So the weather in London can’t quite make its mind up this week but it looks like more snow on the way. If it’s as bad as the last two years and I can’t get to the office (goodness knows my sports car is useless on icy roads) I may decide to do a sort of Desert Island Discs or should I say Snow Stranded Cigars!

I came up with this list to stash in the home humidor to last me through 🙂

1. Bolivar Belicosos – I can smoke these any time of day

2. Montecristo no.2 – My long standing favourite cigar that has been exceptional quality over the last few years

3. Punch Orchant Seleccion no.11 – Simply delicious

4. Juan Lopez Seleccion Suprema – Had to have a UK regional in the list as they are such great Havanas



5. Partagas Serie D no.4 – Had to have a robusto in the list of course

Now that would cover the flavour and strength profiles that I love but I would also need a few libations to match up so delving into the Robert Graham Ltd range it would have to be :

1. Allt-Bhainne 1997 – Delicious when paired up with the Bolivar or Punch

2. Benrinnes 1998 – Perfect with the Montecristo  and Juan Lopez

3. Glenallachie – Outstanding with just about any good Havana!

So that would be me set up nicely… as long as my Palio stays good and sharp!

Spent a little time herfing in our Mayfair cigar shop this week and have to say for a small specialist shop… it has one busy sampling area! On Thursday there must have been a constant stream of cigar smokers buying cigars  and sampling them on the premises. The extraction system is amazing – well done to our builders as well as the Rabbit air system. The coffee and Scotch are not too shabby either 🙂

Alfie Turmeaus cigar shop in Mayfair is open 7 days a week for our customers convenience with late nights on Thursday and Friday

The Mayfair shop is located in Shepherd Market which is such a gorgeous location and ideal for a cigar shop. The shops around us are so classy, from the top class florist and jeweller to fabulous boutiques. I popped in to one of the neighbours for a coffee and was very impressed to say the least check out Tanner Krolle next time you are in the area, great people and splendid leather craft. There are 2 great pubs as well and quite a few first class restaurants (some with outdoor seating – so they will be good for a smoke when the weather is better!)

Shepherd Market may well end up to be THE central  London destination point for cigar smokers especially when the new 5 Hertford Street club opens in the future. I can’t think of a nicer location in Town except perhaps St James’s where you can smoke outside the lovely Franco’s restaurant. There is still one Havana cigar specialist I can think of offhand which is the beautiful Davidoff shop.

A little further north you can also sample in peace at our West Hampstead Robert Graham Ltd shop… and you can also enjoy a dram of scotch there from our fabulous range of course. The walk in humidor has a great range of Havanas and non-Cuban cigars and you can usually find some discontinued and interesting Havanas that can’t be found anywhere else in the country.

So I’ve had enough of the cold, armed with a large humipouch full of large Havanas I’m off for a week for some Valentines sunshine where I will do my next blog from!

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

At last they have arrived! Feast your eyes on the latest  Orchant Seleccion Havana cigars:

Punch Royal Selection no.11. The cabinet selection version of the benchmark Corona Gorda Punch Punch but somehow always a better blend for my palate. 2007 was a fantastic vintage and the 32 cabinets I have selected from our importers Hunters and Frankau are all the finest English Market Selection 2007 code.

Available by the cabinet and in singles.

Measuring in at 5 5/58” length and 46 ring gauge this cheeky smoke is loaded with sweet, full and complex flavours from the first to the last finger burning puff. The tobacco is well matured and the wrappers generally silky smooth colorado – colorado maduro. During tests I only found 1 with a sub-par draw and the rest (quite a few so far!) have a cool, clear draw. A sophisticated blend not for the novice but the experienced Havana smoker will enjoy this smoke immensely. Get them while you can as most of the stock has already been pre ordered.

I’m planning a delicious Orchant Seleccion Havana sampler for next month as we have now had quite a few of the finest Havana cigars banded specially for us. It will be a great opportunity for my clients to try a few of my favourite Havana cigars.

Lunch at Boisdale Belgravia earlier this week, followed by a Partagas Serie E no.2 on the rather cold terrace where Ranald and I planned our next vintage cigar auction. This will take place on Monday the 2^nd July at Boisdale Canary Wharf. It promises to be the usual lively event with quite a few interesting vintage boxes of Havanas arriving daily. You can see updates on our auction website.

For a change of pace and some different flavour profiles check out our growing and massively popular Fuente range on this link.  My partner Guy Hancock from Decent Cigar Emporium in Dublin spent a day of serious Fuente herfing in the office on Wednesday as we discussed and tested out many of the new additions to the range.

Montecristo Gran Reserva first allocation came in… and then went back out. 5000 cabinets made but few seem to be into the marketplace as of yet. So, if you got hold of them – cherish and enjoy! We hope to have more substantial allocations available over the next few months although we already have many back orders. These cigars are made with tobacco aged from 2005 and don’t taste anything like regular production Monte  2’s. They are far more full bodied as well as stronger, bags of long term aging potential and no doubt an interesting potential investment. Drop me a line if you would like some [email protected]

 Valentines coming up soon 🙂 great range of Romeo cigars on the website and we are always delighted to gift wrap and add personalised messages of course!

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Delayed blog due to rather manic week starting with a trip to my shops in Liverpool and Chester on Monday which is always fun for me as I love searching through the walk in humidors to see if there are any goodies. Managed to find a few boxes of the now sold out Por Larranaga Regalias del Londres, Flor de Cano Short  Robusto, El Rey Del Mundo Choix De L’ Epoque, Punch Serie D’ Oro no.1, H Upmann Magnum 46 2001 vintage (no bands)Cohiba Gran Reserva (singles) and a few other great smokes that are hard to come by.

Congrats to our new Manageress Jayne at Chester and best of luck for the future to our retiring Manageress Fiona. Chester Turmeaus has gone through a bit of a face lift over the last few months finishing with lovely comfortable new leather chairs that have just arrived and are perfect for in store cigar sampling 🙂

Our professional photographer Tillman Prestcher from Hamburg arrived on Tuesday to photograph some vintage cigars for a client and was rapidly grabbed by the camera strap to do a load of Cuban antique cabinet photographs for me instead! Setting up studio in one of our offices, Tillmann did his usual excellent work for which I am always grateful.

Wednesday was Lanesborough herfing evening with friends from overseas. Packed as ever on the terrace and service as good as ever- this is the premier spot for a smoke/drink in Town. We herfed our way through a few UK regionals with some good single malt which was perfect on the cold evening.

Thursday was my annual meeting at Hunters and Frankau to go through all the new products expected to be launched through the year. Sampled my way through a Monte Open Eagle whilst chatting with Jemma and Sean and discussing how I could top last year’s record sales. Montecristo Gran Reserva will finally be released in the UK late this week but don’t get too excited yet as the allocations are quite tiny and it may be some time before we have enough stock coming through to satisfy the huge demand for these fine smokes. Limited edition of 5000.

We expect the UK Bolivar RE early march and that should prove to be hugely popular too. 3000 numbered wooden boxes of 10 Bolivar Britanicas measuring 5 1/3” length and 46 ring gauge specially double banded for the UK. Best to email and register interest soonest because if these sell as fast as we expect, they won’t be around for too long. The other UK regional will be a Punch Medaille D’Oro  but I don’t w3ant to hazard a guess on when this will become available!

Racing back to the office from my H&F meeting and just in time for an office herf that had started with a swing or at least a lot of cigar smoke and pink champagne as our pre herf to the Burns night dinner we have every year at Boisdale. This year we changed venue from Belgravia to Canary Wharf and it was good if not better than ever. Monte 2’s on the cigar terrace, dinner followed by cigars in the Cigar Library. My herfing chums and I love Boisdale!

Having my usual fun tweeting on Twitter and have sussed out that just about any time I tweet that I am heading to Alfie Turmeaus cigar shop in Mayfair, friends/clients show up for a smoke and a drink! (which is just fine by me 🙂 ) 

No fly zone for me this week (thank goodness) but just as well, I have a lot of serious Office and Boisdale herfing scheduled for this week!

Have a smokey week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

We have had some remarkable Havana cigars released over the last few years. I am always surprised that some of them are actually available as long as they are. Some of the finest will be out of stock soon as our stocks are now steadily dwindling. So if you need to top up the humidor, now would be a good time!

Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres UK regional edition  

Cuaba Piramides Limited edition 2008  

H Upmann Magnum 48 Limited edition 2009  

Trinidad Short Robusto T Limited edition 2010  

The Larranaga is one of the finest regional editions I have ever smoked (I should know as I have smoked most of them!) The Cuaba is a first rate blended limited edition and the Upmann and Trini are perfect smokes when time is short.

I’m still looking forward to this year’s new releases in the UK including :

Montecristo Gran Reserva 2011 – In varnished cabinets of 15 due 6 1/8” length and 52 ring gauge

UK regional editions…

Bolivar Britanicas 5 3/8” length and 46 ring gauge in boxes of 10

Punch Medaille de Oro  6 1/8” length and 50 ring gauge in boxes of 10

I’ve almost given up trying to guess release dates as it never seems to quite work out! So hopefully sometime in 2012!

The latest Seleccion Orchant Havana cigars are due to be released first week of February

Punch Royal Seleccion No.11 – 2007 vintage, cabinet of 25.
An exceptional corona gorda vitola cigar that I can highly recommend. Full strength and full smooth sweet flavour typical of the brand. This one is not for the novice but for the experienced Havana cigar smoker.

Limited release of 32 cabinets Seleccion Orchant Havana cigars
are selected at Hunters and Frankau
and considered the best quality, condition and appearance Havana cigars.
 

I did a bit of a single malt whisky pairing with Orchant Seleccion Punch cigars from our fabulous Dancing Stag range and I am pleased to announce the winners are *drum roll*…

Robert Graham Ltd, Dancing Stag series, Strathisla 1997

Robert Graham Ltd, Dancing Stag series,Glenallachie 1995

Both bottled at 46%. First try neat and then add a few drops of water but please no ice! I really do love Speyside’s with a good Havana cigar!

Our newest cigar shop in Shepherd Market Mayfair is already proving to be very popular with cigar smokers around Mayfair although this week we seem to have had as many visitors from the cigar trade over the last week as customers!

Fabulous new DVD by James Suckling out now –  Cigars : The Heart and Soul of Cuba. well done James, really superb and highly recommended.

Had a spot of lunch with Tom from Tom Tom Cigars at Boisdale Belgravia on Tuesday and enjoyed some delicious Romeo Short Churchills on the terrace with a glass of port. Is it me or is this a totally under rated cigar?

Looking forward to our Burns night herf at Boisdale Canary Wharf next week 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Back to my usual routine this week with a herfette in our fabulous La Casa del Habano in Hamburg, I’m not sure cigar shops get any more beautiful than this! Fabulous cigar lounge that is packed with smokers morning till night, huge walk in humidor crammed with stacks of the finest Havana cigars and a tasting room with shelves full of the best rum and other premium spirits.

Herfing my way through a few of the German regional edition Sancho Panza Escuderos with a bottle or 3 of Champagne was a fine way to have a ‘business’ meeting with my partner Christoph Wolters 🙂 Christoph teased me with a stack of Montecristo Gran Reserva (sadly or gladly – all sold already!) but we managed to smoke a crafty one of these magnificent smokes before I left the shop. Now if only we could fine another 100-200 cabinets…

Back to London and it was time for a Mayfair herf at our newest shop in Shepherd Market where the humidor already needs restocking and we have been pleased to welcome existing and new clients. Jimmy from Hunters and Frankau popped in to check out the new shop and his report is in the Hunters website.

No sign of the Montecristo Gran in the UK as yet although we are still hopeful for first allocation this month and I should have a better idea on release dates later this month for UK regional edition for this year too.

At last the builders are out of the London office and improvements include a redec for the offices which was somewhat overdue and completely new lighting (a lot more slick) as well as our walls being filled with our fabulous collection of original photographs of Cuba/Che/Fidel etc. looks very cool if I do say so myself. I can’t believe how many times we have improved/refurbished/redesigned our offices/humidor/warehouse over the last 12 years! I reckon we are finally done! We also have the new Rabbit smoke air purifier installed which is quite incredible. I saw this on a recent visit to the incredible Nat Sherman cigar store  in New York where manager Michael Herklots very kindly showed me how the system worked and I was sold on it immediately (TYMH!) we are now installing it in our Mayfair sampling room too.

Planning a trip to Liverpool and Chester stores next weekend and will be herfing just a bit on the Monday morning so if anyone is around… Yes the shops are of course exempt from the ban 🙂

The C7GAR car is in for a service today but my trusty assistant Michelle drove me to the office and we smoked LFDC’s on the journey – perfect 30 minute smokes and good to calm my nerves now that London traffic is back to its awful normal levels.

Looking forward to our Burns night herf at Boisdale Canary Wharf on the 26^th drop me an email if you would like to join me and my smoking chums.

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell