That’s it! – Another year just about completed 🙂 and after a splendid Christmas, drinking way too much Champagne together with some outrageous vintage Havanas (Dunhill Estupendos and Davidoff 5000 to name a few) I’m looking forward to New Year’s Eve with some Bilecart Salmon 1989 Champagne and a Dunhill Havana Club that has been resting in my humidor since the 1980’s… Could be worse 🙂

I had a lovely day at Robert Graham’s new Cambridge whisky and cigar shop yesterday which seems to be a perfect meeting place for C.Gars, Robert Graham and even LCDH customers from Hamburg! Quite a few of whom are already enjoying the comfort of the sampling lounge (Now that we have a little background music and have figured out how the espresso machine works, finally!)

Record sales reported from all of our cigar shops this year and no surprise that our award winning whiskies are selling like crazy.

So my favourite cigars of 2012 were:

Bolivar Britanicas UK Regional Edition
Partagas Serie C No. 3 Limited Edition
Fuente Opus X Belicosos XXX – The best from the Dominican Republic
Cohiba Piramides Extra – New to the Cohiba range
Punch Medalla de Oro – UK Regional Edition
Inka Bombaso Maduro Azul – From Peru and immensely popular
Regius Robusto – splendid Nicaraguan fast getting a big following
C.Gars Ltd Nicaraguan Robusto – Exclusive to us and great value
Ramon Allones Petit Belicoso – UK Regional Edition
Quai’ D’Orsay Coronas – Orchant Seleccion
H. Upmann Half Corona – Cheeky little smoke!

Wow! That was a great year for new cigars, not sure if we can top that in 2013.

Well I’m just about wrapped up at the office and heading home for a few days off but the Team is online 24/7 as always to help with any advice or queries and our retail stores are open every day except New Year’s Day.

Wishing all our friends a very happy and smokey New Year.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Ho Ho Ho indeed and thank heavens for Christmas as it gives me the opportunity of realising just how good my Team in our London mail order office is. This has been our best year and our best Christmas season ever (Thank you customers!) but Monday was really a laugh as we had almost 2000 packages shipping out and we filled 2 complete Royal Mail vans!!!!!!

I have been zooming round a few of our shops in Cambridge, Liverpool, Chester and London to make sure they are giving the best customer service and check the condition of our cigars are as good as it gets (Easy week for me then!) Lots of happy customers and a very happy sales Team in England and Scotland so I reckon we’re in good shape.

Opening our Cambridge store this year secured our continuing position as the largest cigar retailer in the UK and we plan to expand further in 2013 as well as continue to improve our existing cigar and whisky shops wherever possible. So, if you don’t have a Robert Graham Ltd or Turmeaus Tobacconist shop near you right now… You may have soon 🙂

Biggest selling new cigar of the year was the Inka Secret Blend from Peru… Created by… Me 🙂 I’m going to continue to expand the range over 2013 and hopefully launch in the USA as well. Inka cigars are now available at all of our stores across the UK.

Our C.Gars Ltd Nicaraguan cigars kindly made for us by Torano have also gained a loyal following and we are happy to announce that we will be launching an excellent new range of Torano cigars in January… Exclusive to C.Gars Ltd.

Arturo Fuente cigars remain ever popular and it’s been an honour to be the official distributor of this top end brand of cigars.

Surprise newcomer Regius cigars from Nicaragua are also performing very well and gaining a loyal following. Great smokes at great prices. We look forward to introducing a C.Gars exclusive with Regius next year.

UK regional edition Havanas have been storming out every day of the year. Thanks to our friends at Habanos S.A. and Hunters and Frankau for such superb cigars.

Hottest accessories have been Palio cutters and newly introduced lighters – Perfect for the cigar smoker. Yup, we are the exclusive distributor but the products really are great!

We’re also exclusive distributor for Cigar Oasis humidifiers and Caliber IV hygrometers – Great products and great prices, and happy to say they are flying off the shelves this Christmas season.

So, all in all a banner year of the best products, the best Sales team in the Country and the nicest customers in the world 🙂… I think I deserve a Christmas drink! Luckily, I have plenty to drink thanks to the lovely Christmas presents from our suppliers 🙂 and Champagne will be accompanied by Por Larranaga Magnificos, followed by a Davidoff 5000 on Christmas eve and Dunhill Estupendos on Christmas day… Life is good 🙂

We are of course online 24/7 every day of the year so if you have any questions over the holiday regarding your orders, cigars or humidors, you are welcome to drop us an email and we’ll be happy to help.

Wishing all of our Team, suppliers and of course our retail and mail order customers a very merry Christmas

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Photographed below is a very happy Managing Director together with 10 of the Girls from the London sales Team at our Christmas dinner!

Good week for publicity lol 🙂

– Cigar Aficionado Magazine
– Wall Street Journal article at Boisdale Canary Wharf
– Daily Caller
– Hunters & Frankau website

… And a good week to be a cigar smoker in Cambridge as our latest cigar and whisky emporium has just opened. I have to say it was bloody hard work for an old boy like me, working 18 hours a day to get it finished made just about every muscle in my body ache.

I have to try and remember to stop tearing around like I am still a 17 year old. I guess old habits die hard. Never mind, it’s all good and we now have a comfortable location to sample cigars inside a very comfortable cigar and whisky sampling lounge as well as outside on Sussex street when the weather turns a tad kinder.

So, if you are in Cambridge it would be our pleasure to welcome you and I’ll be there Sunday morning for a couple of hours from 10 a.m. if you would like a coffee (Or something a bit stronger!) and a cigar with me.

Huge range of cigars in two walk in humidors and a superb range of whisky and wine too. Oh, I almost forgot, we have a delicious range of handmade chocolate… There go the profits for this store! (My diet starts tomorrow!)

Bumped into the college bursar the other day who is trying to dig out old archive photos of the shop which was apparently a tobacconist 100 years ago – How cool is that?

Inka cigars still flying off the shelves to my continuing delight and amazement. I reckon Bombaso in blue and red are just about sold out which could well be a record sell out for a new world cigar. Needless to say we have just organized another huge import from Peru which should arrive in the next two weeks or so.

Still buying and selling aged and rare cigars daily so if you have a wish list drop me a line as we have contacts for most desirable cigars throughout the worlds collector community.

Currently selling on behalf of clients:

Cohiba Double Coronas limited edition box of 25 – 2 boxes available codes FPG 08/2003 and DTF 7/2003
Cohiba Sublimes Limited edition box of 25 code LLN DIC 04 -2 boxes available
Cohiba Piramides 2006 box of 10 code POS DIC 06 – 3 boxes available
H Upmann Magnum 50 Limited edition cabinet of 25 English Market Selection 2 boxes available with codes SXF AUG 05 and FIN MAR 05
Juan Lopez Obus regional edition for France cabinet of 25 code ERU AUG 06
Montecristo Edmundo Dantes Box of 25- code USE ABR 08
Partagas Piramides box of 25 English Market Selection- code ECA ENE 01
Partagas Serie D no.3 Limited edition English Market Selection – code ECA SEP 02
Partagas Serie C. no.1 Coleccion Habanos book of 20
Por Larranaga Magnificos regional edition for UK box of 10- code EMA OCT 07
Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres regional edition for UK box of 25 URG Jun 10
Ramon Allones 898 cabinet of 25 English Market Selection- code OSU FEB 02
Romeo y Julieta Robustos limited edition box of 25 English Market Selection – code OSU OCT 02
Romeo y Julieta Fabulosos no.6 Coleccion Habanos book of 20 cigars- code LLN SEP 04
Montecristo Gran Reserva
Davidoff 5000 1980’s
Dunhill Don Candido Seleccion Suprema no.501 pre embargo

Drop me an email for more details [email protected]

I don’t have a drop of alcohol during December if I am driving but no driving for me till Sunday so I’m off home for a dram or three of Robert Graham Dancing Stag Linkwood it pairs up perfectly with a Punch Serie D’Oro no.1… After the busy week just passed… I deserve it 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Late blog due to huge work effort last week at our new Cambridge Whisky & Cigar shop. We were hoping to open last Tuesday but the builders had not quite finished so I decided to delay for a week and we now plan to open this Tuesday.

The shop looks quite beautiful if I do say so myself! Spacious and comfortable for browsing and for sampling.

Our range is just about complete with huge stocks of Havana cigars, other premium cigars, machine made cigars and Continental cigars. In fact if you can’t find it here it’s probably not worth smoking 🙂 We have two humidors – On the ground floor we have an absolutely massive range of single cigars and on the lower ground floor our main humidor. Our main humidor showcases other singles and a large range of full boxes of Havanas and other premium cigars but we are always happy to open any boxes for single sales.

We have a great range of pipes and a massive range of pre-packaged and loose tobacco. Also pipe and cigars accessories, cases, lighters, ashtrays and humidors.

Robert Graham Ltd – Cambridge features the full range of our Independent bottled award winning whisky as well as a comprehensive range of other single malt whisky that can only be found in specialist whisky shops. We also have a great value range of wine and champagne.

My favourite feature is the sampling lounge where customers are welcome to sample our whisky as well as cigars and pipe tobacco (You will need to complete cigar sampling forms of course) in comfort. We are planning some great whisky and cigar tasting evenings in January.

The shop is easy to find as its at 9 Sussex street in the centre of Cambridge. Sussex street is pedestrianized but we have a loading bay outside the other entrance to the shop in Hobson Street (You may need to print off directions from Google maps as most navigators seem to give up a few hundred feet away!)

My thanks to my merchandizing Team (Lucia and Marcie from C.Gars Ltd, Rosie from Turmeaus Chester and our new Robert Graham boys Alasdair and Freddy) and a warm welcome to Cailin Morrison who will be managing Cambridge and Chris Morrison who is assisting us at Robert Graham Edinburgh… Yes we are a family business!

Thanks to all of our suppliers for their kind assistance in making our Cambridge emporium a reality. I’m looking forward to welcoming C.Gars Ltd and Robert Graham Ltd customers and expect to be popping into the lounge weekly. All comments/criticism on the humidors appreciated – Especially as I merchandised them (I have the aches and pains to prove it!)

If you’re one of our customers at Chester Turmeaus check out the photo of the remerchandised walk in humidor – Larger range than ever and looking better than ever – Well done to Calum, our resident cigar specialist and Manageress Jayne.

15 days till Christmas and don’t I know it! Literally 1000’s of mail orders over the past weekend – We can hardly see the doors of our warehouses for post bags! Plenty of time to get your orders in time still, we have huge stocks of just about everything on our websites whether you are buying a gift or treating yourself to some fine cigars or whisky for the holidays.

Have a smokey week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Our Winter Auction was a superb event with days and nights of herfing at the office, Ten Manchester Street and the fabulous Boisdale Canary Wharf.

We filled the cigar Terrace at Ten Manchester Street on Sunday evening after an afternoon of viewings/champagne/snacks/cigars at the office. We herfed our way through a stack of Ramon Allones Petit Belicosos on the Sunday and a load more on Monday together with Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 and El Rey Choix de L’Epoque UK Regional Editions. Boisdale provided first class canapés and the Balvenie whisky tasting was magnificent.

Over 100 bidders crammed the auction room to bid on 301 Lots auctioned by Brian Ebbesen. This was our 7th auction over the last 4 years and our most successful yet raising almost £400,000 including fees. There were around 10 unsold Lots but prices generally seemed very firm especially for the top end collectible Davidoff, Dunhill and Cohiba. Even early LE’s and RE’s seem to be increasing in value now. Looked like some bargains were had on mature and some vintage cigars though.

Buyers invoices are all completed and my thanks go to all our buyers for paying so promptly as usual and sellers reports go out next week.

Our next auction will be in Summer 2013 but of course we do buy and sell vintage Havanas for clients every day of the year so if I can help or advise simply drop me an email at [email protected]

Bloomberg TV interviewed me and it was shown on Tuesday – I’ll be signing autographs for the rest of the week lol 🙂

I’ll now withdraw last week ‘raspberry of the week award’ that went to British Telecom as they have finally managed to get our phone lines working in our new Robert Graham Ltd whisky and cigar shop in Sussex Street Cambridge.  My thanks to the exceptionally helpful Lorraine at BT.  Now… if we could just get the broadband connected (!)

We’re planning a soft opening this Tuesday although I think it’s likely that we will be stocking up the shelves for a few days as the shop is fairly huge! We’ll be planning some great launch evenings in the new year with some outrageous whisky, chocolate and cigar samplings.

So I’m off to Cambridge on Sunday and will be there for a few days during next week to get the new store up and running – hopefully by next week’s blog I will be able to confirm we have the best cigar and whisky specialist shop in the UK (one of many great shops in our group!­ )

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell