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.

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.

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.