As for the cigar, I am pairing the Gavi Di Gavi wine with a Cuban Crafters’ Cubano Claro Julieta. The reviews of the Cubano Claro have all been fabulous, including a 4 cigar rating by the Stogie Guys, a well respected cigar review blog and 93 points by Smoke Magazine, the only magazine that I trust for ratings. One of the panelists who rated the cigar for Smoke Magazine even gave it an unheard of 95 while claiming it’s “A very elegant cigar that can be smoked any time of day. Smooth finish that I did not feel a need to wash away.” The first thing that you will notice with the Cubano cigar is the beautiful Desflorado wrapper. It comes from the Corona of the tobacco plant, the highest leaves in the tree. They tend to get more sun than the others and have more nicotine. Since the tobacco is shade-grown, the leaves will get reddish without the big protruding veins usually found in these types of leaves. Cubano Claro is handmade by Cuban Crafters Cigars and is packed in a vintage humidor style box. The cigar box comes with a humidifier and a humidor. I noticed that the hygrometer is made in Germany. It’s got to be old as I can’t recall seeing hygrometers made in Germany as the cost is presently too high. I would say that this box has at least 20 years on it. Supposedly it came from a large cigar maker that had them put away and never used. He traded the boxes for tobacco that he needed.

Back to the Gavi Di Gavi. It’s made to be served well chilled, so make sure that you drink it at the right temperature. The aromas are enticing and include peach and melon. It also has roasted nuts and raw almonds. At first the wine is fruity with light pineapple notes. The acidity is good, not too powerful. I can tell from the start that it will not affect the taste of the cigar. Citrus tends to impact your taste buds and will generally give any cigar a light bitter taste. In other words, stay away from citrus tasting wines when smoking. This wine is creamy, with berries and plums. Delightful for a Gavi Di Gavi. After a few sips, it’s time to light up the Cubano Claro cigar.

The burn is nice and the taste starts very smooth. From the start you taste the sweet spices. The medium bodied smoke has toasted nuts and cream. A perfect combination for the wine. I’m done with the first glass of wine and immediately pull the bottle out of the refrigerator to pour another. That first glass of wine went by too quickly. That’s usually a very good sign. The cigar is now transforming to deep complex tastes. It’s definitely getting stronger yet it’s still smooth. The transformation brings in coffee with cream, white chocolate and a butter like feeling on the tongue. The sweet spices are still around, with mild notes of nutmeg and a little cedar. All the tastes intermingle, making this a very enjoyable smoke that doesn’t get boring. The fruit and cream of the wine add to the experience.

The Cubano Claro’s taste intensifies past the half-way mark yet stays extremely smooth. It’s now full-bodied with more white chocolate than before. It’s just not as sweet as when I first started smoking it, yet still has sweet notes. The wine’s creamy fruit enhances the taste of the cigar, yet I can now sense a little lemon in the back. That concerns me, yet it hasn’t affected the cigar’s taste that much. I do sense a light dry ceder taste in the background that I had not sensed before. This could be the result of the wine, but the wine’s creamy and fruity taste overshadows it.

I’m down to the last quarter of the cigar. Definitely a full-bodied smoke by now. The coffee with cream, surrounded by layers of white chocolate, makes this a memorable moment. The wine’s creamy fruit tastes coats the tongue and adds to the pleasure. Definitely a good wine and cigar pair that I highly recommend. Both the wine and the cigar individually are a wonderful experience, but together add to each other. Do them together.

Rolf Binder Winery makes some of the best Australian wines. The Rolf Binder Hales 2003 is one of their serious Shiraz wines. I can’t think of better Shiraz than that coming from the Barossa Valley of Australia, and this one is an outstanding example. Rolf Binder Hales Shiraz has a powerful berry aroma out of the bottle. You can almost touch the fruit with your nose. You also smell the flowers and alcohol hiding behind the berries.

The cigar is lit and the wine glass is allowing the oxygen to penetrate the wine as I swirl it around. A little sip gets me ready for the wine’s flavors. As I smoke the cigar a few minutes pass and even though I know that I should let the wine air for a longer period of time, I can’t help it and start drinking. The rich blueberry taste comes through right from the start. It’s thick with sweet undertones of cream, blackberries and flowers. I can still taste touches of alcohol under the flavors but that’s probably my fault for not allowing the wine to air-out longer. It opens up as time goes by and the wine settles. Smokey flavors start to appear in the background, along with more pronounced flower notes.

The Shiraz is extremely smooth and the flavors keep building. You feel the wine getting thicker by the minute. It matches the J.L. Salazar Maduro Churchill I’m smoking as though they were made for each other. The rich smoke from the Salazar Maduro, combined with the interludes of Hales Shiraz, play with one another. They both have a floral background that allows one to flow to the other as though they came from the same terroir.

The cigar is past its halfway point and the wine coats its residue flavors as it flows past the tongue. I was somewhat concerned that the Shiraz wine may overpower the Maduro cigar, but that concern quickly vanishes. They were made for each other.

It’s almost an hour and by this time I’m sharing the red wine with Jose, another wine and cigar lover. My bragging about how the wine complements the cigar, and visa versa, leads him to light one up. His description of the pairing is very similar to mine. Validation is always good. It’s unanimous, this is one of the best cigar and wine match that we’ve ever had.

I kind of did the pairing a little different than I should have.  First I smoked a Cuban Crafters Cabinet Selection Robusto. A full body and extremely tasty cigar with rich earthy and floral tastes. About 2 hours later I opened and poured the wine. Drank a little just to get me ready, and then decided to have a herb-crusted filet mignon with a special rice combination that I like to call Bahamian rice.  If you have ever been to the Bahamas you will know what I am talking about. It’s rice with small red beans, a small amount of other beans, and what makes it special is a dash of Tabasco sauce. The Tabasco gives it a little kick. The Joullian wine was perfect for the meal, but I rationed it so that I can finish what was left with the cigar.

Cuban Crafters Cabinet Selection is a great cigar. While it’s full bodied, it’s so smooth that it does not overwhelm you. My problem with some full-body cigars is that as you smoke them they can overpower your taste buds to the point that you no longer enjoy it. This one, on the other hand, has so many complex tastes that you don’t want it to end. It’s one of my faves.

So I finish the meal, take a break, watch NUMBERS on TV and now it’s time for the cigar. As usual, the cigar lights nicely. I generally keep my cigars at around 60 to 65% humidity. Drier cigars burn better and taste better. It’s something that Rolando Reyes, a prominent cigar maker, taught me. The old man is amazing and he, along with Don Kiki, were the ones that got me into cigars.

The lighting has earthy tobacco taste with some floral and coffee tones. I also sense some leather and sweet notes. This cigar is made with Nicaraguan long-fillers from Esteli. Tobacco grown in Nicaragua’s Esteli tends to be earthy and sweet. That’s what made cigars from Nicaragua so popular. It is the fastest growing cigar exporting country, even in these economically challenging times.

The wine’s powerful red berry taste and peppery notes at first make the cigar taste milder than it really is. It also gives the cigar a sweeter taste than the first Cuban Crafters Robusto cigar I had today. About a quarter of the cigar is gone and now the flavors are starting to kick in. Chocolate and coffee are kicking in. I am starting to sense some tobacco taste in the wine. I’m pretty sure that it’s the wine itself and not the cigar fooling my taste buds. The cigar is now getting richer with more profound floral and chocolate notes. It plays perfectly with the peppery vanilla-cherry bold taste of the wine.  Both are now in perfect harmony. This is what you call the best part of the cigar, and the wine. Why couldn’t it be like this from the beginning? I guess if it did then you wouldn’t have a “best” part.

This is the worst part, the cigar is down to the nub and the experience is about to finish. It is one of those cigars that you want to chew at the end to get the last bit of flavor. You just don’t want it to finish. I still have a little wine left in the glass and it now has a little more pepper than it did before. This might be as a result of the cigar, or of allowing the wine to sit and oxygenate. All in all it’s a bold experience that’s not recommended for the faint at heart. This powerful wine was wonderful with the Cuban Crafters Robusto but might be better with a rougher tasting maduro broadleaf cigar. I’ll have to give it as shot and will report back.

So there we are, staring at the decanter and waiting for the half-hour to pass us by. It gave us an opportunity to discuss the cigar that would match a wine of this caliber. It came down to two, the Padron 1964 Anniversary  Diplomatico (7 inches long with a ring gauge of 50) and the J.L. SALAZAR y HERMANOS Reserva Especial Churchill (7 1/4 inches long with a ring gauge of 52). Both are handmade with habano tobacco from Nicaragua, are box-pressed and have received very good reviews.

We lit up the cigars and cut a deal that I get the first half of the J.L. Salazar y Hermanos and he gets the first half of the Padron 1964 Anniversary cigar. I believe that the cigar scissor was invented for just that purpose. To cut the top part of the cigar that has saliva after someone else smoked it when passing a cigar from one smoker to another. Sure you lose a good half-an-inch from the cigar, but it allows you to smoke a cigar that was half-smoked. Remember that the purpose is to match wines with cigars.

Both the Padron and the J.L. Salazar started with a mouth full of rich smoke, the Padron 1964 Anniversary was a little milder while the J.L. Salazar was more full-bodied. The taste of both cigars was somewhat comparable, the J.L. Salazar having more of a floral touch and the Padron having more cream. Both smoked well and evenly. About one-quarter inch down, the iPhone alarm went off. It’s time for wine!

Consejo De La Alta Cata De Consejero 2001 has received rave reviews. Wine Enthusiast Magazine awarded 91 points to this Rioja wine. Wine Spectator gave it 89 points, with a stellar review. But the true test is what we think (because we are drinking it) and how it pairs with our cigars.

Swirling it around the glass, you can see the wine does not have the tension that it had when we first poured it into the decanter. The aromas have also loosed up a bit. They are still intense but now show more elegance. At first taste, it has smooth blackberries, a little blueberry, sweet plums, light touches of fig and an earthy background that is hard to identify. It felt firm and silky, completely complementing the cigars. I started to detect sweet cured tobacco and coffee in this complex wine. The Rioja wine continued to get smoother, meaning that we obviously did not let it air enough. Good thing that we waited and drank slowly. After a few more minutes, we refilled our glasses. 

Glass two and we were both eager to exchange cigars in order to compare our notes, but we weren’t half-way through. The wine started showing some toasty notes that blended wonderfully with the cigars. The floral notes of the JL Salazar y Hermanos accented the dark berries in the wine. The Padron 1964 Anniversary, on the other hand, started showing mouth-covering cream that went well with the wine’s coffee notes. It was clear that the characteristics of this special red wine meshed well with those of the cigars.

Finally switching time came. I generally enjoy the last half of the cigar more than the first half, but only if it is a truly good cigar. If the tobacco was not properly fermented and cured, then the opposite applies. In this case, there was nothing to worry about and I eagerly waited for the trade. I started smoking the Padron and my buddy the J.L. Salazar. We compared notes and while the Padron was creamy with light sweet notes, the J.L. Salazar had opened up a little more to reveal chocolate notes. The Padron was medium-bodied at this point, as compared to the full-bodied J.L. Salazar. Maybe it was the extra quarter inch of the JL Salazar over the Padron. There was something in the Padron that I picked up but could not identify. It was a blend of cocoa, coffee and cream that made it hard to put the cigar down. The Salazar had also developed a sweet chocolate, flower and earthy taste that also grabbed you. The Cata De Consejero’s smooth and intense taste added to the enjoyment.

We were almost out of wine and the cigars were reaching the nub. The extra quarter inch of the Salazar was important now. The Padron’s taste did not intensify during the last two inches, while the Salazar’s taste did. Both were delicious and kept us smoking them until we can no longer hold them. Comparing notes, we decided that both cigars had many similar characteristics. Among the differences, the Padron had a creaminess that was missing in the Salazar. On the other hand the Padron was lacking the Salazar’s floral and chocolaty taste that intensified as the cigar got smaller.

We finally drank the last of the wine and both agreed that we could not have had a better combination. Absolutely beautifully. It’s too bad that so few bottles of this Rioja wine were produced. If I knew the wine’s match with the cigars would be so wonderful, I would have saved it for a special occasion.

I opened the refrigerator and pulled out the chilled bottle. I setup the wine glasses and asked a friend to join me. We talked about the cigar that would best go with this wine. After rummaging through 4 humidors, we decided that the taste of a Don Kiki Brown Label cigar would probably complement this exquisite wine. Don Kiki Brown Label is one of the best medium to full bodied cigars out there. The fact that they only cost about $2 each is an extra perk. You just can’t find a cigar this good at this price. My friend had a chance to see my previous post on the Opus Opus match and made it clear that I should have never paired the Opus X with the Opus One. Where was he yesterday?

We both lit the Don Kiki Brown Labels and started puffing them. He smoked a Churchill and I smoked a Toro. Rich clouds of smoke quickly covered the room. The smell of Nicaraguan tobacco, with its characteristic floral notes, blanketed the room. No one complained. As we started drinking the wine, the cigar’s tobacco taste started to develop. It went from earthy to licorice and cocoa. The Toro smoked beautifully and his Churchill started to burn a little too fast on the left side (his left). We quickly noticed that he had turned on the air purifier when I initially told him that we were smoking cigars, and the clean air from the purifier was hitting him on his left side. Fixing the burn issue of his Churchill was easy. We turned off the purifier and the cigar started to even out. We expedited the fix-up with a torch lighter.

The Opus One wine tasted a little different than it did yesterday. Some acidity was noticeable but not much. My buddy couldn’t sense it, but since I had drank it yesterday I was able to compare the wine’s taste from one day to another. The blackberry and smoky tobacco taste of the wine was still there, and went perfectly with the cigar. The cigar’s taste had developed into a complex combination of cocoa cream and toasted nuts. This paired well with the wine’s lush mouth-feel and deep dark berries taste. What a great combination.

As my Toro got shorter, the flavor intensified and was so smooth that I decided to put it down to saver the moment. Figuring that since my cigar is shorter than his Churchill, I needed to pace myself. We compared notes and his Churchill had a mild spice taste that I just couldn’t pick up in my Toro. It could be that since I tend to chew the cigar’s head a little and he doesn’t, I was picking up the stronger flavors that were being condensed as a result of my cigar’s wet head.

Savoring the wine, I proceeded to empty the bottle evenly between us. He gave me crap about his cigar being longer and therefore he deserved more of the wine. Since I had put my cigar down for a while, I showed him that we were down to about the same size. That’s a normal exchange between us. We tend to outwit each other to see who wins. It was my wine and my cigars so I won.

A Brown Label’s finish is a bittersweet moment. The taste intensifies and gets smoother, but on the other hand you know that the experience is about to end. Having finished the cigars, we drank what was left of the wine and both agreed that it was a very good match. We also decided that while this cigar and wine match was excellent, it may have been better with a cigar that has a creamier taste profile. We agreed to meet next week and see if this match can be outdone.

The cigar is wrapped in a cedar sleeve and has a red velvet cover at the bottom. It looks elegant, but at the price that they charge for them I want more than looks.  It is a very well made cigar and you can tell that the typical Cuban hand making process was used. The cigar was constructed using dry tobacco leaves and each one folded like an accordion. They call this style of rolling “abanico” and it is used in Cuba to make the higher priced cigars. It takes longer to make the cigar using this method, and obviously costs more. 

I lit the cigar and exhaled my first pure puff of smoke. The smoke was plentiful and had a heavy body. A good sign so far. The taste was floral with some notes of toasted nuts. It was smooth so the beginning went well with the Opus One. I kept drinking the lush wine that coated my mouth with delicious tastes of plum, blackberry and smokey tobacco. It was thick and overshadowed the cigar’s taste. The thick berry taste and a creamy mouth-feel of this wine just overwhelmed the mouth to the point that the cigar was just an afterthought.

I noticed that the cigar started burning unevenly so I put it down with the faster burning side facing down in an effort to have the burn problem correct itself. This usually works but after a few minutes it did not fully correct the burn, so I used my torch lighter to even out the burn. This had to be repeated a few times leading me to believe that the cigar’s wrapper or binder was not properly cured. The taste continued pretty much the same until I hit the half way mark. While the cigar’s taste turned a little more to the cream side, I noticed that some mild spices and peppery notes started showing up. They continued and by this point enhanced the wine’s taste a little.

I continued to indulge in the Opus One wine, a sip at a time. It’s an interesting wine that is made up of various different types of grapes. While it’s at least 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, it also has Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot grapes. The blending of these grapes was clearly the work of a highly skilled winemaker. I will not tell you the vintage year of the wine because you’ll call me a hog for drinking it by myself. The smoothness of Opus One is unmatched by any other California red wine. Sure the price is steep, but heck the stock market is up today.

All in all the wine was spectacular and the cigar was good for a medium-bodied smoke. In my opinion a full bodied cigar with a creamy cocoa taste, like a Padron Aniversario or a J.L. Salazar y Hermanos would have been a better choice, as this cigar felt like it was lacking the complexity that this wine requires. The cigar just wasn’t what it’s been built up to be. I’m not saying it wasn’t good, it just lacked something that I can’t put my finger on. On the other hand, this wine is everything and more than you expect.

The first half was very good and extremely smooth.  Rich in chocolate notes and earthy tones with a naturally sweet tobacco taste. The second half was incredible and highlighted the chocolate but with an extremely smooth leathery tobacco taste surrounded by cream. I just couldn’t put it down, except to drink the Crianza wine that had by now properly aired its 6 years of aging.

Now I know why the Don Kiki Brown Label got a 9.4 rating by Smoke Magazines’ tasting panel. I’m not sure if the Crianza was the perfect wine for this medium to full bodied cigar. A Merlot may have been better as it felt that I was missing those berry tones that Merlot wines have. It would have complemented the Brown Label better, but that could just be in my mind. Next time I smoke a Don Kiki Brown Toro, I’ll try it with a nice Merlot and report back. Hopefully it’ll be a celebration cause the stock market bounced back and the economy is back on track.