Today, I am pairing this cigar up with a couple of white wines. One is a sparkling wine from Harrow, Ontario, Canada. It is from Colio Estate Vineyards and the sparkling wine is named Lily. I have had this sparkling wine several times so, on my last trip to the winery, I picked up a couple of bottles.This brings me to how I selected this bottle today. I opened the refrigerator to get the bottle of Riesling out and I see that I had an un-corked bottle of Lily sitting there and it looked like the
stopper was ready to get pushed out. Now, this bottle was opened two weeks ago and it still had half of a bottle left to it. Of course at first I was disappointed that I wasted this sparkling wine. I pulled the lever on the stopper and a loud “pop” announced that it still had effervescence left in the tank. The ‘pop’ was so loud the dogs all ran for cover! I then had to taste it to see if it was any good. It was like I just uncorked a fresh bottle. I love these new stoppers that I bought this past winter. They have worked great, yes great, not good, GREAT. They have saved a bottle of red that I forgot about , I usually won’t drink it pass one day, but on day two it was still good. The stopper saved a couple of beers that were in 750 ml bottles that got left in the fridge and a few days later – still good – just like I uncapped the bottle right then. Now, I can throw away all the other corking devices that I have bought over the years that tried to save or prolong the life of a wine or beer. Let’s move.The Cigar
Indian Tabac Classic Chief Corojo Double Corona
Wrapper: Habana Corojo
Filler: Nicaraguan, Honduran
Size: 7-1/2 x 52
My Strength Rating: 4.5/5
I have always enjoyed this cigar from Rocky Patel. It is a nice medium body smoke all the way down to the nub. The cigar always burns well for me and holds a strong ash. The profile of the cigar never builds to any strong or bitter notes when I smoke it to the end. The smoking experience is pretty straight forward. There is a solid earthy quality with some nice spice and light woody notes. I like the little tingle that the Corojo adds to the mouthfeel.
The Sparkling Wine
I have always enjoyed the Colio Lily Sparkling Wine. It has a nice fresh fruit taste with those
wonderful bubbles. The effervescence just explodes when it hits my palate. Paired up with the Chief Cigar; this pairing works very well together. The strength rating of the cigar is not too strong to take away from the fresh fruits of the wine. The earthy and spice profile of the cigar has a smooth yet tongue tingling mouthfeel and when combined with the sparkling wine the bubbles just add to that pleasant tingling sensation. The light, crisp, refreshing effervescence just refreshes the palate making an enjoyable pairing.The Wine
The Riesling is from Chateau Ste. Michelle 2008 Columbia Valley. This pairing I was a little
concerned about. I thought that the body of the cigar would be a bit too much for this white wine. The bottle says, “…peach, ripe apricot and citrus flavors.” To me the fruit flavors are very crisp and the citrus profile is very light and more on the back of my palate. Of course it has the usual petrol taste that comes with a Riesling.Paired up with the Chief Cigar; I am surprised, it works quit well. I still get the wonderful fruity notes on the front of the taste. The petrol mouthfeel is really more of an undertone during this pairing. The earthy and spice notes of the cigar must neutralize this note. But, then I just tasted the wine first and that petrol note is right there and I feel it moving through the sinuses. Okay, wine first again and yes the petrol notes are still there. Let’s see; cigar first this time … and again … yes the fruit notes are more pronounced during this exchange and the petrol note is minimized. This is a good pairing but, I would like to smoke a milder cigar (maybe with a little floral note) to see if that would maximize my experience with this Riesling.
Who said, ‘You can’t smoke a cigar with a white wine.”
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