Cigar & drink pairings that just aren't ideal...

[El Presidente]

Just now, mikelikescigars said:

Love the idea of german riesling for a bit of sweetness 

Was enjoying a beautiful Gewurztraminer and a cigar Saturday. Stunning match. Side plate of aged cheddar went perfectly as well. 

[gustavehenne]

1 minute ago, El Presidente said:

Was enjoying a beautiful Gewurztraminer and a cigar Saturday. Stunning match. Side plate of aged cheddar went perfectly as well. 

Domaine Weinbach does some of the best Gewürztraminer I've had (especially the SGN stuff) although I find it so aromatic so I've not tried it with a cigar yet. Thanks for the tip

 

4 minutes ago, mikelikescigars said:

Love the idea of german riesling for a bit of sweetness and that acidic lift and agree on Moulin-a-Vent on beaujolais as that's a slighter stronger style that can hold up to the cigar!

I've only tried a Kabinett and Spatlese (from Ziliken, Von Schubert & JJ Prum) and not yet an Auslese or anything above... It was heaven. Thoroughly recommended.

[mikelikescigars]

19 minutes ago, stevenhaugen said:

Domaine Weinbach does some of the best Gewürztraminer I've had (especially the SGN stuff) although I find it so aromatic so I've not tried it with a cigar yet. Thanks for the tip

 

I've only tried a Kabinett and Spatlese (from Ziliken, Von Schubert & JJ Prum) and not yet an Auslese or anything above... It was heaven. Thoroughly recommended.

Same I've gone up to Kabinett and Spatlese, but the richness of the Auslese might need a fairly heavy cigar to hold up to it. Though maybe an aged Auslese 30+ years on it might have mellowed out enough!

[dobbs]

i don't mind bitter cocktails (like a negroni) with most cigars, but any type of beer is awful. wines have to be either sparkling white or sweet (port, sherry), otherwise they're a no as well. i don't prefer straight whiskey or rum, but they work alright.

tea, coffee, soda, all good.

-dobbs

[La_Tigre]

12 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

a basic beaujolais if you have to. something made from carbonic maceration perhaps. possibly a sparkling shoraz - bit limited to Australia, though. the softest, easiest-drinking red you can find. 

Thank you Ken. We will have to give the sparkling a go. Any particular you would recommend?

We’ve been trying to enjoy Cab, Malbec, etc… but that hasn’t gone well for sure (except a SP Molino with a Rioja…but that may have just been a damn stellar Molino in Spain.

 

13 hours ago, mikelikescigars said:

Generally not into wine with cigars, though if I was would go with richer juicier styles like cigaraholic mentioned Zinfandel or a ripe california PN. Think Beaujolais would go well though think the Beaujolais itself would get lost, though the cigar would still show well.

One of us enjoys wine way more than the other and both know mostly zilch about the varieties. Road tripping across the regions of Spain this Summer was quite interesting. Trying to develop a taste for a daily glass of red… 😉 

 

As to the original topic:

We just had a RG Panetela RSE MAR 01 with Santero 11. The cigar was strong: earth, mushroom, meat. Santero 11 is as smooth as can be. We actually prefer it over everyone’s fav 11. The pairing was god awful.

Mouth coating of rotten fat (brought back memories of getting fat trimmings for the hounds at the local butcher and opening a package that had turnt)…and all the astringent bitterness of biting into an unripe banana peel. This stayed true throughout 3 or 4 attempts over the hour cleansed by a mineral water dousing for many minutes.

The two separated were perfectly ok . The cigar was quite interesting prior to the pairing; unlike others we’ve had.

Gack.

[Cigar Surgeon]

Ginger ale and any cigar is one to be avoided. Back when I was doing Sharing Our Pairings with my co-host Rob Rasmussen, he did ginger ale and immediately regretted it.

[dominattorney]

I enjoy a certain type of beer with a certain type of cigar. Generally a barrel aged oatmeal stout or a bourbon barrel aged stout. Unflavored by any extraneous nonsense, of course. Thr sweet spot is around 14 percent ABV, though anything over 10 percent is passable. These types of beers are just perfect with a montecristo or bolivar. Some partagas also, specifically the Salomon. 

[99call]

21 hours ago, stevenhaugen said:

the best Gewürztraminer I've had

crazy to think, this wine was a open joke a recent as 2000 in the UK

[Joeyjojo]

Although Rum and cigars are a go-to pairing, I did have a Foursquare barrel strength rum that just blew away any cigar flavours.

I guess it's not just flavour matching/contrasting to think about but also body, mouthfeel and strength to consider in a grade A pairing. 

For a beer pairing I (although definitely biased) feel a real ale is better than a lighter beer. Although a lighter beer seems to work well with lighter pipe tobacco (Virginia/VaPers etc)    

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, 99call said:

crazy to think, this wine was a open joke a recent as 2000 in the UK

that is a really interesting perspective. 

gewurz was reasonably big here 30-40 years ago but usually as a blend with riesling. has faded very much since but some good examples. 

long time since i lived in the UK - mid 80s - but when i was there, gewurz was much more highly regarded there than here. in those days, if you went to a restaurant and were not 100% certain then you ordered Alsace. riesling, gewurz, even gris or blanc. and especially if you went Asian, you went gewurz. i think Alsace stuffed itself because once you knew exactly what you were getting - almost certainly a good dry white, unless you deliberately went for the SGN or whatever. then some of the stars allowed some of their wines to come in at much higher levels of sweetness and people got confused. i can imagine that diminishing the rep. 

[99call]

2 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

much higher levels of sweetness and people got confused. i can imagine that diminishing the rep. 

yeah, this is what I was getting at.   I'm not really coming at it from an angle of people who knew what they were doing (i.e. those enjoying).  rather the supermarket face of Gewürztraminer in the 2000s which was basically a syrupy mess.