Partagas Cifuentes Summer 05 & Wells Bombardier English Ale: Review

The Ale

After your nose passes the slight peppery and malty aroma your palate is greeted to an English Ale treat. The taste has a nice herbal hoppy bite with a rich malty characteristic. I get a cedary woody taste along with a red apple freshness. This is a nice English Ale that is firm and crisp. The mouthfeel has a dry and nice bitter bite like an English ale. It is still refreshing due to the good watery edges and slight carbonation that helps to cleanse the palate. My strength rating is a 4.5 during this pairing. This ale is perfect for smoking a cigar with.

The Cigar
Wrapper: Honduran
Filler: Honduran, Mexico, Dominican Rep.
Size: 4.5 x 60 Agosto figurado
My Strength rating: 4
I like the cedary taste that accompanies the nice soft spice notes and mild coffee profile. Not an extremely complex cigar here. But, if you like quality tobacco this was it. I liked this cigar when it came out on the market back then and when Cigars International was clearing out the last of these on the planet earth I had to buy a box. You know what, I still like them and I wish I bought two boxes. The short size makes for a short smoke. But, I am a slow smoker – I have an hour in already and I have about 15 minutes of a cigar left. I always believed to take your time smoking a cigar and enjoy the experience. I know guys from the cigar store who would smoke this cigar or a Short Story and be done in 20-25 minutes.

The Pairing
During this session I really liked these two paired up with each other. The spice interplay was very pleasant. The mild coffee of the cigar worked well with the hoppy bitterness and did not overwhelm the palate. The slight sweet malts were greeted with the cedar of the cigar to balance out the act. The mouthfeel of the ale made me want to enjoy my cigar. Those watery edges and slight carbonation purified the palate to prepare for another puff of the stogie. This really maximized my pleasure.