If there is one thing I enjoy doing when trying something new, whether it being food, drink or cigar, it is trying to pick out flavours with my palate. This is why I rarely read the back of the bottle, or read reviews beforehand. I always try to get the most unbiased opinion that I can. In fact, I pride myself on it. It was the same experience I had with Signal Hill Whisky. I was at the Whisky Hunter HQ, when Chris highly recommended that I pick up a bottle. He assured me it was a great tasting whisky at a great price, and with that I was sold. With the hobbies I enjoy, watches, scotches and cigars, finding a high quality product at a great price is something I'm always looking for.

Opening the bottle and pouring your first glass of something new is always exciting. I slowly brought the glass to my nose, took a deep breath in and followed it with a few shorter ones. Moving past the alcohol fumes, I got an intoxicating smell of faint firewood like a campfire smell after a rainfall. I knew then that the flavours of the drink wouldn't be too strong for my liking. I usually like to have a cigar with my drinks, so having an overpowering smell and taste of smoke can ruin the experience for me. But enough of the smell I'm ready to try it!

I like to have my drinks on the rocks. I find adding ice helps me break down the drink, and pick out each unique component that makes the drink what it is. On the first sip, I immediately detected a sweetness almost like caramel, but then the vanilla made its move. As I continued to drink, I picked up some sweeter notes of fruit and honey with a persistent vanilla throughout the whole drink. Even if you are not trying to pick out the different notes, the taste as a whole comes together in a nice package. I can quickly see how this will be one of my go to whiskies going forward.

As I continued to sip on the beautiful Signal Hill whisky glass, I started thinking what cigar I would pair this with. I don't want a cigar to compete with the rich flavours of this whisky, but rather complement it. So I went through a mental list of some cigars that I thought would work well. I thought of the Hoyo de Monterrey, as it is a nice light mild cigar that would not overpower the flavours of the drink. But I decided to keep going through the list. Although the Hoyo would work quite well I decided on one of my new favorite cigars, the San Cristóbal de La Habana. This pairing suggestion makes sense, as I think the citrus notes from the cigar would add a little zing to the flavours to the whisky. While the saltiness from the cigar would enhance the flavours of the whisky. Lastly, the sweetness of the honey from both the cigar and the whisky would play very nice with each other.

As I finished the drink, I turned the bottle over to see how accurate my palate was. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was able to pick up all of the flavours that Signal Hill wanted us to find, though it seems that caramel wasn't listed on the back. In the end, I encourage everyone to go out and pick up a bottle of Signal Hill. It's affordable, smooth and provides great flavour. Signal Hill, you now have a spot on the top shelf of my bar!