Para Ti and VIEUX-OS 2007 Old Vine Zinfandel
Today I’m bringing you a cigar and wine paring that I’ve had in the queue for a while. For personal reasons I wanted the ideal weather conditions to be able to truly relax an enjoy the experience. Well, this past Saturday proved to be just the day I was looking for.
The Cigar
The Para Ti is rolled at the Para Ti Factory in the Dominican Republic. This cigar is blended by Fred Schrader, proprietor or Schrader Cellars, and is distributed by Havana Cellars. This Dominican cigar hit the market during the 2010 IPCPR Trade Show. Pete Johnson did not have a hand in the blending or manufacturing of this cigar, but enjoyed it enough that he offered to become the distributor.
Name: Para Ti
Wrapper: Dominican
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican
Comes in: Box of 20
Price: $6.75/stick
Vitola: Perlas (5 x 40)
The Wine
Now I won’t act like I know anything about wine except that I enjoy it and it has been responsible for the worst hangover of my life. So any information I provide here would probably not be worded correctly. For this reason I’ll direct you to the VIEUX-OS Zinfandel section of the Schrader Cellars website.
The Pairing
The combination of the cigar and wine made for a wonderful experience. I’ve smoked many of these cigars over the last 8-9 months and this was by far the most enjoyable. Prior to sitting down to this paring I found the Para Ti to be a nice medium-bodied cigar with good flavor and little complexity. However, adding the 2007 Old Vine Zinfandel to the mix seemed to heighten the entire experience. The cigar starts with mild hints of spice (most noticeable through the nose), notes of earth and sweet hay. At the halfway point a nutty quality began to show itself which added a nice contrast to the sweetness of both the cigar and wine. Watch the video to find out how else I described this pairing.
Final Thoughts
The Para Ti definitely gets my recommendation. This is a cigar that I think anyone could find enjoyable. Although it paired beautifully with the wine, I would actually see myself smoking this more with a cup of coffee in the morning. I don’t think the cigar would pair better with coffee, but I think that I would enjoy the Para Ti most earlier in the day before a large meal.
All that aside I think this review really opened up my eyes to how well cigars and wine can pair up. With the exception of Port I can’t remember pairing a cigar with any other alcoholic beverage besides beer, scotch, bourbon or rum. I think in the future I’ll be doing more of these cigar & wine pairings.
So all this discussion on pairings begs the question; what beverage do you traditionally pair your cigars with? Also, is there a wine and cigar pairing that you would suggest I try? Looking forward to reading your comments.
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Great idea for a review. I drink lots of wine, but haven’t gotten around to pairing it with a cigar. I will try it. For me, Scotch is a natural pairing with cigars, the problem is that you can only sip it occasionally because of the alcohol content.