We have finally closed the auction catalogue list today and the final printed catalogue has gone to press and will be distributed on Monday. We had to cut it off at 300 Lots which is a fairly huge auction 🙂 Full details on our auction website

Boisdale Belgravia was our chosen restaurant for a herf last night and it was good to make new cigars smoking friends on the terrace. A cold evening but the heaters and blankets did a good job at keeping us warm as we smoked our way through a baggie of Monte 2’s BBF and SD 4’s. And.. well done to the Boisdale chef for the best Gravadlax we have ever tasted 🙂

Herfed my way through a few Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 this week and they just keep getting better. Stash them in your humidor while you can as stocks are starting to get low on this fabulous UK regional edition

New ranges for Christmas being added to the website all the time and we have had cigar photographer Tillman Pretscher working in our offices all week together with our full time photographer Blanka who was busy photographing our ever growing range of humidors which now includes Daniel Marshall and Elie Bleu

Famous cigar roller Hamlet of the Romeo factory in Havana has been busy rolling dark and oily wrapper robustos for us with some splendid mature leaf for the last 5 days and we are grateful to Hunters and Frankau for sending him over to us as he is exceptionally skilled and a first rate roller. More details on this link

Our friend Kiminori Yagi from cigar Bar Bridge in Tokyo also came over to London for an office herf this week, always lovely to see him and I’m looking forward to herfing in Tokyo again in the near future.

Just a few days till my trip to Havana for the Partagas Festival 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Sorry for the cryptic blog subject but you may have guessed I’m a bit of a Beetles fan so it came as a pleasant surprise to find my Turmeaus Tobacconist shop in Liverpool get a mention in the fantastic new book by Jude Southerland Kessler.

‘Shivering Inside’ is a novel on the life of John Lennon December 1961- April 1963 and a great read. More details on this link

I’ve been racing around smoking Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres like a fiend this week! They really are a treat and it doesn’t get much better in terms of regional editions.

On Tuesday I had dinner and drinks at the Groucho Club on Dean street with my favourite film producer . I understand The Groucho is putting in a smoking terrace :- bravo 🙂 dinner was followed by a herfette at the Lanseborough cigar terrace till late… herfed through a good few Por Larranaga paired up with some Oban single malt.

Wednesday some friends from Indiana stopped by the office for a UK regional edition Havanas sampling session – paired up with the finest Robert Graham Ltd single malt whisky and then I headed off to the Haven in Whetstone for dinner followed by a bit of a herf at home with friends…you guessed it, yet more Larranagas

You would think that was enough action for a week but I zoomed over to Geneva on Thursday morning for the day. Perfect sunny and hot weather and a spot of al fresco lunch at a charming restaurant in on of my favourite cities. It always amazes me how many Gentlemen I spot walking along smoking a Havana in Geneva.

I visited some of the great cigar stores including Tabac Rhein who have recently moved a few doors further up to quite magnificent new premises, Gerard who has one of the most modern and chic cigar stores in the world and Davidoff …always very classy. Tried out the Swiss regional El Rey Del Mundo Elegantes which was very tasty indeed although I dare say it would be better if the humidity in the Swiss cigar merchants was a bit lower.

Our auction website is getting more popular by the day and I am guessing a lot of people will win bargains on the 30th November or be able to bid and win cigars that are rarer than rare 🙂 check out the 300 Lots of cigars on this link

2 weeks to go till the Partagas Festival in Havana, I can’t wait for some mega herfing and some sunshine (great combo!)

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

What should we smoke for Halloween? It doesn’t make any difference 🙂 however I can confirm that I’ll be smoking the same cigar that I have been enjoying all day every day for the last week.

Yes folks I am hooked on the Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres, these cigars are the bomb 🙂 great smokes that are just flying off our shelves. Could well be the fastest selling UK regional edition so far.

Dark wrappers, complex blend, easy draw and the perfect size (Gordito) I really should stop smoking them as there are only 1200 boxes that have been made (available by the single and box at all of our UK cigar stores)

I just got back from a visit to our Robert Graham Ltd stores in Scotland. Decided to give Squeezy Jet a miss and fly BMI. I can tell you it felt very civilized by comparison. Not sure about the dodgy hats the flight attendants were wearing though!

Our Scottish cigar and whisky stores are in the process of being filled up to the ceiling with whisky and cigars for the Christmas season – the range is already quite breathtaking.

Our Glasgow shop on West Nile street has just been refitted and now features a walk in humidor with a massive selection of English Market Selection Havana cigars in singles and by the box. I am very proud of the Glasgow store as its very small and ridiculously busy, probably due to the fabulous staff there (well done Linda!) and it was our last location without a walk in humidor, so finally job done!

Lemon of the week award goes to the first class train service from Glasgow to Edinburgh as they ran out of water and only had luke warm coffee – totally useless

Amusing video of the week award goes to this one how many out of time sequence shots can you count?!! Just too funny- perhaps they had a little too much scotch.

My Canongate store ‘ The Treasurer’ is probably the place I should base myself in due to the vast range of speciality chocolate they stock there- a dangerous place for a man on a diet! Pretty massive range of cigars too as well as our award winning independent bottled single malt and we are just about to release a Deanston and Tobermory which I can thoroughly recommend with a good Havana. You may have to go on a waiting list fast though as only 180 bottles of each will ever be bottled.

All Turmeaus and Robert Graham cigar stores have all UK regional edition cigars in singles and by the box and if you rummage around you can usually find some other rarer treats, whether it’s a mature box or just something a tad more special like Cohiba Behikes 56 or Ramon Allones Belicosos (both spotted at Edinburgh Rose street branch!) Oh! and a warm welcome back to the family business to Cailin Morrison (Ron’s son)

Eddie Sahakian of Davidoff London popped into the London office for a smoke with me a few days ago, always great to see him. I reckon Davidoff London is probably the best cigar store in central London, always well worth a visit.

Had a good evening at the Lanesborough cigar terrace on Wednesday with Tillman (very famous cigar photographer) Chris (very famous fashion designer) and Nick (very famous banker!) smoked salmon and 1st cru Chablis (rather lots of) and back to back Por Larranaga cigars – perfect evening. Nick told me how his Dupont Extend lighter was confiscated by security at the airport- how sad and pathetic are these security laws, I mean seriously, a little lighter ! Anyway, I sent him a replacement rapido so all’s well 🙂

Interest in our next auction continues to increase as do the Lots that we keep adding ! latest Lots to arrive included Davidoff Chateau Yquem 46 original cigars from a cab of 50 – quite beautiful. Check out the auction website here the catalogue is on PDF but all the Lots in the catalogue can be clicked on to get further details and photos as well as bid online. Very clever stuff 🙂

Turmeaus Chester had Hamlet the roller rolling custom blend Hermosos last week – haven’t tried one yet but I dare say it should not be too shabby as Hamlet is well known as a highly skilled grade 9 roller. A few singles knocking around for clients of C.Gars and can be purchased online.

I’m off for just one more Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres!

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

TGIF! and TG PL Regalias de Londres have finally arrived. I was starting to get worried that the 2010 UK exclusive regional edition was not going to make it before 2011!

I was even more worried as to how the blend would stack up against the Por Larranaga Magnificos but I can tell you that whilst the Magnificos is a very delicate day time blend, the Regalias is like a Magnificos on steroids. Yes it has the Por Larranaga flavour characteristic but this cigar has a fuller body and is medium strength profile and not a light to medium as some may expect.

I have now smoked 5 cigars from box number 688 of 1200 boxes made and the blend is perfectly consistent. The wrappers are smooth and dark and the construction is flawless. The draw is easy and the aroma light and pleasant. This is a complex Havana cigar that has the same embossed gold band as the Magnificos and is packaged in an attractive dress box with clasp closer. 5 1/2 ” length and 50 ring gauge of sheer smoking pleasure.The aging potential is enormous in this well balanced blend.

Check them out on this link we will be updating photographs with better close ups in the next few hours,

I visited our Norfolk offices on Wednesday- great range of Havanas available via our click and collect service and mail order via our website of course. Our massive warehouse stores thousands of humidors of every size, shape and finish you can dream of! and we are expecting new range or Elie Bleu and Daniel Marshall to arrive in the next week as well

Michelle’s birthday was celebrated with famous basketball start Mark Blount popping to our London offices for a glass or 5 of our house Champagne matched up with some rather tasty UK exclusive regional edition Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 helluva smoke !

Our Vintage Cigar Auction business looks like it is growing so rapidly that we decided to create a dedicated website so cigar aficionado’s can reference prices from previous auctions as well as bid online for current auction check it out here you can view the catalogue online or of course order hard copy catalogue. C.Gars Ltd Director of auctions Brian Ebbesen (previously of Christies) is happy to take your enquiries by email

So my message of the week is buy less,smoke less but smoke the best- English Market Selection Havanas from Hunters and Frankau are what we sell to our clients in the UK….. and they are without any doubt THE best

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell