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Habanos-Chianti pairing. Italy.

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Begotten by the same love people share for tradition and the land they grew up in, two exclusive products out of the realm of gourmet passions meet face to face within the 17th Habano Festival

Across from Italy’s Toscana, in the middle of the sea, a craggy islet with a cloud-shrouded peak suddenly juts out. Nobody can imagine a better backdrop for legends and fables than the island of Montecristo, the same island that inspired Alejandro Dumas to write his celebrated novel that centuries later awed Cuban cigar rollers so much that they decided to put that name on one of the world’s best-known habano brands.
Not far from there, the evergreen and quasi-mountainous inland Toscana –during the year’s clear days people can make out the edges of the Montecristo islet- is home to Chianti DOCG (Spanish acronym for Controlled Denomination of Origin) and to one of the finest Italian wines.
That’s why the encounter of two genuine and peculiar children, hemmed in by so many fantasies and legends, heirs to centuries-old traditions, is not as random as it might appear to be, because Montecristo habanos and Chianti wines were probably destined to meet one of these days.
This time around, several habanos will try to find the right combination among a number of Chianti wines.
Some of the standouts are the Montecristo Eagles Open (ring gauge 54 x 150 mm long), which will be coming to bat for Habanos S.A. in this one-and-only pairing match. This line is marked by slightly strong tastes and intense scents.
Another major guest is Hoyo De Monterrey Le Hoyo San Juan (ring gauge 54 x 150 mm long), named after one of the most incredible tobacco plantation regions, mainly Hoyo de San Juan, a mystic place where some of the best habano wrappers are grown.
Both habanos will seek to get paired with such emblematic Chianti wines as Chianti Rufina D.O.C.G. Riserva “Lastricato”, 2010 – Castello Del Trebbio, whose name stems from the Castello del Trebbio, a castle built by the Pazzi family between the 12th and 15th centuries. This area currently produces top-quality wine out of the Chianti Rùfina region, consequently a Chianti subregion that’s also home to extra virgin olive and saffron oils.
Other member of the Chianti family invited to the party is the Colli Fiorentini D.O.C.G. “Il Castelvecchio”, 2011 – Fattoria Castelvecchio, produced at the Castelvecchio estate, in San Pancracio, municipality of San Casciano Val di Pesa, some 16 miles south of Florence, in the winemaking region of Chianti Colli Fiorentini Docg, another Chianti subregion.
This village, built in the 15th century over the ruins of a castle, makes wines of exceptionally high quality, the result of grapes grown with passion and nonstop care in fields that guarantee the exclusiveness of this product.
And to top it all off, the Chianti D.O.C.G. Riserva “Vigna 54”, 2012 – Azienda Agricola Pugliano, by the Pugliano Company, will also be there. This wine is the passion of the Fioravanti family right in the heart of Chianti, a land blessed with unique qualities, with mineral-rich and nourishing soils resulting from the fossil remains that date back to the Pliocene era.
In this clayey soil, grapevines grow to the utmost, surrounded by a one-and-only natural environment that has prompted the company to embrace organic producing methods to come up with exceptional wines.
The pairing between habanos and Chianti wines is not about competition, since there can be no losers among these two great lords. Aware of the fact that their exceptional pedigrees are larger than time and decisions, they’ll simply blend based on each smoker’s preferences and passions. Perhaps by mixing every puff with each sip of wine they could let their minds fly to the legendary Montecristo, that islet off Toscana where Edmund Dantes dug out the hidden fortune that turned him into the Count of Montecristo.

That’s why the encounter of two genuine and peculiar children, shrouded by so many fantasies and legends, heirs to centuries-old traditions, is not as random as it might appear to be