THE KONSORTIUM

Vilafonte Designs a Cigar For Red Wine

Cigars and after-dinner sippers such as brandy, port and whisky are a natural pairing but what about cigars and wine. Decanter reports that the South African producer Vilafonte has created a cigar that is meant to match with their wines. The cigars are called 'Series X' and are made lighter style using Cuban seed tobacco and a Sumatran wrapper. The theory is that a lighter bodied cigar will mesh well with red wine without overpowering it. Vilafonte producer Mike Ratcliffe (shown at the right, enjoying a cigar) says that he sees this as an ongoing project but doesn't want to take on the cigar market in any big way. The cigars are available through the Vilafonte website.

Cigars: Gorilla Fingers Cigars

The easy winner for most unappealing cigar name to come out of this year's RTDA convention in Las Vegas is the Gorilla Fingers cigar. The Gorilla Fingers cigars were created by Lars Tetens and have a Cameroon wrapper, aged Ecuadorian binder and Dominican-grown filler leaves and are infused with Courvoisier Cognac. The tobaccos are all aged three to eight years. The cigars are five inches and a massive 60 ring gauge. Each Gorilla Finger comes in a resealable humidor bag with a humidification sponge and protective insert. They sell for a suggested retail price of $14.95 each.

Thomas Pink's Mogul Shirt

Does your shirt really need a pocket for your cigar? Yes, says Thomas Pink. According to Fashion Week Daily, they are rolling out this shirt called the Mogul. The Mogul comes in pink or white and has a split breast pocket designed to hold your cigar on one side and a lighter or cutter on the other. The shirt costs $195 and the pocket is box-pleated so it will lay down nice and flat when not in use. Wear it with their previously released iPod tie and you may never need to own a man-purse.

ThomasPink.com

Zino Davidoff 100th Anniversary Cigar Dinner

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Zino Davidoff, the Davidoff store on Madison Avenue in New York will be holding a special cigar dinner. It's part of a worldwide celebration of the 100th anniversary of Mr. Davidoff’s birth year held by Davidoff of Geneva. The New York event is scheduled for May 10 and will include a multi-course steak dinner from Rothmann's Steakhouse, wines, and some special cigars in honor of the event. Tickets sell for $175 each.

CF Cigars

by Deidre Woollard

Cigar Catering, a service from CF Cigars that provide cigar rollers for parties and now the company has cigar rollers in 15 cities. Now, for all your holiday parties, they are introducing CF Cigar Servers, cigar-knowledgeable women who serve cigars to the guests. The company cautions that the lovely cigar servers are not for parties with a ‘bachelor/frat party’ type mentality.” It’s a nice idea but personally I think they should mix it up with some male cigar babes (after all there are plenty of cigar smokers who would also like to be served by a handsome man as well as a beautiful woman). CF Cigars also now manufactures flavored cigars which come in amaretto, chocolate, cognac, vanilla and other flavors.

CF Cigars

Cigars: Felipe Gregorio 3 Tierras

by Deidre Woollard

Well, this is unique, take a good look at this cigars, notice anything strange? They are actually each two cigars in one. The Felipe Gregorio 3 Tierras is a double-barrel cigar. The 3 Tierras concept is two mini-cigars, one of pure Dominican-grown piloto-Cubano leaf, the other of Habano #92 Nicaraguan tobacco. The two cigars are then merged into a pyramid-shaped head, which is wrapped for about 1/3 the length of the cigar with a third leaf of Brazilian Arapiraca. The three tobaccos, from three places, hence the name. It’s not the prettiest cigar I’ve ever seen and I wonder how evenly it burns. The cigar comes in two sizes: the Escopeta (Spanish for shotgun) which combines two 5 x 30 cigars and the 4-3/4 x 26 Lupara (a nickname for sawed-off shotgun in Sicily).

The cigars are presented 20 to a box, and retail for $4.80 (Escopeta, and $4.25 (Lupara). The 3 Tierras line is currently available from Felipe Gregorio.