UK Cigar Scene Magazine September Issue 9 | Page 17

I realised there is a curved of oxidation and all those flavours and aromas that are described on the wine
labels are actually there because they have an olfactory threshold that is the same for every human being
and I thought why don’t I teach people to detect these aromas in wines.
I also read about the foundation of taste reading
the works of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and I
learned that 90 % of the taste of the wine was on
the nose, with all the aromas of cherry, vanilla,
dried fruit, tobacco leaf.
So we started to experiment and we learned
that temperature was absolutely critical to the
flavour of the wine. We tasted red wines at lower
temperatures to prevent the aromas evaporating
and we tasted white wines warmer to allow
flavours to develop.
Take an apple and cut it in half, and wait 20
minutes, the apple oxidises. Wine shares many
of the acids of an apple so the same effect can be
expected to happen to those constituents if it is
left open for 20 minutes.
Then I decided to apply what I was learning to
tobacco, cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco.
My Grandfather also has an extensive collection
of vintage cigarettes many of which go back to the
Second World War when he was given cigarette
by British servicemen who gave them his ration
packs. I have inherited these and I tried them.
They had been stored in ration pack tins.
I researched how they were made and I discovered
that they were made with 100% Virginia Tobacco
‘blond’ and air cured. This meant they had low
sugar content and high nicotine content very
much the same as cigar tobacco.
Today No Decanting does tasting with wines and
vintage tobacco’s and we work to teach people
how to taste using chemosensation . There are
receptors in your mouth which trigger sensation,
astringency, hot cold, greasiness and all of these
affect taste. And when you have solids, liquids
and smoke in your mouth you need to understand
what is happening.
So I noticed that in all wines there is a point at
which wine becomes acidic and the aromatic
bouquet breaks or fractures and the distinctive
aromas go and the acidity overtakes the bouquet
and the taste and the smell become dull.

So I started combining wines, red wines at 16 – 17c
and pair it with food and interplay it with a cigar.
We studied the PH of wine and of cigar smoke and
found that the acidity of a wine and the alkaline
element of the cigar smoke can make the flavour
of a wine last longer.
Then we started to introduce food with greasiness,
sweetness saltiness and acidity also has a role in
changing the sensation of flavour.
We also experimented with Latakia pipe blends
and understood the chemical makeup of the
smoke and we understood how it interacted with
a greasy food and an a cidic wine and this was the
experiment we recreated at our evening at No1a
St James’s Street with the pipe tobacco, Riesling
and slices of ham and you witnessed how the
combinations worked.”
We asked if it was possible to teach someone to
taste “ Oh most certainly it is possible, you have
to get used to the aromas and the descriptors.
You need to learn the different liquid flavours
or smoke flavours. You have to trick your mind
and transform the flavours into liquid of smoke
formats to be able to taste. But it’s something that
you have to learn, or be taught.”
No short interview can ever possibly illustrate
Nicola’s passion for his subject. There are a
number of No decanting events in the UK Cigar
Scene Diary. Don’t take our word for it, immerse
yourself, share the passion and we guarantee it
will change the way you look at food, wine and
cigars.

For more information about Nicola and
his quest go to www.nodecanting.com

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