Pairing Wine And Pipe Tobaccos

By Christina de Barros

With the help of Rich Vavra, who has an immense knowledge of tobaccos and especially our tobaccos. Benningtons custom made blends. It is a well-known fact that most cigar and pipe smokers enjoy a smoke with some form of beverage. The most common are beer, spirits, and coffee. It seems though, that cigar and pipe enthusiasts do not think of wine as a possible pairing. I have often asked myself why? I, for one, love wine; and these two pleasures in life definitely go together. I must confess that I have been pairing wines with cigars for almost 20 years now. Thanks to Craig Colton, who used to the manager for Chauncey’s at the Boca Resort here in Boca Raton. I already loved wines… 7 years living in France did the trick…lol

As with any sort of pairing, taste is very subjective and I will not claim to be an authority on wines, cigars or Pipe tobacco. On the other hand I will tell you what has worked and what can work. With pipe tobacco and cigars.

As with cigars or pipe tobacco, it is always good to keep a journal of sorts. What foods, drinks or even temperature did you have "such and such cigar or bowl full of your favorite tobacco"? You will want to know how the drink affected the flavor of the smoke, and conversely, how the smoke affected the flavors of the drink. And if it’s a successful pairing. Most important don’t rush it and don’t take it personally if the pairing doesn’t work.

Normally, table wine tends to run between 3.3 and 3.7 in pH due to the presence of malic and tartaric acids. Remember that a pH of 7 and below is acidic while a value above 7 is basic. Also, cool climate grapes have high acid and low sugar while warmer climates tend to favor low acid and high sugar.

With tobacco, the acidity is measured by the sourness or tartness of the smoke. In order to understand this better, it is necessary to understand the components of tobacco (scientific name = Nicotiana tabacum L). There are five essential components to a tobacco leaf: phenols, sugars, nitrogen, alkaloids, and chlorophyll.

Phenols are considered organic weak acids; however, they are so weak, that their acidity can

be virtually ignored. Sugars are neutral compounds. The nitrogen in leaves is present in many forms. Alkaloids are probably the components that make cigars and pipe tobaccos more alkaline (or acidic). Although it sounds like a horrible component, most of us enjoy an alkaloid every morning when we drink coffee, as caffeine is an alkaloid. The alkaloid that we are mostly familiar with in tobacco is nicotine. The chemical reaction to produce nicotine in tobacco plants is catalyzed by the sun. This would explain why sun-grown leaves have a higher percentage of nicotine than shade grown leaves. The process of fermentation, which releases ammonia, (NH3) may be another contributor to the alkalinity of a tobacco.

So, to bring this back to how the flavor a cigar or pipe tobacco and wine may affect each other, your mouth becomes a sort of a buffer where an acidic beverage comes together with a basic smoke, and depending on the changes in pH, it may either be pleasant or an unpleasant pairing, its personal.

Whites

White wines are not very forgiving as far as finding a successful pairing. This does not mean that there are no white wines that can be paired with cigar or tobaccos; it just means that the types of wines that I had chosen were not the right ones for my palate.

White wines like Chardonnay tend to have a citrusy taste and fairly high acidity. A 2007 Borghese Chardonnay (around $10.00) paired well with a mild Cavendish, our #28 Royal Dutch is a perfect match! Each did not overpower the other, and the experience was very enjoyable. Hints of vanilla were detected in the wine, which really complemented the cigar and the pipe tobacco.

Another good pairing for a cigar with a white wine was one that I had back when I started this pairing project: a Davidoff Grand Cru No. 2 and our #29 Roanoke, this tobacco is a 100% Virginia blend, added to flue-cured tobaccos from the US, Tanzania, Brazil, Italy, Mozambique and Canada

Reds

My original thought on reds was that if I accept the premise of “like with like,” a more tannic grape (Merlot) would pair best with a Maduro or an Oscuro cigar. I tried several Merlots, and this theory, so far has not worked. It seems that, in this case the wine overpowers the cigar. With merlots, one tends to identify a very tannic taste with hints of berries, tobacco, and vanilla. In theory, this would seem like a perfect pairing, but so far, it is far from it.

Another red that would seem to offer an opportunity for a nice pair with a wine would be a Cabernet Sauvignon. A “Cab”, the king of red wines, is aged longer and its flavors tend to be mellower.

Penfolds winery in Australia produces some of the world’s most delicious wines. The Koonunga Hill (around $12.00) with it’s Shiraz-Cabernet blend offers a great balance of berries, chocolate, and spices; these are traditional flavors that resemble the flavor profile of a Maduro cigar or a Burley blend for pipe smokers. For the Maduro I chose the Ashton Maduro Churchill size. For the Pipe tobacco: our #24 Baffra, a Kentucky White Burley gently hand-blended with a Georgian cube cut Burley; laced with Cypress Latakia and St. James Perique. Finished off with a 100% pure Old Belt Virginia.

Fortified Wines

A fortified wine is a wine that is "fortified" with additional alcohol that's been added to the base wine during fermentation, bringing the average alcohol content up around 17-20%. Fortified wines can be made in either dry or sweet styles (with the middle-ground of medium-sweet or medium-dry covered in virtually all types of fortified wine categories). The most common types of fortified wines are Port, Sherry, Marsala and Madeira

Sherry wines are gaining new ground in the wine world, and it is well deserved to say the least. Sherry has a long history of serving the likes of Christopher Columbus to Shakespeare. For our #60 Richmond slices (bright matured Virginias pressed and sliced in the British European tradition, the Sherry blend matches well with its spicy character. For the cigar, the Avo Xo line would be a perfect choice

Port

Originally, Port wine came from the town of Porto, in Portugal. A sweet, thick, dark libation made of very tawny grapes. With a high percentage of alcohol. A Camacho corojo for the cigar and our #28 Royal Dutch, the Cavendish blend are both perfect choices for this amazing wine.

I hope this article has been able to help some, start something. Don’t be afraid of trying and experimenting. Each person’s palate is different. You may be surprised at what you find suitable for yours. Enjoy!