Birthday Excess

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. There has been this “secret cigar” hiding in my humidor for the last week that Jenny (my girlfriend) bought for me in Hudson, WI. She made me promise that I wouldn’t look. I managed to make it until 6am on my birthday to finally sneak a peak at what it was. She actually found the holy grail of cigars… a 1926 Padron 80th Anniversary Maduro perfecto. I knew these existed in theory, but had never actually seen one. This cigar feels like it was crafted by your own personal cigar rolling angel to fit your hand exactly. I wanted more than anything to smoke this cigar last night, but I’ve decided to save it for a life changing event (i.e. birth of a son). I did end up smoking a Onyx maduro torbusto, which I found surprisingly enjoyable. The turbusto shape was quite comfortable to hold and it burned really evenly. The flavors were as dark as the wrapper, with really obvious espresso and dark chocolate coming through. Definitely a cigar I would search out again and again.

As soon as I came home from work I could smell Jenny was cooking Boeuf Bourguignon. For those who haven’t heard of the dish, it’s basically a French beef stew with a lot of red wine and caramelized onions. Absolutely amazing. She used Julia Childs’ recipe which proved to be quite labor intensive but completely worth it. I really hope this is something that will be made more often.

Another birthday surprise was a bottle of my favorite wine, 2004 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage (pronounced “Crows Air-met-tash”). Hermitage is generally one of my favorite regions, but the wines are often too expensive. While this wine still isn’t cheap (around $30), it still proves to be a tremendous value when paired against the $75 neighbors in Hermitage proper. This wine is really a shining example of what Syrah can really be like when it isn’t a 16.5% alcohol Australian juice drink. The flavors are rich, leathery, smoky, and even a little bacon(y), with undertones of raspberries and black cherries. The most impressive part of this wine is that this is only the winemakers 3rd vintage. The current winemaker was at law school when he got a call that his family had suffered a tragedy. Shortly after that he stepped up and took over the production of the family winery. For someone untrained beyond working on the family vineyard, he’s done an amazing job. While 2004 was a good vintage, it was still a bit cold and uneven. So if this young winemaker can make such a fantastic wine in 2004, I’m extremely excited to see what he can do with the “as close to perfect as possible” 2005 vintage.