God bless you and happy holidays thank you everybody watching at home thanks again for joining us this is Tim and Aaron both signing off for cigars daily and I will see you in the comments