WINE & CIGAR FESTIVAL ATTRACTS WOMEN, COUPLES
The response was quite different when I mentioned a wine tasting & music event, and oh, cigars too. Enter Crush and Roll cigar festival, September 16, 17, 2011, at the Paso Robles Event Center in Paso Robles, CA.
Crush & Roll is quickly becoming one of the most popular cigar festivals, and with good reason. It’s attracting couples. Why?—because the festival is also attracting wine companies hoping to lure wine connoisseurs and cigar aficionados who enjoy vino. The press contact for Crush & Roll, David "Doc" Diaz, describes his attendees, "I am always pleasantly surprised by how many wine drinkers are newly exposed to fine handmade cigars and how many cigar smokers are newly exposed to premium wines. Each year I speak to more people who have smoked their very first cigar at our event."
The festival is priced right too. Tickets are $125, and get you cigars, wine, and a one year membership to Cigar Rights of America. Tickets purchased prior to May 20th are only $99. Pretty good considering Big Smoke Vegas costs $250 and, if you’re like me, another $250 or more to occupy the wife during my time at Big Smoke, for dinner and a show with the girls. Moreover, her friends are now interested in Crush & Roll, as opposed to going separate ways like we did at Big Smoke—definitely a "win, win" for the guys.
There is another draw to Crush & Roll. Organizers recognized early on that there are many similarities between the making of cigars and wine.
Diaz explains, "During Crush & Roll we began to realize the many similarities between premium cigar production and the wine industry. Both are harvestable products, both are fermented, both are aged and both are blended. These are two artisanal crafts that require many people, who are motivated by a passion, to create a product that can be savored and enjoyed by all who appreciate the good life.” In fact, that is the motto of Crush & Roll west: "Celebrating cigars, wine and the good life!" The good life indeed. Venture into any cigar lounge in the country and you'll find people sitting around talking sports, politics, weather, and whatever, all while enjoying their favorite cigar. It's not just the good life. It's people connecting.
In the Editors' Note in the June issue of Cigar Aficionado, Publisher Marvin Shanken talks about how the advent of the Internet, E-mail, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, and the rest, has diminished human connection.
"The reality is that people don't talk to each other anymore, especially the younger generation. There are no longer face-to-face conversations, no sitting down for a cup of coffee.... Many in the digital age think this is normal and okay." Shanken adds. "The cigar is a bond between people whether they are strangers or old friends...cigars should be seen as saviors, a way to restore human contact between people."
Crush & Roll accomplishes just that—strengthening the human connection.
Crush & Roll not only brings cigar aficionados and wine connoisseurs together, but has done what other cigar events never ventured—making the art of cigar smoking more attractive to women. Why?—because of its novelty and relationship with wine in celebrating the good life. My wife did not give me the Oswald Face when I approached her about Crush & Roll. She said, “sounds like fun. Let’s go.” The romantic lure of the wine country has made this cigar festival, oops, wine festival attractive to her. “Well done, ‘Doc’. See you there.”
Categories: Cigar Festivals
Tags: cigar festival wine festival cigar festival ca cigar festival california women and cigars crush and
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