Pairing Cigars with Penfolds Club Tawny Port

Saturday, January 21 2012

With the Saints now heartbreakingly out of the playoffs, The Rev, like all New Orleanians, is turning his attention to the great mind eraser known as Carnival Time. The Mardi Gras Season, probably New Orleans' most famous celebration, is technically the time between the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, culminating in Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday"), where we all prepare for the Lenten Season of abstinence and penance by sinfully partying like rock stars to get the last taste of our vices.

The Mardi Gras Season is also famous locally for the King Cake, a delicious coffee cake served properly only during Carnival Time. When it comes to the proper alcoholic beverage to serve with this dessert and other famous New Orleans creations like Bananas Foster, I turn to our brothers from down under who give us the incredibly delicious and amazingly priced Penfolds Club Tawny Port. (The Rev trusts almost any liquor from Australia since they can drink most people from New Orleans under the table, which is saying something.) 

Like all Ports, Penfolds Club is a fortified wine. It's also very sweet, so this not a drink you will want to consume much of at one sitting. While most good ports can go for $50 or more, at about 10 bucks a bottle at the grocery store (or liquor store for those of you living in backwards communities that don't allow the grocery to sell liquor), Penfolds Club is a great value. The taste is very spicy and robust with hints of caramel, cinnamon and raisin. It's also incredibly mellow for the price considering cheap, harsh ports like Taylor's or Fairbanks, both just barely above ghetto-wine status, are about $7 per bottle.  Penfolds Club even got an 89-rating from Wine Spectator, which I assume means something to wine snobs.

Penfolds Port is excellent with robust, full-bodied cigars. Recently, I've been smoking a lot of Pinar Del Rio Habano Oscuros, which are very mellow, rich and chocolaty, and Pinar Del Rio Habano Sun Growns, which are spicy and have some pepper to them. Both are excellent choices to pair with Penfolds Club. The Rev's go-to, The Famous Nicaraguan Habano, also goes quite nicely with a snifter of Penfolds Club. Speaking for myself, I would avoid any mild cigar with Penfolds Club because the drink would overpower the cigar. That said, at least you'd still get the flavor of a really great glass of port.

I cannot recommend Penfolds Club Tawny Port enough - it is superior in quality, reasonably priced, and a great accompaniment to any fine cigar.

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