The gala dinner was a celebration of the Cohiba brand and was attended by over 1000 people at Pabexo. We were entertained by fabulous singers and dancers, and most importantly a splendid line up of cigars including:

Cohiba Secretos
Cohiba Corona Especiales
Cohiba Siglo VI
Cohiba Behikes 56

The BHK was of course the star of the show and did not disappoint. A symphony of flavours on the palate 🙂 Can’t wait for these cigars to be released in their beautiful presentation boxes of 10 cigars with the unique and beautiful holographic bands.

Our table (Stuart and Rob Fox, Laurence Davis, Johnny Berman,Paul Gilmour and David Lewis ) attempted bidding at the auction as a consortium but sadly ( or maybe not!) we were not successful !

Simon Chase conducted the auction in his inimitable manner and it was a great success. The results were:

Lot 1 – H Upmann humidor

Containing 25 each:
Magnum 46
Magnum 50
Sir Winston
No.2
No.1
Noellas
Robustos
Magnum 48
Grandes
Sold 55,000 Euros

Lot 2 – Hoyo
Containing 25 each
Epicure Especial
Epicure no.2
Epicure no.1
Piramides
Double Coronas
Extravaganzas
Particulares
Gran Piramides
Sold – 100,000 Euros

Lot 3 – Romeo
Containing 25 each:
Churchills
Short Churchills
Exhibition no3
Exhibition no.2
Exhibition no.4
Julietas (50 of this new cigar)
Wide Churchills
Romeos
Hermosos no.2
Fabulosos no.6
Sold 75,000 Euros

Lot no 4 – Partagas
Containing 26 each
Salamones
Serie P no.2
898
Serie D no.4
Lusitanias
Serie D Especial
Serie P no.1
Sobrasalientes
Gran Piramides
Sold – 65,000 Euros

Lot 5 – Montecristo
Containing 25 each
A
Petit Edmundo
No.2
Eagle
Master
Regata
Edmundo
No.4
Gran Edmundo
Double coronas
Maravillas no1
Sold- 110,000

Lot 6 – Cohiba
Containing
25 BHK 52
25 BHK 54
25 BHK 56
25 Secretos
25 Siglo II
25 Siglo IV
25 Robustos
25 Esplendidos
25 Lanceros
10 Gran Reserva
25 Piramides
10 Sublimes Extra
20 Robusto Especial
Sold- 400,000 Euros

Well done Simon

Back to the terrace at the Nacional – drinks and smokes till 4 a.m. and the crowd was still going strong when I said goodnight!

Saludos from cloudy Havana

For more photos click here

Mitchell

Greetings from cool Havana…. sadly that’s cool in temperature in Havana as it’s been rather wet, windy and not so warm since I arrived on Wednesday evening.

Around 1000 cigar aficionados, distributors and cigar merchants are attending the 2010 Festival del Habanos this week and there’s a fabulous atmosphere as well as a lot of anticipation and excitement for the release of the Cohiba Behikes that is due to be launched at the gala dinner tomorrow evening.

Whilst the BHK line will be a regular line, it will have a limited annual production so basically, when they are gone – that’s it for the year. I think that makes them a candidate for laying down, maturing and collecting and many of my clients are already making 10 year plans for laying down a quantity of BHK’s annually.

The BHK’s have a different blend to the 40th anniversary Behikes (aged 5 years) as well as an extra Medio tempo filler leaf which will give the cigar a very distinct flavour characteristic as this is a dark leaf from the top of the plant.

I joined the Hunters and Frankau group today visiting the La Corona factory and the El Laguito factory where we saw the Behikes or “BHK’s” being rolled. H&F have an enthusiastic crowd of UK cigar merchants which may be one of the reasons why the UK market for Havana sales was one of the most successful in the world in 2009

We enjoyed coffee and Cohiba robustos with factory Director Arnaldo at the Cohiba factory and Eduardo kindly took us on a tour around the factory. I even bumped into Norma, the lady responsible for rolling all the Cohiba 40th anniversary Behikes.

The trade fair at the Convention Centre was exceptionally busy today and I was delighted to find some excellent 1919 cigar magazines as well as 1970’s brand catalogues. Also found a 1956-1958 cigar reference book and some splendid 1950’s cigar cabinets.

I attended the aged cigar blind testing. The cigar was a Romeo Exhibition No.3 and it was easy to guess which numbered cigar was the aged example and which was the recent production example. The panel included Simon Chase of H & F and Colin Ganley of European Cigar Cult Journal.

After a busy morning I herfed at the Melia Habana LCDH, smoking a custom blend “Maravillas” rolled by Yolanda and had a few shots of Vigia 18…. a perfect combo

This evening I went to a cocktail reception at Club 18/30 hosted by Boisdale and smoked a Montecristo Double Corona from the antique replica humidor which can only be described as incredible

Staying at the Hotel Nacional as usual as it’s the best meeting place in Havana for the cigar crowd. Looking forward to the Gala dinner tomorrow!

Some great photo’s to follow as soon as the connection is fast enough to download them!

Saludos from Havana

Mitchell

Just back from a few days up in Scotland visiting my Robert Graham whisky, cigar and chocolate stores and talk about the finer things in life 🙂 they can all be found in our stores and our Canongate store on the Royal Mile finally has the whisky tasting lounge completed and looking rather splendid

At C.Gars Ltd I love to offer different cigars that can’t be found anywhere in the world and as a specialist in vintage Havanas we try to keep the range interesting and ever changing. Check out the aged sections on the website to see some great Davidoff, Dunhill and pre embargo cigars.

I’m planning to get my way round the smoking ban with a cruise herf in New York in summer. Checkout the boat on this link! Looking forward to sampling some Dominican, Nicaraguan and Honduran cigars with a lot of friends whilst cruising to the Statue of Liberty and watching the New York Skyline, should be a great herf

So I’m starting to get ready for the 2010 Festival del Habanos next week and looking forward to visiting El Laguito and La Corona cigar factories as well as trying out some of the new cigars due for launch this year including the new Cohiba Behikes cigars.

Here’s the list of all the planned new releases:

Expected March/April

All presented in boxes of 10

Cohiba Behike BHK 56 6 1/2″ length and 56 ring gauge

Cohiba Behike BHK 54 5 5/8″ length and 54 ring gauge

Cohiba Behike BHK 52 4 3/4″ length and 52 ring gauge

————————————————————————————————-
Expected May/June

Romeo Wide Churchill 5 1/4″ length and 55 ring gauge in boxes of 10 and 25 with 3 packs to follow later in the year

Romeo- Julieta 4 3/4″ length and 33 ring gauge

————————————————————————————————-
Expected June/July

2010 Limited editions

Montecristo Gran Edmundo boxes of 10 5 7/8″ length and 52 ring gauge

Partagas Serie D Especial -boxes of 10 5 1/2″ length and 50 ring gauge

Trinidad short robusto – boxes of 12 4″ length and 50 ring gauge

————————————————————————————————-
2010 UK regional editions

Expected August/September

La Flor De Cano Short robusto -cabinets of 25 ( a re-creation of the famous LFDC short churchill with shorter ring gauge) 4″ length and 50 ring gauge

Por Larranaga – Regalias de Londres- boxes of 25 5 1/2″ length and 50 ring gauge

See photos below thanks to Eric Rigori showing some of the preparations being made for the Festival.

Oh well another week done so I’m off to our London shop for a sampling session of Bolivar Centenary Royal Coronas this afternoon,feel free to join me for a smoke and a dram at Broadwell Parade, Broadhurst Gardens NW6 (just round the coroner from West Hampstead tube) I’ll be there from 2 pm !

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Happy Valentines Folks !

At last my new website design is launched. Hope you like it.We are still ironing out a few glitches but navigation should be easier and faster. Suggestions and criticism always welcome. Well done to Laura and her team for the massive effort.

I’ve had a busy week selling chocolate cigars for Valentines, presumably these bypass the smoking ban although I do recall a chap in Edinburgh back in December who had a dram too many and tried to light one! I charged him extra as it had become hot chocolate 🙂

Obviously I’ll have to smoke a Romeo Y Julieta on Valentines and as I like large cigars it’s going to be the limited edition “Duke” I never rated this cigar when it was first released but it has certainly turned into a different beast with the benefit of a little patient maturing time in my humidor. This sweet tasting Havana is medium strength and medium flavour, beautifully crafted and well balanced. Grab some whilst they are still available as they are a limited edition.

I think I’ll go easy on the booze this weekend as I have a big whisky sampling week coming up so I’ll pair up the Romeo Duke with some delicate Champers. I reckon our Andre Clouet Rose should be perfect but if you are looking for something a little smaller checkout these little beauties Jannison Baradon or the pink baby in our range Moutard.

Check this sampler out if you really want to treat the one you love 🙂 Yummmmster !

Our London shop held a whisky sampling session on Tuesday which was very well attended and the ’92 Speyside certainly went down well. A dram of Speyside matched up with an Upmann Corona Junior was a perfect combination for a cold afternoon and of course it’s perfectly OK to enjoy sampling smokes and drinks in my shop.

Two more of our team (Lucy and Mirka) received the certificates having attended Hunters and Frankau’s Cigar School on Tuesday and three more of our team are on the next Cigar School next week. I’m aiming to have more Cigar Specialists than any other cigar merchant in the world! (After all I am a cigar megalomaniac!)

Next week I’m travelling up to my cigar stores in Liverpool, Chester, Glasgow and Edinburgh to do a little quality control sampling…. could be a tough week-not !

So Happy Valentines to Karyn and Mish and Laura and all of the C.Gars girls 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

Best

Mitchell

Yes its true our Directors favourites sampler is ridiculously good value 🙂

Check it out on this link

– Por Larranaga Magnificos UK regional 2007
– Punch Serie D’Oro No.1 UK regional 2008
– La Gloria Cuban Gloriosos UK regional 2008
– Juan Lopez Seleccion UK regional 2009
– El Rey del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque UK regional 2009
– Cohiba Gran Reserva 2009
– Bolivar Centenary Belicosos UK exclusive 2002
– Bolivar Centenary Royal Corona UK exclusive 2002

….all the best of the best English Market selection Havana cigars and the price includes VAT and delivery 🙂

Just back from my Robert Graham Ltd whisky and cigar shops in Scotland where we have finally opened our “tasting room” at our Canongate store. We sell a splendid range of chocolate ( even chocolate cigars ) and I managed to consume twice my bodyweight in hot chocolate shots over a 48 hour period.I never realised it at the time as I was intermittently sampling the Robert Graham range of single malt whiskies! I reckon our walk in humidors at the Rose street and Canongate branches must have the largest range of Havanas in Scotland and I always spot some unusual stuff there.

Searching round our London store yesterday I found some Upmann Magnum LE’s which I was sure had sold out some time ago. Had to smoke one for testing purposes but there are another 24 left if you hurry 🙂

Click here to order

Whisky and Cigars
by Robert Graham Ltd
4 Broadwell Parade
Broadhurst Gardens
London
NW6 3BQ
Tel: 0207 624 3351

My manageress Lucy would be delighted to welcome you 🙂

Colin Ganley from European Cigar Cult Journal popped into the shop for a quick smoke so I recommended the rather delish UK regional El Rey del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque which seemed to hit the spot. Colin’s kindly reviewing the Vegas Robaina range of cigars for us as well as the Robaina book and we hope to publish his review in the coming weeks.

Colin is also reviewing my book Once Upon a Time in Cuba which I understand he enjoyed browsing through whilst smoking a good Havana.

I popped into Mill Hill Wines last night and was really impressed by the range and the service and they have a great range of single Havanas too. Support your local Havana Cigar Specialist 🙂

Last call on Bolivar Centenary cigars,they have been selling like mad this week

Available Now – Rare Bolivar Centenary Cigars

Only 100 of these humidors were made for the UK market and released in 2002.
The humidors were numbered and contained
50 specially double banded Royal coronas and 50 specially double banded Belicosos Finos.

English Market Selection. Pristine condition.

Bolivar Centenary specially banded Royal Coronas (25 cigars)
Bolivar Centenary Special Sampler – 10 cigars
Bolivar Centenary Double Sampler – 4 cigars
Bolivar Centenary specially banded Royal Coronas
(25 cigars) £525.00
4 7/8″ length and 50 ring gauge
Click here for more details

Bolivar Centenary specially banded Royal Coronas £25.00
4 7/8″ length and 50 ring gauge
Click here for more details

Bolivar Centenary specially banded Belicosos Finos £26.00
5 1/2″ length and 52 ring gauge
Click here for more details

Bolivar Centenary Double Sampler – 4 cigars £99.00
2 each Royal Coronas and Belicosos Finos – total 4 cigars and free delivery
Click here for more details

Bolivar Centenary Special Sampler – 10 cigars £250.00
This sampler contains five each of the specially made cigars from the Bolivar Centenary Humidor.
Click here for more details

All prices include free shipping.

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell