Innholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2016 i Cigar Aficionado

This was quite a strong tasting, particularly for the cigars of Cuba and Nicaragua. The three best scored 93 points: The Norteño Robusto Grande, the Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill and the Montecristo Open Master. Norteño, which combines tobaccos from Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico, comes from Willy Herrera and the team at Drew Estate. Crafted as a stronger version of the Herrera Esteli brand, the cigar has been on sale since 2014. The Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill consistently scores well in Cigar afiCionado and Cigar Insider. This is its fourth 93-point score. This is the highest-ever score for a Montecristo Open Master, a subset of the Montecristo brand named with a golf theme. Most of the other top scorers in this issue bear familiar names, such as Padrón, Cohiba…

Black is anything but basic, when it comes to watches. Not only does a dark cloak bring a slick and sporty persona to even the most classic models, but it can confer state-of-the-art toughness. For instance, the same vacuum process used to adhere low-friction coatings to Formula 1 engine parts—Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)—is often used to blacken watch components. However, with timepieces, the goal is often hardness and scratch resistance, and for that DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon) is the coating of choice. Herein are three watches endowed with the durability of DLC. Perhaps no watch design exhibits the aforementioned personality change more than Cartier’s 42-mm Ballon Bleu de Cartier Carbon ($6,600, pictured at left) in stainless steel with Diamondblack ADLC, an amorphous DLC coating used by Cartier. The über-elegant Ballon Bleu…

The nine holes bored through the heads of Wilson Staff’s new C200 golf irons may look like an assembly mistake, but rest assured, they are there by design. The voids, dubbed Power Holes by the people at Wilson, are the key behind the C200’s revolutionary new FLX Face technology, a radical advancement in club design that we found markedly improves both distance and accuracy, without sacrificing feel or durability. The concept behind the FLX Face design is to minimize the point of impact between the club’s face and the rest of the head, thus allowing for maximum bend when the ball is struck. To achieve this, Wilson bore the nine slots through the club head and attached the face to only 24 percent of it, meaning three-quarters of the face…

A quintessential Cuban Churchill lived up to its reputation in this tasting, as the Cohiba Esplendido scored 92 points—the highest of the entire category. It’s part of the Linea Clasica line, essentially the core lineup of Cohibas, and was released in 1989 when the brand was still relatively new to the world market. Decades later, the venerable cigar size still impresses. Note the new, updated holographic band. The Montecristo Epic Churchill from the Dominican Republic scored 91 points. Epic is one of the stronger versions of this heritage brand and was made with a modern blend based around an Ecuadoran wrapper and hearty Nicaraguan tobacco. Oliva’s combination of Nicaraguan tobacco and Connecticut broadleaf made for a bargain-priced maduro that scored 90 points. CUBA RING GAUGE: 47 LENGTH: 7" FILLER: CUBA…

The MBombay Classic is a small, relatively new brand rolled in Costa Rica and owned by Mel Shah. Its shapely Perfecto scored 92 points. The large band is sure to get the attention of smokers perusing the shelves of their local shops—it looks like it’s rolled in a Persian carpet. This is a band that must be removed before smoking, unless of course the enthusiast is only interested in smoking a third of the cigar. Nearly black in appearance, the Flores y Rodriguez Connecticut Valley Reserve Belicoso scored 91 points and is named for partners Abe Flores and Juan Rodriguez, who co-own the PDR Cigars factory in the Dominican Republic. It’s the first broadleaf cigar to come out of PDR Cigars with the Flores name and it teems with flavor.…

Cigars are listed first by country and then by score. Please refer to the main tasting pages for notes and prices. CIGAR AFICIONADO’S 100-POINT SCALE Classic 95–100 Outstanding 90–94 Very good to excellent 80–89 Average to good commercial quality 70–79 Don’t waste your money 0-70 Not available n/a Note: all prices are manufacturers’ suggested retail, before taxes. COSTA RICA 92 MBombay Classic Perfecto CUBA 93 Montecristo Open Master 93 Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill 92 Cohiba Esplendido 90 Bolivar Royal Corona 90 H. Upmann Corona Major (Tubo) 90 Hoyo de Monterrey Hermosos No. 4 Añejados 90 Hoyo de Monterrey Petit Robusto 89 H. Upmann Half Corona 89 Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No. 1 88 Romeo y Julieta Romeo No. 1 (Tubo) 88 Trinidad Coloniales 87 Partagás Serie D No. 6…

You want to visit Cuba. We conducted a recent poll of our audience at cigaraficionado.com, and an incredible 95 percent of you said you were eager to pay a visit to the island, which has been offlimits to most Americans for more than 50 years. Some of you reading this have already gone. Twenty-nine percent of you who answered our survey said you had been to Cuba at least once (some of you have gone several times) and most of you were quite pleased with the trip: 77 percent of you rated the visit very good or better, and 23.5 percent called it “the trip of a lifetime.” One American who made the trip recently is U.S. President Barack Obama. He made history on March 20 as the first sitting…

BEVERAGES Cîroc Combs became the spokesperson for this French-made vodka in 2009, which is owned by Diageo. His marketing tactics are often credited for increasing sales considerably. It sold an estimated 1.6 million cases in 2015, according to Shanken’s Impact Databank. DeLeón Tequila brand DeLeón was purchased in 2014 as an equal equity partnership between Diageo and Combs Wine & Spirits, an LLC formed by Combs after the success of Cîroc. AQUAhydrate Launched in 2015, AQUAhydrate fitness water is Combs’ most recent venture. He is an active investor and sitting board member alongside fellow rapper-turned-entrepreneur Mark Wahlberg. CLOTHING Sean John Founded in 1998, Sean John was one of Combs’ first business ventures outside of music and has gone on to become one of his most profitable. The multifaceted clothing company,…

YOU’RE ESCORTED TO your reserved seat: a motordriven, cushy leather chair with a perch that is ready to support your weary legs. At the push of a button, the seat reclines far back, becoming more like a bed, as your attendant offers you a blanket before the movie begins. Then the food and drink start to arrive. You start with a Caesar salad, move onto a lobster and finish with a Tuxedo cream cheesecake. You pair this tasty feast with a classic cocktail, a glass of wine or a single-malt Scotch on the rocks. You’d think you were in the firstclass section of a jetliner, except that the film you’re watching is a first-run feature and you’re not viewing it on a tiny LCD screen mounted on the seat in…

Somewhat of an encrypted cipher, the Illusione mk stands for “mind kontrol,” and it scored an impressive 92 points. According to brand owner Dion Giolito, the corona size serves as the best blending template for creating a cigar. If one can make a good corona, one can “kontrol” the market. Those who don’t share his capricious affinity for hidden messages can focus on the fact that the mk is full of fantastic Nicaraguan tobacco. The Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series Corona scored 91 points. It’s an unpopular size rolled in a very popular line. With the current market so focused on thick cigars, many are unaware that Padrón makes a 1964 Anniversary corona at all. NICARAGUA RING GAUGE: 42 LENGTH: 5 1/8" FILLER: NICARAGUA BINDER: NICARAGUA WRAPPER: NICARAGUA ILLUSIONE MK This…

Abbreviated smokes grant a very particular wish among cigar lovers: the desire for a grand experience in a short period of time. The niche was filled by creating short, sometimes fat cigars with high-quality tobacco. One truly fantastic creation to come out of that need is the Padrón Serie 1926 No. 35, which scored 92 points. The Padróns successfully scaled down the characteristics found in the larger sizes of the Serie 1926 and rolled it into a four-inch flavor bomb. While the Avo Classic No. 5 may seem like it should be in another category, its dimensions sidestepped the parameters of every classification we have. It scored 90 points, as did the Cuban Hoyo de Monterrey Petit Robusto. NICARAGUA RING GAUGE: 48 LENGTH: 4" FILLER: NICARAGUA BINDER: NICARAGUA WRAPPER: NICARAGUA…

Connoisseurs prize cigars that come packed in cabinets of 50. There’s more room for air to circulate around the cigars, which is good for aging, and there are double the number of cigars found in a typical box, which is just good overall. A tidy Punch Punch with a quarter century of age proved the potency of cabinet selections with its near-perfect performance. A look at this Cuban corona gorda shows, first, just how thick cigars have become in the modern day, for this “fat corona’s” ring gauge of 46 seems downright slim by today’s standards. The unbanded cigar blossoms with the flavors of sweet baking spices, earning it a classic rating on our 100-point scale. An unheralded Diplomaticos No. 2 from 1995 was sweet and subtle, also earning a…

“All three of these men have a special place in my heart, but my father holds the biggest. Thanks for allowing the Big Smoke to bring us all together.” —Jeff Kolbe, Lockport, New York Dear Marvin, I’ve been reading your magazine for a few years. Being from Canada I can travel to Cuba whenever I please (I live in a free country) and I go there about eight times per annum. I get my cigars from a Cuban amigo who is a roller at the La Corona factory. Cuban cigars are severely overpriced as you know, so this offsets that. I have just a little pet peeve about your magazine— watches. I like fine things but a $35,000 watch? Every cell phone has the time. Most young people don’t wear…

Many of us kept coin collections as kids, tucking nickels and dimes into the designated slots in cardboard holders, hoping for something worth a little more than face value. On May 24, when the D. Brent Pogue Collection Part IV goes off at New York’s Sotheby’s, it will outpace any young collector’s wildest dream: an 1822 Half Eagle, estimated to sell for up to $7 million, and an 1804 dollar pegged at $7 million to $10 million. If they come close, their return on investment will be staggering. (The former coin was last purchased in 1982 for a mere $687,500.) It may seem that absolutely no relationship exists between a youngster’s hoarding of coins and the sale of these magnificent specimens of numismatics. But John Pack, executive director of consignments…

It’s impossible to look at the Poker Central website, launched in 2015, without feeling a twinge of nostalgia. Its homepage is dominated by rectangular links to old poker-themed game shows like NBC’s “Face The Ace,” GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” and “Poker After Dark,” which once aired after “Last Call With Carson Daily.” While Poker Central also offers current programming, its streaming content of reruns instantly evokes the glory days of card playing—say, 2007—when ordinary people marveled over gutsy shoves by Tom Dwan. Or the short-tempered outbursts from Phil Hellmuth. And how could one forget the lobbing of nastybombs courtesy of purple-haired David “Viffer” Peat. But it’s also impossible to forget that the era is gone, entangled in snarls of controversy and bitterness that followed the end of poker as we…

The Norteño Robusto Grande is dark, flatly pressed and scored 93 points, one of the highest-rated cigars of the entire issue. It’s pressed to the point that it almost resembles a plank, but this has only resulted in a superb draw that offers a dense, chewy smoke full of rich character. The cigar was created by Willy Herrera, who holds the title of master blender at Drew Estate. Being from Miami, Herrera is a northerner in Nicaragua, so he named the brand “norteño” which translates to northerner in Spanish. This category of corona gordas, usually the most crowded in CIGAR AFICIONADO tastings, had no shortage of high scores. Four cigars scored 91 points and one scored 90. NICARAGUA RING GAUGE: 54 LENGTH: 5 1/2" FILLER: NICARAGUA BINDER: HONDURAS WRAPPER: MEXICO…

This impressive lineup of robustos delivered nine scores of 90 points or higher, and two cigars that scored 93 points. Both are Cuban, and fairly new to the Habanos S.A. portfolio. The Montecristo Open Master seems to have defied its own mission statement. When it debuted, the brand was marketed toward novice smokers who like to enjoy their cigars outdoors. But the level of complexity in the Master is better suited to a veteran than someone who occasionally lights up on the golf course. With a girth of 55 ring gauge, the Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill is one of the thickest cigars that Cuba produces. It’s an offshoot of the brand’s emblematic Churchill size. CUBA RING GAUGE: 50 LENGTH: 4 7/8" FILLER: CUBA BINDER: CUBA WRAPPER: CUBA BOX DATE:…

José Orlando Padrón sits down in his conference room in Miami, a halfsmoked cigar bearing his name clutched in his right hand, photos from his youth spread before him. On June 10, he will turn 90. For more than half of his life—nearly 52 years as you read this article— he has been making Padrón cigars. The earliest Padróns were inexpensive smokes puffed in Miami cafeterias by Cuban expats much like himself; today they are prized across the United States and around the globe. His Nicaraguan-made cigars take high score after high score from this magazine, including having garnered the Cigar of the Year award a record three times. He’s a man of meticulous records, with a mind that recalls special days from decades ago with ease and a booming…

Perhaps no other organization in the world strives to demystify tobacco and the cigarmaking process as ardently as ProCigar, the united group of cigar producers in the Dominican Republic. Its annual festival is a week in the Dominican Republic where no doors are closed, cigars are plentiful and questions rarely go unanswered. This year, the ninth ProCigar Festival started on the white sands of Punta Cana, ended in Santiago and raised more than $200,000 for charity. It was a cigar-centric celebration that immersed more than 300 guests from all over the world in the tobacco culture of the Dominican Republic. From February 21 to 26, cigar manufacturers opened up their fields and factories for a casual yet educational tobacco tour that showcased the Dominican Republic’s premium cigar industry. Each day…