Tasting Room

The issue I have is time not the TR. My kind of place, 100 plus cigars, wine, some beer to taste while Smoking your fresh picked cigar for lunch.
Never enough time… great support, huge selection. Enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.

Very nice place. I love going in here to buy gifts for my father in law!

Whenever I go on adventures to other cities, I always like to find a nice tobacconist and buy a cigar for the drive, as well as see if there are any interesting tobaccos for my pipe. On this excursion, the Tasting Room was recommended by a fellow brother of the leaf.
The exterior looks very… average. It’s in a strip mall built in the brick style a number of «high end» strip malls are these days. Walking in, however, makes a world of difference. Hard wood, a wonderful aroma of premium tobacco, the nice murmur of light conversation from the patrons. A nice long humidor, and a pretty nice selection of high end spirits.
I immediately was drawn to the display of pipes, which while small, was nicely varied. After that, I migrated to the humidor. It looks oddly small from the exterior, but entering somehow makes a large difference (It’s bigger on the inside!). Huge selection of premium cigars, a variety of producers, and the first place I’ve seen Nat Shermans at in quite some time.
My traveling party went pretty much ignored for a good bit of our visit, which was unfortunate, but once I actually got the attention of an employee, they were extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and were more than happy to talk away. Kind of felt like a little bit of a proving, had to show you had genuine interest.
An excellent selection of cigars, though the pipe tobacco selection was lacking. Beyond looking at the drink selection, I didn’t take advantage of the wine bar portion of the establishment, but it was absolutely worth the stop.
Good prices, good selection of cigars, reasonable prices, and a very helpful and friendly staff, once you take a moment to catch their attention.

Ok, let’s be honest, this is a smoking lounge and makeshift bar for either the owner’s friends, or pretentious passerbys. Here’s a hint to the owners — you can’t taste wine when you’re smoking a cigar. cognac, sure… bourbon For Sure… scotch, hell yeah! Wine or beer? No way. Much like how a heavy smoker can’t taste the subtle notes of fine cuisine, your palate will be a burned out blah, able only to recognize the meh of mediocre sweet washing away a quickly become stale, acrid ash. I say this strongly to the owners, who are obviously ordering wine they cannot taste, because the offering here is terrible.
Now, for the record, I enjoy a good cigar (and they do have good cigars, (as well as really shitty ones — you have been warned)), but you’ve got to be very careful when you mix the two. or, you’ll end up with a place like this.
Here’s the deal:
Ambience: smoke filled; couches to the far wall, filled with people I don’t know, who obviously do know one another; everyone watching badgers basketball game; shitty pop-​ish music, feels like I’m crashing a college party.
Service: terrible — overly helpful, yet completely unhelpful. Owner assumes that you don’t know anything about wine, while he himself knows nothing about wine, making him look both condescending and foolish. Owner confuses percentages of grape varietals for flavor, erroneously assuming that those factors alone, in isolation, make the wine. Owner doesn’t know enough about own stock to be able to recommend me a wine to match what I’m looking for. Not, being able to find what I want, the owner then upsells me garbage, like a used car salesman, promising me it’s the best such-​and-​such wine he’s ever seen for this price. Meanwhile, he’s never once described what any of the wines actually taste like.
At any rate, I took a risk and bought the recommendation — guess it must be the gambler in me. Well, sometimes you win, and sometimes you loose… and this time, I lost. The two wines that were supposed to be vastly different were suspiciously similar. Both just a middle note of blah, one too sweet, one too thin. Neither worthy of the price, the effort, the carbon footprint. I’ve MADE better wine. In the end, they were shitty wines, and it a shitty experience. Which is too bad, because I was really looking for something nice.
In all honesty, Copps, just down the street, actually has better wines, if you know what you’re looking for. Even if you don’t, they have a larger selection, so you might as well roll the dice.
So, my question to the owners is, did you get this wine because you thought it was good, because you couldn’t taste it, or because it was cheap and you thought no one would care?
PS dry clean my cigar smoke soaked coat

If you are a serious cigar smoker, you will feel right at home. If just looking for wine, go as early in the am or right when they open. The cigar smoke was so intense we drove 40 miles with the windows down on a cold day. Wine selection not as extensive as I expected given its name. The gentleman we dealt with was very friendly and helpful. Perhaps they should think about having a second location called the Tasting Room and rename this one the Smoking Room.

This is an amazing find and kudos to the Unilocalers who reviewed this place
This place is a diamond. Oasis of class and friendly owners. Not to mention an amazing cigar selection with very knowledgeable owners. I met Bryant one of the owners. A friendlier guy you won’t find. And his knowledge and ability to help me select what I would like based on my tastes was top notch.
For the atmosphere. It’s one of those places that is so awesome you wish it was bigger but you know bigger would take away from it. The whole place is decorated in class! And the amazing thing is that it’s CLEAN! Hard to do for a cigar bar. But it is really clean from the floor walls and every bottle in the wine cellar.
I would suggest you come here with friends and enjoy a great night or day. Thanks Bryant for the Experiance. I will be back!

This place is really hit or miss for me. I really want to like them, as there aren’t a lot of cigar bar options in the Madison area, but they’ve got issues.
They have a *huge* selection of cigars in their well-​stocked, well-​maintained humidor, which is fantastic (as well as recommendations, if you’re not sure what you’re in the mood for.)
There’s also comfortable seating in addition to the bar if you’d like to hang out and enjoy your cigar and a drink. In addition, they also host wine, cigar, and other tasting events that are well-​attended.
The only thing I can’t get over are the bizarre hours. They’re open until 7pm Tuesday-​Friday, 5pm on Saturdays, and closed Sundays and Mondays.
For me (and a huge number of my social circle,) cigars are a relaxing, social experience, not a rushed errand, like I’m picking up milk and eggs at the grocery.
As a small business owner myself, I respect another’s need to set their hours as they see fit, but with the Tasting Room’s business hours as they are, I’m rarely able to make it over there on weekdays, and lack of weekend evening hours nix that possibility as well.
I’d like to give them at least four stars, but it doesn’t matter if you have the best-​stocked humidor in the Midwest if it’s difficult to access it.

This one is simple. If you smoke cigars occasionally or regularly this is the single best cigar store in the midwest.
No schtick, no «Indian statue», just a very clean and enormous collection of smokes. They have all of the popular brands from Nubs to OpusX to Padron. But they also have a wide selection of lesser knowns. It’s worth asking the owners which ones are worthy trying. They never steer me wrong.
Every time I have a special occasion or achieve a personal milestone I come here and drive my purchase over to Maduro for a great evening.

Probably THE best place to get cigars in the area. I’ve only been here twice, but I will definitely be going here again soon. They know their stuff and are very helpful. After a short chat about what types of cigars I’ve had the recommendations came flowing. There’s a huge selection, so if you do know what you’re looking for they will probably have it.

Great place in Madison to find top notch wines and cigars. The cigar humidor is huge with a fantastic selection. And when you find the one you want, sit down, light it up and enjoy! About the only place in Madison you can do that at. They also have some really nice tasting events where you can try out a variety of wine, scotch and cigars.

We’ve been customers for years, and this is a great place to go for wine. The owners not only know their stock, once they get to know you they always have a recommendation for you. It’s also a cigar bar with an extensive selection.
I’ve found some lovely wines here. When I want an absolutely excellent bottle of wine for a special occasion, this is the place I go.