UK Cigar Scene Magazine July Issue 7 | Page 14

Wine, Food, Tobacco & Passion Sometimes you come across someone so passionate about their subject and so enthusiastic that you can’t help being ‘pulled in’. I first met Nicola Bodano at the wine, food and pipe tobacco evening at No1a St James’s. A little off the beaten track for a cigar magazine but stick with me. No Decanting was created in 2008 by Nicola who is an Italian wine, food, spirits & cigar expert. He combines wines with specific foods and then with tobacco. Our evening was the most wonderful experience. First we were served a beautifully chilled glass of 1999 Riesling and given tasting ‘notes’ as we drank. But it was completely like any other wine tasting I have experienced. Interactive and thought provoking. Then after thoroughly tasting the wines we were all given a tiny slice of a freshly carved Serrano ham to eat and with our palette coated with the fat of the ham we tasted the wine again. The flavour profile had changed incredibly; it was like tasting a completely different wine. 13 Then we each took our pipes and were instructed on the careful and patient to fill with multiple small pinches of aromatic Dunhill Aperitif tobacco, we were instructed on the art of lighting, tamping and relighting our pipes. A most extraordinary evening in many ways. Nicola has now signed up to do a series of three further evenings featuring Sparkling wine, fortified wine and red wine. The details and links are in the diary and if you want to experience something completely different I suggest you give it a try. For more information go to www.nodecanting.com