Gurkha Black Dragon - Four Pillars Chardonnay Barrel Gin - Arras Brut Elite

I think that perhaps my favourite place for a cigar and a good drink is down on the northern NSW coast. Family has a place there - it is actually where an old fishing hut used to be, where Dad used to come well before I was born.

Roll the li-lo out, the beach down in front beyond the trees, the cigar du jour and a couple of drinks to match. Settle back with a cracking book. I have had a number of great afternoons there. Sadly, this was not one of them.

First, blowing a gale. Made it all a bit iffy.

Next, a land crab (seriously, there are times I feel like I am David Attenborough's alter ego and all the wildlife on the planet are keen to take revenge) decided that my foot looked like dinner. And it was not best pleased when it was shooed away.

At least the book lived up to its role - Rushdie's 'Golden House'. Brilliant stuff (I'd already knocked off the latest Horowitz 007 - which was a cracker - and the first by Paul Vidich, 'An Honorable Man' - Cold War spy hunt in the fifties set in DC. To be honest, I wanted to read it as it is the first of a few he has done and the 2nd is set in Cuba in the late 50s and I am very much looking forward to it. Loved the first one. A combobulation of an American le Carre, a touch of Graham Greene and also quite reminiscent of Phillip Kerr, but I digress).

The drinks. The Four Pillars more than held its own but sadly the sparkler, the Arras Brut Elite from Tassie, was let down by the cork. Not badly, but it was all mushroomy and dull. I know the wine to be far better than this.

The cigar. A Gurkha Black Dragon. Now, I have a recollection that Rob and I did a Gurkha for a video, or perhaps just on the balcony, and it was not unpleasant. Perhaps even better than that? So I am not anti-G by any means.

It would be fair to say that I am perhaps the least appropriate person at FOH to review a non-Cuban as I would guess that perhaps at least 98% of members are far more familiar with them than myself. I should add that I had no idea where this sits in the Gurkha pantheon but I do know that some are extremely expensive. Rob had left me this to try.

Afterwards, I did some research and it seems that these come in tubes. Mine did not, but whoever gave it to Rob could easily have removed it. It was in cellophane. So not sure about this, but it does seem to be one of their top-end cigars. I was rather hoping it would be their bottom end as I did not want to have people assume I was just bagging it because it is trendy to do so.

So, nothing ventured...

It is a large cigar, very very dark in colour and built like a steel rod. Honestly, a good hammer you could drive this into a wall. But, no issues with any of that. The info says a "medium to full-bodied blend", composed of Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper and filled with a 5-year-old Cameroon binder and Dominican fillers.

Fired it up, but first, for reasons unknown as I always use a punch, I went with a clipper and snipped the end off. Mistake. Immediately, unravelling a bit. And it never recovered. For the rest of the entire thing, every time I took a puff, it felt like I was attempting to wrap my lips around the tail-end of a baby hedgehog. Not a pleasant experience at all.

But one perseveres. I wish I had not. The initial impression was not unlike when one burns a piece of toast and then scraps off the charcoal - and then eats the scrapings. But fortunately that dissipated fairly quickly. For the rest of this very large cigar (beginning to understand why people like little cigars), nothing changed. It was a solid cigar, roasted, over-roasted, earthy, leathery, rubber tyre notes all the way. Actually, there was a small change. It got hotter and slightly less pleasant throughout. It left a really poor taste in my mouth and I'll confess that try as I might, eventually I tossed it. Almost finished it but saw no real point. No redeeming features. Points? Not many. Not much point, excuse the pun.

A match for the drinks? Well, one was already useless. The other was terrific but deserved far better. The Four Pillars Chardonnay Barrel Gin - packed full of flavour. Stonefruit notes. Peaches. Lanolin. I enjoyed it solo but it would work well in many cocktails.

And this was a big day for Four Pillars. Earlier, they were awarded the 2019 International Gin Producer of the Year at the 50th Annual International Wine and Spirits Competition in London.

Now, anyone who knows Stu from Four Pillars, and I know that there are a number on the forum who do, will be surprised to hear that his response was to proclaim himself speechless. What followed was a torrent of emails, texts, Instagram and press releases, all proclaiming said speechlessness. And those who do know Stu will know that this is about as speechless as he gets.

This is a big deal. It was presented to distiller and Stu's partner, Cam McKenzie (former Olympic athlete who was in Atlanta for the 1996 races, who Stu described as running away from the bomb in the park faster than he ran in his event), at a black-tie gala in front of 600 contemporaries. Not bad for something that was only an idea between mates, just six years ago. Apparently, there were more than 3,000 entries from all corners of the globe.

One of their finest deserved far better.

KBG