Smokey greetings from rainy London where I have managed to get away from non-stop auction viewings for a few minutes to blog about my visit to Liverpool earlier this week.

It’s hard to describe how cool this venue is but checkout the website to get an idea. This really is the finest concept we have ever created because it ticks every box for a fantastic evenings experience that tantalizes all of the senses. Our chef has created a delicious menu of small plates and our mixologists the finest cocktails. Our whisky bar has over 200 single malt whiskies by the dram, probably the largest selection in the North West. 

Liverpool is such a cool city with great hotels and restaurants. Well worth a visit! Puffin Rooms has live music 7 nights a week and last Tuesday when we visited we had 3 different sets ( 4 singers) …the best of jazz and blues in opulent comfortable surroundings. After dinner we retired next door to our late night Turmeaus cigar shop and sampling lounge and despite being crammed full of guests sampling the finest premium cigars there was in fact zero smoke. This is due to our state of the art smoke cleaning system.

Everything that you can sample is of course available by the box and we also feature Davidoff cigars and a superb range of Zino accessories. I herfed with a friend at the Lanesborough last night and as its birthday week I decided to treat myself to a 1995 Cohiba Siglo V followed by a 1994 robusto and finishing with a Partagas Gran Reserva. Paired up with some excellent Rioja and a topless drive home to finish off a perfect evening.

This Sunday we will conclude our 3rd vintage cigar auction of the year. Check out the action here and very best of luck to our bidders and sellers, we are available by email 24/7 to assist and advise sales@cgarsltd.co.uk

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Greetings from my rather smokey London office 🙂

Its auction time again and this is in fact our 3^rd auction of the year. We normally conduct just 3 auctions a year but have snuck this extra one in before our planned Winter auction at the end of the year due to unprecedented demand.

We are expecting substantial interest from overseas buyers due to the weakness of the Pound Sterling at this time.

The catalogue features almost 350 Lots of aged and rare Havanas with some very unique pre-embargo cabinets as well as some highly desirable Davidoff and Dunhill Seleccion cigars.

Some of the Lots of particular interest include:

Lot 85 – Punch Coronas cabinet of 50 from 1985 ‘Specially selected by Dunhill’ stamped on base of cabinet. Excellent condition and appearance. Stored at Dunhill of London until recent transfer to C.Gars Ltd.
Estimate £1,500 – £2,000

Lot 179 – Punch Churchills cabinet of 50 from the 1980’s Ex Dunhill of London. Labelled for the Marquis of Tavistock.
Estimate £1,500 – £2,000

Lot 213 – Cohiba Sublimes limited edition 2004.
Estimate £2,800 – £3,400

Lot 283 – Davidoff Chateau Latour. Late 1970’s/early 1980’s. cabinet of 25.
Estimate £1,700 – £2,000

Lot 288 – Davidoff Chateau Mouton Rothschild. 1986.
Estimate £2,500 – £2,500

Lot 289 – Davidoff Dom Perignon. Sealed box of 10 cigars. 1980’s.
Estimate £1,400 – £1,700

Lot 296 – Dunhill H. Upmann Seleccion Suprema No.50. Cabinet of 50. 1960’s ‘ Specially Selected for Alfredo Zanardo ‘ on ribbon and cabinet. Dunhill on bands. Impeccable condition and appearance. Stored at Dunhill of London until recent transfer to C.Gars Ltd.
Estimate £4,000 – £5,000 (This cabinet is breathtaking!)

Lot 307 – H. Upmann Seleccion No.15 Dunhill Double Claro. Pre embargo cabinet of 50 cigars.
Estimate £3,750 – £4,250

Lot 322 – H. Upmann Dunhill Double Claro Seleccion Suprema A No. 60. Pre embargo cabinet of 50 cigars.
Estimate £4,500 – £5,500

Lot 323 – H. Upmann Dunhill Seleccion No. 335.Pre embargo cabinet of 160 cigars.
Estimate £8,000 – £10,000

Lot 345 – Villar y Villar 100 No. V Pre embargo cabinet of 100 cigars.
Estimate £4,500 – £5,500

Its easy to get into the action and works a bit like eBay:

Auction Lots can be viewed online and bid on.

PDF catalogue can be viewed on this link.

Lots are available for inspection by appointment Monday to Friday at our London offices. We are delighted to provide any further details or condition reports, simply email Laura Graham or Michelle Adler in our Auction Team at auctions@cgarsltd.co.uk quoting Lot numbers.

In other news this week:

Shortages of supply continue with Havanas including Behike and Siglo VI and there is still no sign of any new releases (including the long overdue ones from last year) and the situation doesn’t look like it will get better any time soon. Curiously the UK regional edition Punch Medalla made a brief re-appearance but has more or less sold out again! Stock up on your favourites whilst they are still available.

My final Havana Orchant selection release of the year is now out. Ramon Allones Specially Selected – Orchant Seleccion. I love these cigars and this batch is of superior quality. Just 15 boxes left now from the original release of 32.

I spent a couple of days at our outpost in Norfolk this week. Turmeaus – Norfolk is a haven for cigar and pipe smokers with a comfortable sampling lounge and a super attentive team of staff. We have a huge range of Cuban and New World cigars as well as smokers accessories and pipe tobacco. Situated 12 miles from Norwich I reckon we are the only specialist for many miles around.

Next week I will be at Turmeaus and Puffin’ Rooms Liverpool on Tuesday and Turmeaus and La Casa del Habano – Chester on Wednesday. If you haven’t experienced Puffin’ Rooms yet, come and join me from 5 pm on Tuesday till late and I will personally show you around. Find out more on our website www.puffinrooms.co.uk.

Puffin’ Rooms are really something special. Our late night Turmeaus cigar shop and sampling lounge is adjacent so you can in fact listen to live music (7 nights a week), enjoy the delicious menu, marvel at the incredible cocktails, select from 200 single malt whiskies… and then go next door to sample a cigar… or two 🙂

It’s my anniversary this weekend so I will be kicking back and enjoying a rather stuffed baggie full of these rather cheeky smokes:

Davidoff Chateau Y’Quem – bit of a treat!

Ramon Allones – Orchant Seleccion

… and a box of Regius (have you seen these C.Gars exclusives? Ridiculously good value!)

I’m going to grab one of these samplers as it’s a great mix of smokes.

All accompanied with a splendid bottle of our latest single cask release Ben Nevis.

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

I’m back… after a rather long 6 weeks out of the UK and looking outside my window it doesn’t look like I brought the sunshine back from Los Angeles 🙂 I was hoping for a topless drive to my favourite pub (The Three Horseshoes) and a quiet smoke in their garden but alas its not to be this weekend.

My trip started with the annual IPCPR trade show in Las Vegas. I always thought that a tobacco trade organisation with ‘CPR’ in its title was rather ominous!

Regardless, I have been going to this wonderful trade show (all over the US) for almost 19 years and enjoyed this one as much as ever. There seemed to be fewer exhibitors and visitors than previous years but that just made it easier for me to get around and see all of the cigar and accessories distributors and manufacturers more efficiently.

Vegas was blisteringly hot as ever and the air conditioning was too cold. The hotel we were all staying at had no single malt and ran out of blended whisky too (unbelievable!) But, smoking was allowed in the casino and the bars so I’m not complaining too much.

I continue to be impressed by the New World cigars with stunning quality and blending as well as beautiful packaging from our friends and colleagues at Fuente, Oliva, Alec Bradley, Davidoff and La Flor Dominican to mention a few. We look forward to introducing some more exclusive lines from some of these fine cigar manufacturers over the next few months and beyond.

The growth in popularity of New World cigars was something that I accurately predicted over 10 years ago. I’m glad I acted on my thoughts as these cigars now account for a huge chunk of our group business both in mail order and our retail group, It was obvious to me that new generations of cigar aficionados would be more willing to ‘mix it up’ and try both Fine Havana cigars as well as a variety of New World cigars. And rightly so I say, after all – variety is the spice of life.

I reckon C.Gars has the largest selection and stocks of New World cigars in the UK by a long distance 🙂 all available online and in store.

Karyn and I spent the rest of our trip hosting or being guests at numerous herfs all over Los Angeles. Small herfs, huge herfs… we did them all 🙂 It was great to meet so many old friends and make so many new friends too. Staying at the same hotel and the same suite as we have done for so many years in a cigar friendly hotel didn’t make it seem like too much hard work.

Our thanks to all of our friends in L.A. as well as our friends who flew over from New York to herf with us.

Back to C.Gars London headquarters to catch up for a few days and disappointed to see that the Cohiba Siglo VI have now joined Cohiba Behikes in the out of stock category. Clearly there are still agricultural issues affecting supply. Many of our clients are now switching to Trinidad Vigia (a simply superb Havana cigar) and Cohiba Piramides Extra (super delicious) How long they will be available for is hard to say in the current climate. We are up to full capacity in all of our walk in humidors but demand for Havanas continues to increase this year beyond even what we had anticipated.

We are still eagerly anticipating the exclusive launch and release of the Cohiba Talisman Limited Edition early February in the UK. Will keep you posted.

I’m just putting the finishing touches on our September 10^th Vintage Cigar Auction. We decided to hold this extra auction as a few of our clients did not want to wait till our Winter auction. I thought we would just hold a small, perhaps 100 Lot auction but this sale seems to have taken on a life of its own with over 320 Lots already catalogued. Catalogue will be online and bidding open on the 1^st September. A splendid range vintage, mature, Pre Embargo, Davidoff and Dunhill cigars to say the least and no doubt some bargains to be won by some lucky bidders.

This Tuesday I will be at visiting Turmeaus Liverpool, our amazing flagship cigar and whisky store in the city where Turmeaus was established 200 years ago. Tuesday evening I’ll be chilling out at The Puffin Rooms for supper and cocktails with some great live jazz music. Open from 5 p.m. till late… come and join me and we can have also sample cigars in the Turmeaus shop right next door to the Puffin Rooms.

The Puffin Rooms opened around 4 weeks ago and as one of my friends who visited recently said we have knocked it out of the ballpark! I can’t even think of anywhere like this place in London. Live music 7 nights a week, 5 star service, splendid menu, cocktails and 200 whiskies available by the dram. Add to that the Turmeaus cigar and sampling lounge open till late for a perfect evening… chic and cool, if not unique.

In other news this week >>> congratulations/mazal tov to my nephew Gabriel and his wife Verity as they are expecting another baby (No. 3!) we are slowly working on making Gabriel a cigar smoker and whisky drinker 🙂 (with surprising success recently!)

Congratulations to Nick and Hannah on their forthcoming wedding (and wedding herf!) next weekend. Nick is ‘The face of C.Gars’. Handsome devil has his image in all of our shops and catalogues!… and of course as expected Nick is marrying an exceptionally beautiful young lady.

Have a smokey week.

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

We have some amazing news Louis XIII is now available in our Puffin’ Room bar.

To mark the occasion, we decided to give you some background on this amazing Cognac:

Start of Louis XIII

First created in 1874, LOUIS XIII Cognac is an exquisite blend of up to 1,200 grapes eaux-de-vie sourced 100% from Grande Champagne, the first cru of the Cognac region. Each eau-de-vie is matured slowly inside oak cask. Each individually numbered decanter is designed after an original 16th century metal flask, discovered on the site of the battle of Jarnac in France and is made from fine crystal for generations, mouth-blown by some of the most skilled master craftsmen.

Heritage

Louis XIII is the embodiment of an ancestral savoir-faire, each decanter is the life achievement of generations of Cellar Masters. Since its origins in 1874, each generation of Cellar Master selects from our cellars the oldest and greatest eaux-de-vie for Louis XIII. Today, Cellar Master Baptiste Loiseau is setting aside our finest eaux-de-vie, as a legacy to his successors who will continue to blend LOUIS XIII for the next century. It is the ultimate expression of the mastery of time.

Louis XIII at Puffin’ Room

We are proud to offer this amazing cognac, we make sure every moment you have this cognac you feel the luxury that comes with. It all starts with the Crystal Louis XIII glasses and having the Louis XIII brought to the table and served to you. We offer this cognac in different measurements 10ml, 15ml, 25ml and 35ml.

The Puffin’ Room is opened 7 days a week Mon-Sat 5-11pm and Sunday 3-10pm.

Slainte

Craig

Well I can finally report… at long last, our Liverpool flagship development has been completed and is open 🙂

It’s been a long journey since C.Gars purchased the ground floor commercial premises of The Albany on Old Hall Street in the center of Liverpool some two years ago but it’s been worth the huge effort all of my team has put in.

We opened one half of the new Turmeaus development last September which provided a state of the art huge walk in humidor with a gigantic range of premium cigars, humidors and accessories, a magnificent specialist whisky room with licenced bar and a very comfortable cigar sampling lounge. Phase 1 as its affectionately known is open 6 days a week from 9 am – 6 pm (10 am – 5 pm Saturday).

The second phase of the development provides an additional Turmeaus specialist cigar shop and sampling lounge that is open from 5 pm – 11 pm 6 days a week and 3 pm till 10 pm on Sundays. The sampling lounge has the best smoke filtration system I have ever seen anywhere in the world with 30 air changes an hour meaning that even when the lounge is full with clients sampling cigars, there is literally no smoke at all. It just gets eaten up… fast! (A great relief to my wife who is exceptionally porous!)

Next door to the Turmeaus is the “Puffin’ Rooms” where we feature live jazz and blues music 7 nights a week, whisky cocktails, an extensive whisky menu and a delicious tapas food menu. It’s a unique offering in opulent surroundings, the likes of which I have never seen before in the UK. Gorgeous waitresses and fabulous bar staff mixing crazy cocktails… Very laid back and very cool!

Opening Times:
Monday to Saturday – 5pm – 11pm
Sundays 3pm – 10pm
Jazz Nightly
Blues Bash Sunday Afternoons

It’s a great achievement to have finally opened the complete flagship in our 200^th anniversary year. My thanks to Davidoff cigars and Dalmore whisky for all of their support with our expansion.

We have been testing the food and the customer service on a few crowds of invited guests and our management team over the last few days and we believe it’s truly 5 star. We don’t plan on any opening events for the Puffin’ Rooms as we are already more or less full every evening. The new late night Turmeaus cigar shop and lounge will be holding regular, weekly tasting events featuring Davidoff and other premium handmade cigars.

We will have some professional photographs up on the website by the end of the month but better still come and experience the best cigars, food, drinks and live music at our new premises. Check out all of our beautiful cigar and whisky shops here.

In other news this week…

The newly expanded Robert Graham shop in West Hampstead is nearly finished and features an expanded range of fine spirits as well as a comfortable indoor sampling area and heated outdoor sampling area. I had a herfette with M.D Steve Johnstone there last week 🙂

A warm welcome to my long time business partner Ron Morrison who has joined the C.Gars Team to oversee our continued expansion.

Congratulations to Danny and Liz from my favourite pub, The Three Horseshoes, on buying the place. Cigar friendly, great service and food and just lovely people!

I’m off to Las Vegas for the annual IPCPR tobacco industry trade show this week. It’s an amazing annual trade show where I meet many of the manufacturers of the fine cigars that we sell as well as source the best new accessories and humidors available. Herfing day and night is mandatory of course 🙂 and I’m looking forward to the annual Alec Bradley dinner on Wednesday evening. Alec Bradley cigars have become super popular with our clients. Excellent blends and extremely well priced cigars.

I’m out of the UK till late August and will be herfing in Los Angeles with friends and family 🙂 back just in time to get our next auction catalogue online. We have never held an auction in September before but we have so many fantastic Lots from clients that we snuck an extra sale in this year.

So, I’m off my beloved Havana cigars for the next 6 weeks and plan to enjoy the best of new world smokes, including Davidoff Winston Churchill, Oliva Skinny, Chubby and Shorty, Inca Reserva, Alec Bradley Prensado and Fuente Opus X. That should keep me satisfied until September!

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell