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.

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.

Interestingly enough, as I did the setup, I had an opportunity to smoke a Don Pepin Garcia My Father cigar. Mild to medium with a smooth smoke. After an inch down, it did not build up but had a nice cocoa and earthy cream taste that grabbed you. About half way down the creamy and smooth flavors started to develop into a richer smoke. Smoked it with a beer from Lithuania called Gedimino. This Pale Lager is about 4.7% alcohol.

While not a wine, it’s what I drank so here’s some info about Gedimino beer. It’s got a golden yellow color and when served in a chilled tall glass it has a decent white head that stuck to the rim.  It smelled slightly fruity with malt scents that hit the nose. A mild beer with a refreshing taste that was partly sweet with laces of corn malts. Definitely a mellow beer that complemented the Don Pepin Garcia My Father Toro. Now mind you that the beer’s bottle is larger than normal as it is based on European standards so it is 1/2 a liter, about 16.9 ounces. It’s enough to last throughout the cigar smoking session.

The Don Pepin was very good and delightful towards the three quarters mark. Since I tend to chew the head of the cigar while I smoke (I like the juices), I was able to get additional flavors that get trapped in the moist head. The cigar is very good and has a taste that lingers for a few hours. The cream definitely stays with you, even after drinking the last of the beer in my glass. I did not want the cigar to end but then I did not want the beer to end either. Both complemented each other and the smoothness and light crisp notes of the beer made the experience extremely enjoyable.

My recommendation is that if you smoke a Don Pepin My Father cigar, that you do it with a beer that complements the creams, such as the Gedimino or Sam Smith’s Pale Ale from the UK. I don’t think that it would go well with a white wine as any sign of citrus would have ruined this wonderful experience.