A thought

[MReschke0626]

What a great thread. Another one right up my alley as a sommelier passionate about his wine and cigars.

As referenced earlier, TONS of similarities. And the ones above are spot on. So many factors that can affect a blend, just like a wine. This is also why, just as a producer might fiddle with the blend a little bit year to year to maintain a consistency, too, wine producers might blend in a little Cab into lighter reds to beef them up, Viognier gets added to red wines to soften them, etc etc. All sorts of tricks to trade of continually putting out a good quality product in both markets.

Additionally, and one of my favorites, is how age and "smoking/drinking windows" mirror too. Full-bodied sticks mellow nice and rich with age just like a full-bodied wine requires time in the bottle for the tannins and alcohol to tone down into a beautiful, velvety display of flavors. It's very cool to try things of different ages even if they are the same wine/stick and see really what's smoking/drinking great right now. Even more fun, albeit fairly dorky on my behalf, I've bought bottles of wine to pair with cigars knowing and planning that they'll both hit their peak of their potential and pair EXCELLENTLY together at the same time. Planning pairs out months and years in advance. Takes a little extra homework, but absolutely worth it when you have that glass of wine and that cigar that has been aging in your collection for the last 3yrs together and the only reaction you can muster is to smile and say, "Oh my God, this is incredible."

 

[DrinkSmokeGolf]

One thing to consider is I think a lot of tobacco is likely grown in a controlled greenhouse environment. These producers would obviously see less variation from year to year. I would be very interested to know which producers utilize greenhouses and to what extent.

 

[r3db4r0n]

Coming from a horticulture background I understand some of the complexity involved in concerns to growing tobacco and how it relates to the wine world, but unfortunately there are quite a number of pieces missing from the picture, that said I look forward to how this thread develops.

 

[weskimad]

One thing to consider is I think a lot of tobacco is likely grown in a controlled greenhouse environment. These producers would obviously see less variation from year to year. I would be very interested to know which producers utilize greenhouses and to what extent.

I could be way off here, but the biggest control I am aware of are the fields covered in fabric to create shade grown wrapper. I don't think the $$$ generated would support this type of infrastructure, and the established growing areas are already suited for tobacco. Also keep in mind that greenhouses would just blow away in hurricanes ever few years anyway.

If any area utilized greenhouses on a large scale, I'd bet Connecticut would be the most likely.

 

[aroma]

I remember seeing a video of an interview with Jose Blanco, then with La Aurora, who said his company maintains a large inventory of diverse tobaccos, so that they can continually tweak blends to achieve consistent flavor from year to year.

One more similar product that hasn't yet been mentioned is coffee. In the coffee world, there are "single origin" coffees and blends. Some roasters emphasize the uniqueness / diversity / quirky-ness of their coffee and some shoot for consistency by continually tweaking blends to maintain a specific flavor profile, in spite of continual variations in the raw material.

People differ in their preferences. For my part, I prefer consistency, both in cigars and coffee. Once I identify something I like, I like being able to repeat the experience over and over again.

 

[Mr.Erskine]

I am a fan of variety, which is why I generally buy samplers, (also, if I bought a box, my wife would kill me because of the expense.) We have started on the slippery slope of wine; however, but we are slowly venturing into the red wine area.