A roundup of the season’s most enticing cigar and spirit releases.

BY INDUSTRY STAFF

Widow Jane Tequila Ocho Cask Finish Bourbon

We’ve long been fans of Widow Jane Distilling out of Red Hook, Brooklyn, one of the few proper distilleries in the city. Its latest release is an eye-catcher, the brand’s third partnership with Tequila Ocho, a craft distilling outfit in Jalisco, Mexico. Widow Jane Tequila Ocho Cask Finish Bourbon is a true fusion of two distilling traditions, taking a ten-year whisky and finishing it in tequila barrels. The result is a beguiling infusion of agave character into a whisky flavor profile, bringing out balanced sweetness, minerality, and brightness on the tail end of every sip. Finished for eight months in Tequila Ocho casks, this whisky is an exciting opportunity to taste the best of two worlds: the limestone-rich water of upstate New York with which Widow Jane is made, and the terroir of agave grown in the Arandas region. Whisky is always a journey – this one is a real globetrotter. $74.99, widowjane.com

Wheat & Greet

When a brand has been around as long as Maker’s Mark, change-ups come few and far between. This makes the second release of the brand’s game-changing Star Hill Farm Whisky a true event; Star Hill is Maker’s Mark’s first new mashbill and first wheat whisky in 70 years. A celebration of the legacy and necessity of regenerative agriculture, Star Hill Farm embraces ingredients sourced directly from these practices, making each sip a true taste of the land. Last year’s inaugural release was a playful riff on the traditional Maker’s Mark mashbill, spotlighting one of its key ingredients: soft red winter wheat. This year’s Star Hill Farm release shifts the focus to hard red and white wheat. If the first release was bright and straightforward, the grain diversity in the 2026 release leads to a darker, layered aromatic profile with a cinnamon finish. $100, makersmark.com

Tongue Twister 

Meet the Muestra de Saka Lengua de Suegra, one of the definitive head-turners on this year’s release calendar. The brainchild of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust head Steve Saka, Lengua de Suegra is the brand’s first-ever culebra vitola, the most unique-looking of cigars. Lengua de Suegra (translating to “mother-in-law’s tongue”) is one of three Connecticut broadleaf cigars that are rolled like normal, then twisted together while still moist, resulting in a bundle of cigars that retain their unique shape after unwrapping and smoke like any other. Lengua de Suegra is the latest in the brand’s Muestra de Saka line, a collection of unconventional blends and vitolas that launched in 2017 and tallies to less than ten releases to date. $60 per cigar, dunbartoncigars.com

Twin Flames 

Visol has long been a power player in the cigar accessory space, and this year’s new releases include a fleet of five new lighters, each carefully tooled for a specific purpose. The hands-down headliner is the all-new Visol Sierra, a dual torch flame lighter that includes a fascinating add-on: a pair of cigar scissors that unfold, multitool-style, out of the side of the lighter. While it’s not uncommon to see a lighter with a punch (and don’t worry, the Sierra has one of those, too), the inclusion of scissors is an exciting upgrade that gives a real Swiss Army feel for your next on-the-go cigar. Along similar lines, the new Visol Nile is a two-in-one lighter; up top, a jet flame lights cigars, while a soft flame on the side is perfect for pipe smokers. Both the Nile and Sierra offer that blend of utility and flexibility that make a cigar accessory really shine. These hit stores in April; expect to see them in your favorite shop this summer. $70 (Sierra), $30 (Nile), visolproducts.com

Quick on the Draw 

For the data-inclined smoker, a portable draw tester is a dream product, the chance to measure once and for all the resistance on a cigar’s draw without resorting to industrial-grade testing equipment. For those who demand perfection from their cigars, enter the Raching Portable Draw Analyzer, debuted last month at the TPE Trade Show in Las Vegas. For seasoned smokers, the draw of a cigar has long been sounded out in the smoking process; this draw analyzer allows for concrete measurements. A cut cigar is placed in the silicone mouthpiece, and the device then simulates the suction of the smoking process. The result is delivered in Pascals, a standard measure of pressure. Raching even provides a range of conclusions corresponding to those measurements, ranging from too loose to too tight to a perfect “Goldilocks zone.” $699, rachinghumidor.com