Innholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2016 i Cigar Aficionado

Nicaraguan cigars continue to perform at the very highest level in our blind tastings. This issue’s top scores went to Nicaraguan brands of unparalleled pedigree, Padrón and Oliva. The Padrón was crafted to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the brand, which was created in 1964. Cigar afiCionado had already rated the widely available boxed version, but this is our first rating for the version available only in humidors. Thanks to a refill program from the company, and the fact that retailers are selling the cigars individually, we decided to put the cigar in our blind tasting process—and we are quite happy we did. Tying it at 94 points is the Oliva Serie V Melanio Robusto, crafted in honor of the first member of that family to grow tobacco. Among our…

A woven white hammock is slung between two palm trees on the beach at Valley Trunk. The rustle of the swaying fronds and the sound of the surf breaking against giant granite boulders provide a soothing soundtrack. Nearby, an al fresco lunch is laid out in the Indonesian-style Bali House that was discovered in Bali and trans-ported to the idyllic shores of Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. This family-owned slice of paradise, which recently opened for exclusive-use rental, offers the alluring combination of unsullied views, impeccable service and luxurious accommodations, only to be found in a private island estate. Forget slumming in five-star hotels and step up to the luxury of layouts like Valley Trunk. The 19 lush and manicured acres rise from the sea to a rocky…

In another incarnation I traveled the competitive barbecue circuit for a couple of years while researching a book about the delicious craziness of that world. Along the way I witnessed some very strange takes on what grills could be. Creative welders fashioned smokers in the shape of locomotives, they converted airplanes, refrigerators and even school buses into cookers. The one thing they mostly had in common was they were solely dedicated to burning wood to create smoke for the low ‘n’ slow smoking conditions that define barbecue. As much as I respect the purity of such contraptions, for the purposes of cooking outdoors with limited patio space it’s impractical to have cookers committed to any one task, be it smoking, grilling or roasting. That’s why hybrid grills are so attractive.…

THE MEDIEVAL METROPOLIS OF Budapest, Hungary, sits astride the Danube River, a wonderfully preserved historic enclave that survived both World War II and Soviet rule to emerge as one of Eastern Europe’s most sophisticated cities, a vibrant jewel box full of Old-World charm. But a very different, even more ancient world has been constructed just a half-hour outside the city. Astra Studios is a blocky gray building that looks like a multistory big-box discount store—think Walmart without the charm—dropped in the middle of the Hungarian countryside. Hidden inside is a paradise, the royally appointed presidential palace of the fictional Middle Eastern country of Abuddin, the setting of “Tyrant,” FX’s provocative and controversial series about the temptations of power and balancing the needs of family and country. Adam Rayner looks extremely…

When brand owner Ernesto Perez-Carrillo wrapped hearty Nicaraguan tobaccos with a Connecticut-seed binder from Ecuador and a particularly dark Mexican San Andrés cover leaf, the result was the E.P. Carrillo Selección Oscuro, and the Piramides Royal scored 93 points. As the “Oscuro” in the name suggests, it’s a strikingly dark cigar but exhibits a balance of power and finesse. This distinguished tasting of figurados turned up plenty of shapely cigars that broke the 90-point threshold. The perfectly symmetrical Davidoff Nicaragua Diadema is a testamant to the training and rolling abilities of the craftsmen found at Cigars Davidoff in the Dominican Republic. It scored 91 points, as did the Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut Chingonova, which is a cosmically themed cigar made in Honduras at the newly expanded AgroIndustrias Laepe S.A. factory. Saint…

There is something exquisite about Oliva’s Serie V Melanio blend. The Figurado won CIGAR AFICIONADO’s 2014 Cigar of the Year award, and the Robusto scored an impressive 94 points in this tasting. Both sizes fall into the same class of overachieving cigars. The Robusto owes its tenor to the blend of Nicaraguan tobaccos and the Sumatra seed wrapper grown in Ecuador. Alec Bradley’s Post Embargo Robusto scored 91 points. The name refers to brand owner Alan Rubin’s wish to see an open market where Cuban and non-Cuban cigars can compete on an even playing field. The Honduran Punch Gran Puro Santa Rita scored 91 points as well and is a remarkable bargain. NICARAGUA RING GAUGE: 52 LENGTH: 5" FILLER: NICARAGUA BINDER: NICARAGUA WRAPPER: ECUADOR OLIVA SERIE V MELANIO ROBUSTO Beautifully…

Ask Dion Giolito who killed Kennedy, and he’ll quickly answer: “the Mob.” Did Roosevelt know in advance that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked? “It’s plausible.” How about the existence of UFOs? “Definitely yes.” Normally, nobody takes much notice if the makers of their favorite cigars believe in conspiracy theories, but for the Illusione cigar brand, which Giolito brought to market 10 years ago, government cover-ups and secret societies have come to define the brand’s image. “There’s a fine line between having fun or being campy and not being taken seriously as a cigarmaker,” contends Giolito. He gets up from a small desk in the back corner of the TABSA factory in Nicaragua and stretches his long legs. Today, it doesn’t matter who killed Kennedy or how many extraterrestrials…

In 1997, CIGAR AFICIONADO held its first Hall of Fame dinner. More than 400 industry members and cigar lovers joined together at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan to honor six legends of the cigar world. In 2012, in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of CIGAR AFICIONADO magazine, we inducted nine additional members at the Grand Havana Room in New York City. This past April, at our annual Night to Remember charity cigar dinner at the Four Seasons Restaurant, we added three new members to this exclusive club: Litto Gomez, the maker of La Flor Dominicana cigars in the Dominican Republic; Jorge Padrón, president of Nicaragua’s Padrón Cigars; and Rocky Patel, the owner of the Rocky Patel brand from Honduras and Nicaragua. Edgar M. Cullman CLASS OF 1997 1918–2011 Zino…

In yet another example of Washington’s antibusiness policies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced sweeping new regulations on the American cigar industry on May 5. If left unopposed, they will radically reshape the handmade cigar business in this country and threaten your legal right to smoke a cigar. The rules are onerous. They include the banning of free cigar samples, a prohibition on releasing new cigar brands (even new sizes to existing brands) without lengthy and expensive government approval and the requirement for large government warnings on cigar boxes. This is overregulation of the worst sort. Requiring government approval for new products is the harshest of the FDA rules. Any cigar that was not on the market on February 15, 2007—nearly 10 years ago—will have to undergo a registration…

“It’s not enough to have tradition, because tradition connects you to yesterday—we need to be connected to tomorrow,” said Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of TAG Heuer and president of LVMH Group’s Watches Division, during last fall’s debut of TAG Heuer’s Connected smartwatch developed with Intel and Google. Confronted with the Apple Watch and other smartwatches, a handful of premier brands have responded with their own takes on the technology, but with a luxury twist. Last year, Montblanc introduced its e-Strap, a high-tech watchstrap that includes an activity tracker, smart notifications, remote control and Find-Me functions. Meanwhile, Breitling launched a connected chronograph, Exospace B55, which links via Bluetooth to your smartphone and exchanges data back and forth. Bulgari prefers to describe its Diagono Magnesium Concept as “intelligent,” as it does not have…

Maybe you’ve played a good-natured lawn game on a summer evening, using weather-beaten mallets to knock battered balls around a course of nine wickets in the thick grass and bumpy turf of your backyard. You may have even called it croquet. It was only by the loosest of definitions. At the elite level croquet is a cutthroat affair, played across the globe with high-end equipment on manicured lawns of exacting standards. And if you’re thinking it’s a lazy game for the out-ofshape, ponder the results of the recent world championship played at the National Croquet Center (NCC) in West Palm Beach, Florida, in April. The finals went on for 11½ hours. (They play by points, not rounds, like you do.) That would have been a lot of Gin & Tonics…

Six years ago, Fitzgeralds Hotel & Casino was your classic downtown Vegas dump, complete with old carpeting, lighting that cast a sickly hue and a cramped corner-bar unfit for sipping even the cheapest draft beer. Down the street, the Golden Gate was famous for being the oldest continually run casino in Vegas—and from the looks of the place, you wouldn’t have needed any convincing. A couple of blocks away, the weirdly named Gold Spike was the kind of seedy dive you didn’t want to walk past, much less walk into. If you were brave enough to venture a few blocks east of the El Cortez—which wears its retro cachet a lot better now than it did in the early 2000s—you encountered motels that pretty much served as crack dens and…

There were plenty of high-scoring Churchills in this blind tasting, but none performed on the same level as the Cuban Bolivar Corona Gigante, which rose to the top of the list at 93 points. It’s one of the few Cuban Churchills still in production and turned in a regal, harmonious performance despite Bolivar’s reputation for heavy-handed, earthy tobacco. Five cigars scored 90 points, all ranging in style. The Brick House Churchill from J. C. Newman is a vintage brand that dates back to the early days of the company. This Nicaraguan Churchill is a fine bargain. The Falto Los Processos is made in the Dominican Republic by La Aurora for Tabacalera Falto, a company based in Puerto Rico. The Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur No. I showed a lot of character…

Cigars with ring gauges of 60 and larger may have seemed like a novelty at first, but demand for these thick smokes has not gone away and cigarmakers are taking this log-like format seriously. Take CAO, for example. The CAO Colombia Bogota scored 92 points on account of its creative, multination blending. Colombia is part of CAO’s country-themed cigar lines (Brazilia, Italia) and showcases Colombian tobacco grown from a seed referred to as Ica Mazinga. La Flor Dominicana’s Air Bender Maduro is composed mostly of Dominican tobaccos but finished with an Ecuadoran Habano wrapper. The blend scaled up to a 60 ring gauge faithfully, as the Valiente scored 91 points. NICARAGUA RING GAUGE: 60 LENGTH: 6" FILLER: COLOMBIA, BRAZIL BINDER: CAMEROON WRAPPER: HONDURAS CAO COLOMBIA BOGOTA A large, thick cigar…

RATING SUMMARY BLIND TASTE TEST NO. 133 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 0-69 Not available n/a Note: all prices are manufacturers’ suggested retail, before taxes. CUBA 93 Bolivar Corona Gigante 91 H. Upmann Petit Corona 91 Partagás Corona Gorda Añejados 91 Punch Punch 90 Cohiba Siglo I 90 Juan Lopez Selección No. 1 90 Montecristo Petit No. 2 89 H. Upmann No. 2 89 Partagás Serie D No. 4 89 Rafael Gonzalez Perla 89 Ramon Allones Small Club Corona 89 Trinidad Reyes 88 Cuaba Salomon DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 93 E.P. Carrillo Selección…

Dear Marvin, Thank you very much for standing up to Nick Enns’ comments [Out of the Humidor, June 2016]. I was surprised to read his ridiculous views. I, for one, only buy the best cigars I can afford and own an Omega Planet Ocean 600 meters and an Oris BC3 Silver Lake Edition. These watches are my most important possessions, after my kids and wife. I completely disagree with his opinions that young people don’t use fine timepieces because every phone has the time. This is like telling a young lady you don’t need a $15,000 diamond ring because you can see pictures of one on your phone. Ernesto Valenzuela San Diego, California Dear Marvin, Since I can remember, the cigar has been a part of my life. Growing up…

The quintessential summer drink has its recipe right in its name: Gin & Tonic. But it’s not that simple. Ignore the details and you squander the chance to make this classic quaff sublime. Choose wisely and you’ll build an effervescent testament to tropical refreshment. Mix blindly and you’re headed for the doldrums. Or worse— consider that in some unenlightened cultures Gin & Tonic is available in a can—you can’t even choose the proportions! Happily, the individual ingredients are enjoying a renaissance. The primary element (gin) is being revived as mixologists have rediscovered its place in timeless tippling, and craft distillers are widening the possibilities with novel botani-cals. Gin is essentially very complex, flavored vodka. Dozens of aromatics can be added (either during distillation or afterwards, the former is usually better),…

The downside of relaxed office dress codes is especially evident in the summer months, when the exigency to stay cool mistakenly leads to the over-casual boardroom T-shirts and shorts. Just because it’s hot outside doesn’t mean you can’t suit up— especially now when fabric innovations are creating lightweight materials that come in interesting patterns. In a different age, men had fewer choices for dressing up for summer. Out of necessity suits were limited to linens and cotton poplins, usually in solid tan hues and suitable for tropical outposts. The drawback is they wrinkle and wilt. Another choice is the laudable seersucker. Sadly, you see very little variation in that fabric. The color is typically regimented to light blue with white. The pattern is invariably pin cord—so much so that it’s…

One would hope that the grandeur of a 50th anniversary cigar (and expensive humidor to go with it) would mean exceptional tobacco. In the case of the Padrón 50th Anniversary Limited Edition, which scored 94 points, all expectations for excellence were met. It’s a long, box-pressed toro and offered all the rich signature qualities of a commemorative Padrón—including the high pricetag. Three cigars scored 91 points. Villiger’s La Libertad may be called a Churchill, but at 6 1/2 inches long, we still classify it as a corona gorda. The Punch Punch is a classic Cuban, but the Partagás Corona Gorda Añejados boasts extra, pre-market box-aging, even though it was released this year. NICARAGUA RING GAUGE: 52 LENGTH: 6 1/2" FILLER: NICARAGUA BINDER: NICARAGUA WRAPPER: NICARAGUA PADRÓN 50TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION…

Classic petit coronas, if rolled properly, can deliver surprisingly large volumes of smoke and plenty of complexity, regardless of the diminutive size. Cuba has always excelled at producing high-quality petits, and this tasting reflects that tradition. The H. Upmann Petit Corona scored 91 points for its complex layers of flavor. The Cohiba Siglo I may be the smallest cigar in Cohiba’s Siglo Series (Linea 1492), but it was full of enough character and body to score 90 points. Made in Nicaragua’s oldest cigar factory, the Joya de Nicaragua Antaño 1970 Machito is arguably the quintessential Nicaraguan petit corona while the Surrogates Cracker Crumbs represents a more modern blend. CUBA RING GAUGE: 42 LENGTH: 5 1/8" FILLER: CUBA BINDER: CUBA WRAPPER: CUBA BOX DATE: SEPTEMBER 2015 H. UPMANN PETIT CORONA A…

Cabañas is an old Cuban cigar brand that was once made by hand, but fell victim to the post-Embargo world and was cancelled. In later years it was brought back as a machine-made cigar. This review shows how marvelous the old handmade varieties could be. Despite being nearly old enough to earn a Social Security check, a 1955 Cabañas was loaded with intriguing flavors of baking spices, giving it a 99-point performance. (A Por Larrañaga from 1958 didn’t fare as well, smoking as if it was long past its prime. Not every cigar gets better with age.) An elusive 1992 La Flor de Cano Short Churchill, which attracts dear prices at auction, earned a score of 95 points. The clever name denotes not a special size, but a traditional Cuban…