Philip Ili Barake
The Warm Hour
For this next pairing, I am going to recommend a perfect combination that I tend to associate with the winter season because I can’t imagine drinking it at any other time of the year.
One of the most enjoyable moments after dinner is when I complete my meal with a snifter of Pedro Ximénez Sherry. For this occasion, I am going to incorporate one of their sherries that completely dazzled me in a previous trip to Andalucía. I am referring to Pedro Ximénez Santa Ana Sherry of the Emilio Hidalgo winery. Not only for its history and ancient solera aging process, but also for the quality of the product that stays long in the mouth, with elegant notes of figs blended with subtle hints of raisins. All of these notes are wrapped up with characteristics of fine aging. Just a single glass of this sherry will prepare my palate in the best way possible for what is yet to come.
Having these pleasant and enjoyable sensations of the sherry in my palate, I then proceed to take my first smoke of the cigar. For this pairing, I have chosen a marvelous Nicaraguan cigar from the Padrón brand. There are many gratifying experiences within the array of products of the Padrón line, but in this case, I am going to go to one that I find to be very agreeable and complex, the Imperial Series 1964 with a 54 ring gauge and 6 inches in length. This cigar will give me about an hour’s worth of enjoyment making it ideal for the transition between the sherry and my choice of rum for this combination.
I have selected a rum that has both a good expression and blends well from the notes derived from its aging, one that is well-craf ted using high quality prime ingredients and then finished in lightly toasted American oak barrels that were once used to age American Whiskeys. What I am talking about here is Botrán Reserve Rum, a blend of up to 14 year old rums that were aged in these barrels high up in the mountains of Guatemala.
The cigar begins to warm up releasing its initial flavors that are soft and elegant, indicative of fine tobacco. These flavors begin to intermingle with the subtle notes of the rum reminding me of the sweet nectar from the aging in the barrels and the elegant notes that still linger in my palate from the initial sips of the sherry.
This harmonious experience creates a warm explosion of flavors that I will witness as I continue to draw in the tobacco that repeatedly demonstrates its many layers.
Enjoy!
Philip Ili Barake
Cigar Sommelier
Philip@GotRum.com