Coming closer to the habano and doing it in a different way have been so far the basic roles of these professionals, a blend of culture, wisdom, tradition and good taste.

Afriend of mine told me one day that the habano sommelier was born out of the need to narrate the true story of cigars. And he was right because in this realm of the ultimate smoke the knowledge of the finest cuisine is combined since to become a genuine habano sommelier you need first to be a sommelier, a gastronomic and culinary person, a bartender and something else: a refined gourmet person with the habano running in his or her veins. This figure seeks at all costs to demonstrate that the habano is the extra of the haute cuisine, the real need to show that the conjunction of the habano and the profession (sommelier) is something sublime. If you’re not convinced, then let’s look back into the genesis of this master of cigars and spirits. As an advocate of food finesse, the habano sommelier shows us what each and every puff on a cigar might mean, that the ring gauge of the vitolas reveals the wrapper of the cigar. And there’s always a ruling word in all these assertions: the “matching” of habano with its peers, either cognac, tequila, rum, calvados, whiskey or just plain cold water. Let’s bear something vital in mind: like habano, all these products have a common denominator. Like the world-class habanos, all of them have guarantees of origin. So, the relationship among them is on an even par. They are all top-of-the-line items that are subjected to the magical scrutiny of this new credit-giver of the good taste: the habano sommelier. For those of us who love gourmet or carry a sybarite inside, our hats are off to the habano sommelier because it’s giving legitimate credit to a character who moves far beyond the restaurant to become a guide, a epicurean artist because he or she manages to put together the good taste of a dish, the longing and the chaste of an iconic wine and the amazing and unique smoke wafting away from the world’s best-known cigar, the same that captures more and more followers with each passing day –regardless of the antismoking campaigns and regulations around the globe. Because more than just love, the cult for these supreme smoke-billowing items has a name: habano. So then, the culture around it also has a master of ceremony, and that’s no other than the habano sommelier, that monitor of the gourmet subject matters who never stops teaching us chunks of history that rest on the table. If back in the past, sommeliers or fromallers had the job done in writing high notes associated to a product that caused great sensation and even worshiping, today the habano sommelier, this cultural wizard of the tropic, is the best sign that the habano has to come on strong with a stamp of its own, the one that came into being with the conquest yet it accrues day after day by the hand of this priest of the good taste. Bayamanaco, The Habano Balcony Over a number of years, a workshop devoted to tastings and the gourmet world gathers in the nation’s capital both experts and enthusiasts of cigars, wines and haute cuisine. As time has rolled on, this has become a highly valuable experience when it comes to determining the best combinations of drinks and meals on the basis of habano, let alone an opportunity to share criteria and knowledge in a friendly, practical and smart fashion in a bid to face the challenges and demands of the tourism and cuisine fields. The maître of the Presidente Hotel in Havana, Jose Luis Calderon, told Excelencias this tasting workshop called Bayamanaco –a Cuban aboriginal term related to the Cemi, the god the ancient priests or behikes used to pray for to learn the secrets of fire and casaba (the food)– is today the meeting ground of professionals who go there to assess the finest combinations of premium cigars from the island nation with meals and drinks from around the world. Maître, sommeliers, bartenders, cigar makers, foreign impresarios, habano lovers and executives from the island nation’s leisure industry also attend. Among the group’s objectives, spreading the Cuban culture about the habano, making matchings with different drinks with a view to enhance the clientele’s options, exchanging information with other clubs, visiting tobacco planters, mounting exhibits and holding chat sessions rank high on its list that also includes the unveiling of new products that are or will be part of the country’s travel industry, especially restaurants and top-class hotels. For the pursuit of that objective, they count on the support of Cuba’s Sommelier Club founded in 1995 and the involvement of participating companies and institutions related to the gourmet and tourism fields, like Habanos, S.A., Havana Club International S.A, Tariquet, Bodegas Torres, Bodegas Sarda, Bodegas MG and its trademarks, Cimex, Tecnoazucar, Comercial Toledo and Cuba Ron, among others. The editor-in-chief of the Cigare & Sensations, Yves Belaubre, and Armin Grassa, owner of Bodegas Tariquet, both from France; Luis de Javier Esteban, lawyer with Bodegas Torres and the CEO of that Spanish company, Jose Grau Ferrer; Brazil’s Cesar Adames, a college professor and juror of the Habano Festival; Italian collector Alex Iapichino Hunters; Chilean sommelier Philip Ili; Argentine stocker Roberto Rodriguez, owner of Cigarros Manrique, and Italy’s Gino Rossano Iannillo, chairman of the HIRPUS AmiCigar Club, among others, have visited Bayamanaco in recent years.