Rolling beside the Woodford Reserve team in Ohio

In May 2024 Woodford Reserve invited him to Ohio to work alongside its team for a night. It was not the first time. In June 2023 he had posted his next stop — “Service Requested by Woodford Reserve Co. for a Live Cigars Rolling Demonstration” — and he closed this one with “See you in Ohio Again!”

The evening ran on a stone patio between white clapboard buildings. The bar was laid out with Woodford bottles and rows of copper cups bearing the name, and guests sat around a fire table in the evening light.

His table stood at the edge of the patio: the round board, molds of finished cigars, the press, a red cloth and a basket, with an open Arturo Fuente box at one end. He rolled sitting down, with guests standing over his shoulder to watch. For a spirits brand that is the point of the table: while the glass is poured, there is something being made by hand a few feet away.