Bit of a crazy week last week with 2 days in Basel participating in the European Retailers Panel for Davidoff.

Dinner on Tuesday was at the rather splendid Teufelhof with 10 fellow retailers from around Europe and the Davidoff Team.

Of course dinner was followed by some fine Davidoff cigars including the outrageously good Year of the Horse. The boys split  a box of these delicious cigars whilst chatting about the cigar trade on a nice, dry, if cold, evening.

Year of the Horse are a limited edition of just 3000 boxes and made with Dominican binder and filler and are wrapped in a flawless premium Yamasa wrapper.  Well balanced and bursting with flavour from the first puff till I almost burned my fingers!

The next day was filled with presentations and discussions. Top secret I’m afraid and if I tell you I would have to shoot you 🙂 needless to say we recommend Davidoff cigars to our clients and have a huge range not only online but in all of our stores with our flagship Robert Graham cigar shops in Cambridge and Glasgow ready to spoil you with their beautiful purpose built Davidoff humidors crammed with a comprehensive range.

Luckily I made the next flight on time as on Thursday morning I was off again to sunny Paris to indulged in a spot of lunch with friends at our favourite people spotting venue: Café Ruc is situated at 159, rue Saint-Honore, just opposite the Hotel du Louvre. Not sure how this restaurant does it but they always seems to have the prettiest waitresses! Anyway, great service, good food and wine and Bolivar Libertadors from 2006  whilst watching the world go by. My kinda business lunch 🙂

Enough of all that bloody traveling for one week and I’m grounded this week as my Man Friday otherwise known as Michelle is on vacation (scandalous!) so I’m stuck in London office all week. Not to fear, my herfing chums came to the rescue on Wednesday with an office herf in the afternoon followed by a bottle of Dalmore 18  and Bolivar Belicosos 2007 vintage at the delightful Sahakian cigar shop and tasting lounge located at the equally delightful and chic Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge.

Mike Choi was at hand to advise our gang of 7 on the next cigar which was a cabinet selection Ramon Allones Specially Selected. To top off the evening we were joined for a smoke by David Lewis – Chairman of Hunters and Frankau… Perfect!

Back to the grind today with a meeting at the magnificent BAT Dunhill shop at 1a St James’s (thank you Robert) with all the cigar retailers in London’s Westminster area including my good friends Eddie and Edward Sahakian. The meeting was  to discuss the Tobacco display ban that will come into play in around a years’ time and the measures that we should take to comply with the latest daft law.

Now I’m not particularly bothered by display bans. Yes they are downright stupid but it’s not likely to stop my customers popping in to any of our shops across the country to purchase or sample their favourite cigars. Legally we won’t be able to show any tobacco product that can be seen from the outside of our shops. Another brilliant piece of legislation… Not.

What does bother me is the proposals regarding the dreaded ‘plain packaging’ which I understand means all of the beautiful cigar boxes and tins/packs of pipe tobaccos that we know and love will become a thing of the past and we will be left with bland/ugly packaging with huge health warnings on and a teeny weeny name of the brand and country of origin of the tobacco.

I doubt that will stop my customers purchasing but what a crying shame to do this to the cigar and pipe tobacco trade. What will it achieve? I understand that politicians want to discourage young smokers but as I have banged on about before, it’s not possible for anyone under 21 to even enter our shops let alone purchase tobacco and in all the years I have been in the cigar trade I have never known a kid to wake up in the morning and think ‘I must pop into my local cigar shop as I fancy a Cohiba robusto!’ – World gone mad?… You couldn’t make it up! Winston Churchill must be stirring in his grave at the absurdity.

If you think it’s as stupid as I do drop a line to your local MP and tell him or her your views… Don’t delay or it will be too late sadly.

Finally the cigar trade lost a legend this week as Desmond Sautter passed away at the age of 83. Desmond was a real Gentlemen cigar merchant and loved by all in the trade. Our sincere condolences to his family. I’ll be smoking a pre embargo Punch Ideales in his memory tonight.

Next week I’m back on my travels!

Have a smokey weekend,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Happy St Patricks Day from sunny London 🙂

My Partner, Guy from The Decent Cigar Emporium spent the morning at our offices where we toasted the good saint with some Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligans and some Jameson’s Irish whisky. When in Dublin, there’s only one cigar store to visit, find us on Grafton street and mention C.Gars for a warm welcome.

I’ve had a crazy busy time since returning from the Festival in Havana especially since our Spring – Online Auction was held on the 7^th March.

The results were amazing with all but 5 Lots being sold  within or above the estimate range. Clearly the market for good quality mature and aged cigars shows no sign of slowing down. Prices were very firm indeed, a few bargains were had, Davidoff and Dunhill prices keep increasing as do pre Embargo cigars.

From all the feedback from bidders and sellers, everyone was happy with the functionality of the site which puts a big smile on my face as we created it completely in house. So well done to Laura and her Team at our Norfolk offices.

We’ve almost completed our auction admin work (quite a task I can tell you!) and we expect that all auction Lots that have not been collected already will be shipped out over the next week… Making way for the next auction!

Our Summer Auction will be held online again on the 1^st June 2014 and we are inviting prospective sellers to contact us soonest as the catalogue is almost full already so we will likely close it in a few weeks’ time. Once again we will offer a fine selection of aged, mature, pre-embargo, limited edition, Davidoff, Dunhill and limited edition humidors, cigars for smoking and cigars for collecting. Always happy to take any enquiries by email at [email protected]

For those who enjoyed our rather outrageous Winter Auction event at Boisdale Canary Wharf (Cigar Smoker of the Year Awards Dinner with Boisdale and The Spectator) you’ll be pleased to hear that Ranald and I had our first planning lunch meeting last week (at the lovely and cigar friendly Boisdale Belgravia) and we are planning another spectacular event this December.

Last week I visited our cigar and whisky shops up in Glasgow and Edinburgh, had a few drams of Robert Graham single malt and smoked a few too many Inka Secret Blend cigars with my partner Ron, whilst reviewing our retail operations.

Our shops are such a delight as are our retail Team. Jo at our Rose street branch is very happy with her walk in humidor which has been refurbished to twice the previous size. We’re expanding our range substantially due to huge demand from many of our clients.

Linda at our flagship Glasgow store is delighted with her additional showcase Davidoff humidor whilst Dougie in Canongate tells me we have a larger and more exclusive range of single malt whisky than we have ever had before.

I love hanging out at retail and chatting to our customers, it’s great to find out what they are looking for so we can make sure we stock the right range for all of our customers. I never know who I will bump in to and at the Glasgow store it was a pleasure to meet some of the guys from Naturally Seven, the group that perform with Michael Buble who were playing in Glasgow.

I also popped into our Cambridge store and herfed Davidoff Puro d’Oro from the new Davidoff walk in humidor with clients in our sampling lounge. Our next tasting evening is on this link.

Back to London and I zoomed round our shops in West Hampstead and Mayfair – small shops, huge range and a warm welcome from our experienced staff. Relatively easy parking and of course cigar sampling encouraged at both locations. Take advantage of our click and collect service by ordering online at website prices (guaranteed lowest in the UK) and collect in store!

Last Thursday I herfed with  a few of my smoking chums at the Edward Sahakian cigar shop and lounge at the Bulgari hotel. Great to see Mike Choi back from Havana with a more than respectable 2nd place in the International cigar sommelier contest. We herfed our way through BHK 54’s matched up with Dalmore cigar malt and then headed back to my smoking deck which is finally complete in my garden. Fire pit, heating, lighting and seating all well tested and working!

It’s that bloody Budget time of year and time for the Chancellor to bash the smoker again no doubt. I’m holding prices as long as stocks last but if you want to beat this week’s Budget get your orders in soonest.

Heading off to Basel for the Davidoff Retail Panel meeting in the morning, will be there for a couple of days and then off to Paris… Back in London office Friday to catch up but always available on email and more than happy to advise.

Have a smokey week,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Gallery

The weather has changed from rainy and humid to blue skies and sunshine in Havana and I’ve been tearing around herfing at all the usual joints during the last few days of the Festival.

Greetings from sunny Havana where I am enjoying the annual Festival del Habanos.

Just arrived and enjoyed an LFDC Gran Cano in the airport whilst waiting for my suitcase… How civilized 🙂

My able assistant Arturo met me and my chums as usual with our regular driver Hector who had a bottle of HC7 and a bucket of ice waiting for us, perfect to decompress after a very long Virgin flight.

Never mind unpacking, we were hitting the ground running and straight off to the Robaina shop at the Melia to get some serious herfing started.

Kicking back with a Partagas Gran Reserva and some Havana Club 15 for a sublime combination whilst seeing numerous friends from all over the world that are in Havana to celebrate the finest cigars Havana has to offer and introduce to us this week.

Staying at the Nacional as ever, I reckon the terrace is one of the best places in the world to herf.

Looking forward to the gala dinner where I understand we will be trying out the new H. Upmann Reserva.

We understand the following line up are due to be launched this year although goodness knows when exactly!

Hoyo de Monterrey Le Hoyo de San Juan  150mm length and 54 ring gauge, cabinets of 10, 25 and tubed

Partagas Serie D No. 6  90mm length and 50 ring gauge, cabinets of 20 and 5 packs

Trinidad Vigia 110mm length and 54 ring gauge, cabinets of 12 and tubed

Romeo y Julieta  Julieta 120mm length and 33 ring gauge, boxes of 25

Quintero Petit Quintero 105mm length and 43 ring gauge, bundles of 25

Romeo y Julieta Cedros de Luxe 140mm length and 50 ring gauge, boxes of 10

Por Larrañaga Picadores No.1 127mm length and 48 ring gauge

H. Upmann No. 2 Reserva Cosecha 2010 156mm length and  52 ring gauge, cabinets of 20  Limited edition of 5000

Cohiba Robustos Supremos Limited Edition 2014 127mm length and  55 ring gauge, boxes of 10

Partagas Seleccion Privada Limited Edition 2014 160mm length and 50 boxes of 10

Bolivar Super Coronas  124mm length and 50 ring gauge, boxes of 25

H. Upmann Humidor Antique Replica 50 Butifara Limited edition of 450 humidors

Partagas Coleccion Habanos Serie E No. 1 170mm length and 54 ring gauge, limited edition of 1000 numbered books

I can’t wait for the Cohiba Limited Edition Robustos Supremos, what a funky size with a whopping ring gauge. If the blend is as good as I hope, I’ll be stashing away a huge amount!

Trip photos on my next blog.

Have a smokey weekend… I know I will 🙂

Hasta luego,

Mitchell

Lack of blog last week due to a little R&R and a little business to take care of in sunny Los Angeles ☺ so here is the news…

I spent a week in L.A. organising yet more focus tasting groups for Inca – Secret Blend. The results were overwhelmingly positive and very encouraging.

Nice to be herfing in 80F sunshine instead of the constant rain in London. Whilst not easy to find locations to herf in LA, we managed to get through quite a few cigars between Inca taste testing sessions. I enjoyed Davidoff Short Perfecto in the morning and Nicaraguan Toro in the evenings, man that’s a bold sophisticated smoke, no wonder they are flying off our shelves. I also snuck in a few Alec Bradley Prensados which always hit the spot for me.

Inca – Secret Blend (that’s the version destined for the US market and beyond) is also making some progress as we have signed up US distribution with one of our very favourite cigar companies (more details to follow.) The first production batch of cigars have been made and are amazing smokes, the bands are made and look very cool if I do say so myself!… And all we need now is ‘the box!’ We have been working on the bloody  box development for the last year. It’s a bit different so it’s taken a bit longer than we would have hoped but I am cautiously optimistic that we will have the final pre-production prototype mid-March which I’m very excited about.

Inka -Secret Blend for the UK market expected to be back in stock next week in sizes requested by our customers, that’s the petit coronas and robustos that have been more popular that we would have ever imagined. Apologies for the delay and hopefully we have such a huge imported quantity flying in now that we will not stock out again!

Pound for Pound I don’t think there is a better quality handmade cigar available in the UK. The blend is deliciously sweet and accessible and makes me want to smoke them back to back. It seems that 1000’s of C.Gars and Robert Graham customers would agree with me ☺

So back in my little London HQ and thankfully with no jet lag (my body clock must be broken after years of travelling!) and happy to announce our first ever Spring Cigar Auction. This is an Online only auction with a splendid selection of mature, aged and rare Havana cigars. It works much like eBay… Think of it as CBay! Bidding opened on Thursday and the auctions finishes every few minutes from the 7^th March. We will have another 100 or so Lots to list and hope to have them up next week.

There are some top end Davidoff and Dunhill that collectors love as well as smaller single Lots for smokers. Could be some decent bargains to bag. See the FAQ’s here and shoot me an email [email protected] if you have any questions.

Most of the Lots are in our London humidor and if you can’t visit to personally inspect you are always welcome to email us for condition reports [email protected]

Next week is the Festival in Havana which I’m looking forward to immensely, especially as we expect to be tasting the H. Upmann No. 2 Gran Reserva (I love Reserva and Gran Reserva) Expecting to herf with friends and clients from all over the world and joining the Hunters & Frankau table at the gala dinner as usual.

Just back from lunch at the lovely Ten Manchester street Hotel with friends from Davidoff. Smoked the rather outrageously good Limited Edition Year of the Horse. What a perfect venue for a lunch herf, great service, delightful menu, comfortable and warm… Who could ask for more. We are just starting to build a web page with details of some of my favourite places to herf. You can check out the work in progress here.

If you’re not already signed up to our newsletters you could be missing out as we are planning a series of whisky and cigar taste testing sessions at our beautiful Cambridge branch as well as Liverpool and Chester over the next few months.

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell