Our September auction was a resounding success with the usual high sale rate of around 95%.  Highlights included:

Box of 10 Dunhill Estupendos – £8,600

Box of 25 Dunhill Mojito – £9,050

Cabinet of 25 Dunhill Atados – £4320

Part box of 10 Dunhill Romeo y Julieta Seleccion Suprema no.103 from 1919 – £1060

A great stock of Davidoff cigars in packs, boxes and cabinets selling for  some very high prices as well as a good selection of aged, rare, limited and regional editions.

As ever, all sold results left on the website as a permanent resource. That was our 30^th auction since the auction department was established way back in 2009 (that went fast!) and we have knocked down a total of 9995 Lots so far! We have an interesting charity Lot being offered currently on the auction website  checkout the story, it’s pretty cool, and if you don’t know where the name of the cigar came from check out this link. Our next sale will be on the 1^st December and Lots are already arriving daily. This will be the first auction (potentially) post Brexit so it will be interesting to see where the exchange rate is at that time and what the effect is on bidding.

We have just received and released the 2018 (yes, I know its 2019!) Limited Edition H.Upmann Propios. This is a brilliant size measuring in at 4 ¾” length and 46 ring gauge. Sort of works any time of day and delivers volumes of smoke due to the girth of the cigar. Very limited stocks available at this time. Inka Secret Blend has now gone International J… available in Germany and still our best-selling New World cigar in the UK! more details on this link.

Siglo VI remain in very very short supply, the odd cabinet arriving every now and then but happy to say Cohiba Piramides Extra have made a reappearance  and are smoking very well indeed. We have also released our final batch of the UK regional edition Juan Lopez Seleccion Superba from 2016  The additional box age ensures they are a magnificent smoke.

Turmeaus – Mayfair is going through a bit of a freshen up with new décor making it look very lovely indeed, just waiting for some good weather so the outside gets redecorated as well. What an incredible success story this cigar and whisky shop has become. We opened the doors 8 years ago and it’s one of our most popular locations with a very busy albeit small sampling area, client lockers and a huge range of Havana cigars at the best retail prices in London …guaranteed.

I’m off to the RAC Club this evening to do a cigar Q & A featuring Alec Bradley and Oliva Orchant Seleccion cigars…. More on that next week.

Have a smokey week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I’m finally back from my rather long trip to LA and happy to see I brought the good weather back with me 🙂 No dramas whilst I was away except an attempted break in at my Mayfair Turmeaus store. Unsuccessful of course as we have anti-bandit glass! So we have yet another new shop front window.

We have decided to give this ridiculously busy cigar shop a makeover in the next week or two. Should look very cool indeed. The shop has a huge range of Havanas in the walk in humidor and can squish in 5 people in the sampling room which it usually does from the minute it opens till closing time!

It was Karyn’s birthday on Saturday (well… mine as well) and the weather could not have been better for some serious birthday herfing in the garden as well as in the car. And the birthday selection was… The Birthday Orchant Seleccion of course! Paired up very nicely with a Magnum of Bilecart Salmon Rose (thank you AC… helluva birthday prezzie!)

The last Bolivar Orchant Seleccion Belicosos were for my 50^th birthday, they were splendid cigars and this release if anything are even better smokes. The first Bolivar Orchant Seleccion Belicosos were released in 2007 rated as the dream year for most Havanas by many including me. I followed the 55^th birthday  BBF with an ’07 which was sweet as sugar if not one of my all-time favourites, In the evening I went a bit crazy with a Dom Perignon and a Dunhill Don Candido No. 500. It was a very happy birthday 🙂

Ron and I enjoyed a splendid evening at The Oriental Club for  Nick Hammond’s new book launch “Around The World in 80 cigars“.

Hosted by our fabulous supplier, Tor imports, and attended by all the characters in the London cigar trade including Jemma Freeman (H&F), Rob Fox (JJ Fox), Eddie Sahakian (Davidoff) and Laurence Davis (Sautter), to name a few. Great to catch up with Ricardo Carioni from the Nicaraguan Embassy (we are planning a Nicaraguan month of events early next year!)

I think I took Nick on his first trip to Havana many years ago and remember it was one of the funniest times I ever had there. Thanks for the mentions in the book Nick, hope it’s a great success for you. Post event herf was at The Lanesborough – Garden Room… where else? 🙂

Its auction time again (that came around fast!) and the September auction is now live and finishes on Sunday evening. We had not planned to hold a September auction but we had so many quality boxes sent in for valuations and sales advice we decided it best to hold this extra auction as well as our Winter auction in December.

It’s another pretty huge sale with over 350 Lots entered by aficionados, collectors and estates. Highlights include some magnificent Dunhill and Davidoff cigars:

Dunhill Estupendos
Dunhill Mojitos
Dunhill Atados
Davidoff Chateau Haut Brion
Davidoff No. 1
Davidoff Dom Perignon

There are also vast amounts of regional and limited editions, aged, mature and pre-embargos that will be sold.

Catalogue can be seen on this link and bidding is all online… think of us as cBay 🙂

FAQ is on this link questions and advise by email with pleasure to my auction team [email protected]

We are open for viewings all week, drop us an email to make an appointment.

Great to be back in the office though I can’t wait to get around the Turmeaus shops round the country though that will have to wait for another week or so. I gather the good weather has done no harm to our sales which remain at record levels. I’m thinking it must be good BBQ’ing and herfing weather 🙂

Supply of some Havanas remains patchy. El Rey del Mundo La Reina come into stock in tiny quantity and sell out fast. Siglo VI and Cohiba Piramides are in and out every few days. BHK 56 is non-existent but the odd box or two of BHK52’s and 54’s turn up now and again.

Checkout the new sections on my website and let me know if you like them: La Casa del Habano and the World of Davidoff.

Plenty of sampling events coming up… check them out on this link.

Have a smokey week,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Greetings from sunny West Hollywood …this blog comes to you from my balcony where I’m enjoying an Oliva – Orchant Seleccion Chubby in 27c sunny blue skies. No wonder people look so happy here, I haven’t seen a cloud in the sky for the last month 🙂

I’ve been spending Summer in LA for as long as I can remember and have so many friends over here going back over the last 22 years, I actually have to move from one herf to the next on the same day just to get to see everyone.

It’s a bit of a crazy world where cigar smoking apparently is not welcome at a lot of places but weed is legal. Go figure….

That said, I have no shortage of places to go for a cigar. there’s GHR and Nazareth’s in Beverly Hills, State Social in WeHo, The Spot in Encino as well as hotels such as the Sunset Marquis and SLS to name a few where they have good areas to herf in the sunshine.

It’s been a very hectic herfing schedule with my chums from New York flying out for a week of non-stop herfing at Redondo Beach (TY Larry) GHR (TY Peter) and San Diego (TY VC) . They left and I carried on herfing in Bel Air (TY LS), The Duffy herf in Long Beach (TY Bob) and numerous other friends’ homes.

I’m enjoying the best of Fuente and Davidoff cigars and everyone seems to be handing me Havanas! (they seem to have more than me and I don’t even sell to them!!) I sent ahead a couple of cases of Orchant Seleccion Cigar Malt to enjoy with friends and that’s going down very fast!

Being a bit of a petrol head, I finally managed to get my dates right and go to Pebble Beach for the incredible Concours d’Elegance show followed by smokes at The Inn at Spanish Bay which can only

be described as idyllic. I also went to the Sunset GT car meet in WeHo which had the most breath-taking super cars on display (no smoking though!)

I’ve settled into a good routine of 4 hours work on the balcony every morning with a good cigar or two. Technology is quite amazing… I don’t think I could have run a business of this size remotely 22 years ago! I think the 8-hour time difference actually makes it easier to keep up with the mad pace of C.Gars business.

Aiming to be back in the London office by mid-September to wrap up the auction for the 22nd September as well as celebrate my 55th birthday and the release of my Bolivar Belicosos – Seleccion Orchant. As I was born in 1964, I have selected 64 specially numbered boxes with double banded cigars of exceptional appearance and quality. They are available on pre-sell early September.

I have managed a little down time with concerts at The Greek and enjoyed seeing Blondie, Elvis Costello and The Steve Miller band 🙂 my kinda music.

My Sales Team tell me the weather is great in the UK and sales at record highs this year. I’m guessing it’s due to the weather? Or maybe the Brexit effect?!

There are still ongoing supply issues with Havanas with little supply of BHK’s, Partagas Salomones, Siglo VI and Lanceros. Fortunately, our stock levels are deep so we manage to iron out most rough spots.

El Rey del Mundo La Reina – UK regional is still officially our fastest selling cigar ever. We are getting dribs and drabs of stock availability for this delicious Lancero sized cigar… but you may need to get your orders in fast as they are likely to be out of stock again very soon!

I have noticed a remarkable improvement in Havana cigar quality from boxes with 18 and 19 codes recently. In fact, not only is the quality and blending dramatically improved on 15 and 16 code but the construction is dramatically better. I recently enjoyed Magnum 54’s and CoRo’s that were better than I can remember them in a long time.

That’s the news for now, the sun is going down so I’m heading out for a walk with a BBF 🙂

Have a smokey rest of the week

Peaceful puffing from Lala Land

Mitchell

Greetings from C.Gars London HQ where we are expecting a bit of a heatwave this week… perfect herfing weather 🙂

Last week I hosted the pre-release event for our new range of Orchant Seleccion by Drew Estate at Turmeaus Liverpool, followed by a further event at Turmeaus Chester the very next evening.

We were very proud to welcome Jonathan Drew (pictured to the right) as guest of honour for the evening and the crowded room enjoyed his very interesting insights on Drew Estate as well as cigar manufacturing in Nicaragua (it really is a huge company/factory/region!), the samples that we tested out were superb.

This new range will be available online and in all of our stores by the end of August and will be presented in packs of 10 in three sizes initially:

Lightweight: 3 ½” Length x 46 Ring Gauge
Middleweight: 4 ½” Length x 46 Ring Gauge
Heavyweight: 5 ¼” Length x 46 Ring Gauge

It took us quite some time to settle on the right blend but I feel we have totally nailed it. I reckon they will be super popular!

Completely hand crafted and made in Estelí:

Wrapper: Stalk Cut Havana grown in Connecticut
Binder: Indonesian Sumatra
Filler: Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Connecticut Broadleaf and Nicaragua
Strength: Medium to Full Bodied

Attendees were spoiled with our Chef’s canapes, Old Fashioned cocktails, Stalla Dhu Saorsa single malt whisky and quite a few Drew Estate cigars to sample including the Middleweight, a Lancero and a non-production A size Gran Corona. A great sampling event to say the least.

This week I’m heading to another sold out sampling event at our Knutsford branch which I am very proud to announce is now our second La Casa del Habano location (we expect to open more LCDH shops in the future too!).

We look forward to welcoming Yadira Bulnes of Hunters & Frankau as guests of honour to celebrate the opening. I have also now been informed that the person designated by the Cuban Embassador to represent her on the opening of the Casa is Mr. Guillermo Parera, Press and Culture Counselor. Mr. Julio Pujol will not be able to join us due to flying to Cuba early next morning.

C.Gars Ltd President Ron Morrison will be cutting the ribbon together with Yadira Bulnes, Corporate Director of Hunters & Frankau.

The premises consist of a cigar shop and walk in humidor with client lockers on the ground floor and a comfortable sampling lounge on the first floor. The full range of La Casa specialities including Coleccion Habanos books and limited edition humidors will be well represented.

LCDH Knutsford will be managed by Turmeaus tobacconist trained team Andrew, Liz and Sandra under the guidance of Sara and Calum (Master of Cigars) from LCDH Chester.

Opening a second La Casa del Habano is very important to our Group and allows us to continue our substantial growth in Havana cigars sales. It will enable us to have additional availability of La Casa specialities to satisfy our customers’ insatiable demand for the finest handmade cigars in the world.

In other news this week…

We are still experiencing some Havana cigar stock shortages including all sizes of BHK’s, Piramides Extra, Siglo VI in 10’s though 25’s seem to be coming back in small quantity. Bolivar Soberanos and Super Coronas are sold out by the importers and our stocks are almost exhausted.

El Rey del Mundo La Reina UK regional editions continues to be our fastest selling cigar of all time. We are continuously sold out though we are still accepting orders as we are expecting further allocations.

If you are one of the lucky clients to have been allocated the incredible 1790 Humidor, then well done you 🙂 it really is a masterpiece filled with the most incredible cigars. We may make an additional one available in the near future. Email me for details. [email protected]

H&F aged release allocations have now been confirmed. They are very tight and in all fairness there were only a few boxes of each aged cigar available and no doubt much demand from the UK cigar trade. I’m not yet sure if we will be releasing them or I will be smoking them #joke 😀

We are now listing Lots for our September auction, email my auction team if you need any advice.

Short week for me as I’m heading to Bristol on Thursday and Friday to celebrate my daughters graduation (Double First in Spanish and French!), I think I will be firing up a Davidoff Dom Perignon to celebrate.

Next Monday I’ll be taking the car for a blast to our Norfolk HQ and Turmeaus Norfolk for the day to wrap up our quarterly Marketing Team meetings… it has been an astonishing quarter for C.Gars Group so my thanks to Laura, James and their brilliant Team… then I’m off to L.A. for the Summer… back sometime in September 🙂

Have a smokey week,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Greetings from sunny London where I’m puffing an Trinidad La Trova and having a wee celebratory dram of Orchant Selection Cigar Malt J I’m celebrating because we have recently signed the contract to open our second La Casa del Habano Knutsford, Cheshire on the 24^th July.

La Casa del Habano Knutsford,
10 Minshull Street,
Knutsford,
Cheshire,
WA16 6AG
UK

We look forward to welcoming the Cuban Ambassador as well as Jemma Freeman of Hunters & Frankau as guests of honour to the to the opening event. Tickets are available on this link, but book up fast as there is limited availability already! Cigars, rum, whisky, wine and great food… should be a splendid event 🙂

The premises comprise of a ground floor cigar shop and walk-in humidor with client lockers and a first floor comfortable sampling lounge. The full range of La Casa specialities including Coleccion Habanos books and limited edition humidors will be well represented.

LCDH Knutsford will be managed by Turmeaus tobacconist trained team Andrew, Liz and Sandra under the guidance of Sara and Calum (Master of Cigars) from LCDH Chester.

Opening a second La Casa del Habano is very important and allows us to continue our substantial growth in Havana cigars sales. It will enable us to have additional availability of La Casa specialities to satisfy our customers insatiable demand.

My journey with La Casa del Habano started quite some years ago with LCDH Hamburg which I owned a 50% share until around 5 years ago. I learned a lot about the business, made some great friends and enjoyed some brilliant events. We sold our stake in the business to concentrate all of our efforts on the UK market which we completely dominate, We have the best specialist cigar shops, the most highly trained staff and of course the largest and most well-kept stocks of Havana cigars in the UK. I’m very proud to have two La Casas in our Group and my thanks to Yadira from Hunters and Frankau for all of her support.

In other news this week…

The launch event for the long awaited El Rey del Mundo La Reina was a great success and a lovely surprise when Chris Eubank popped in to say hello! He was certainly very popular with Sara and Michelle! The cigars were as wonderful as expected and our complete first allocation was in fact pre-ordered and shipped out pretty fast so I dare say we have a lot of happy cigar smoking customers out there 🙂

This is the fastest selling regional edition that I can remember and we are hoping for a second allocation to be delivered in the very near future.

Hunters & Frankau also displayed the cigars for their Aged and Rare releases. Allocations will be very tight as availability is very limited but we hope to be able to make a few boxes available.

The other star of the show was the 1790 humidor. A limited edition of 30 magnificent numbered humidors containing 10 each of all of the UK regional editions from 2005 until 2017 including the La Gloria Cubana Britanicas which no one had seen yet! I understand that all of the humidors sold almost immediately at an eye watering retail price of £58,800. We hope to be able to satisfy our customer but this is a strictly allocated humidor so I fear many will be disappointed.

I enjoyed a lovely evening at Boisdale Belgravia on Tuesday (wow… is that place busy!) with James Leavey (cigar journalist), Paul Futcher (Cigar Club), and Philip Shervington (JJ Fox). The weather has been pretty amazing in London and it was very relaxing to herf on the terrace.

My business partner, Ron Morrison, is heading back to London on Monday so I think we’ll be doing some serious herfing on Monday and visiting Turmeaus Mayfair as well as the other super cigar shops and lounges in Town.

On Tuesday I’m heading to Turmeaus Liverpool for the first release tasting event of Drew Estate Orchant Seleccion cigars… A very very sold out event indeed!

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell