It’s been the usual crazy/fun week at C.Gars – London with our Winter Auction on Monday afternoon at The Bulgari Hotel. Clients from all over the world had been viewing Lots prior to the auction at my beautiful new walk in humidor (only for aged and rare!) and the consensus was that its far more comfortable now we have split the recent production cigar stocks from the vintage stocks. I know my London Team are much happier to have me out of their way!
So what’s going on with the auction world? Well, we offered 354 Lots with around 10 passed, so a pretty high sale rate again. Prices seemed to be very firm indeed though the weakness of Sterling may have an effect for International bidders. My feeling is that anyone that won Davidoff Lots were very lucky as I reckon the supply is all but over now in the same way as its more or less impossible to get any Dunhill cigars anymore.
Pre Embargo prices were firm and Limited editions were too. Clearly the market appetite is still huge for the more unusual type of Havana cigar. The auction was live at The Bulgari and simultaneously online with over 400 bidders combined which was in fact the largest number yet.
Post auction cigar and whisky sampling was held at the lovely Sahakian cigar lounge with delicious canapés from the Bulgari. The aperitif cigar was a Montecristo Medias Corona followed by a Juan Lopez Seleccion Superba UK regional edition 2016. The smokes were paired up with Orchant Selection Cigar Malt and Stalla Dhu Islay. Fair to say, a good evening was had by all 🙂 Our next auction is planned for the 12th March 2017 and we are considering entries from Monday onwards.
I can’t believe how fast December has come around, the older I get the faster time flies or perhaps it’s that I’m enjoying myself so much?! Thanks to our clients (and my team) as we are having the best year in our entire history. Our cigar and whisky shops have never been so busy and our mail order division is insanely busy with no end of new clients. I can’t work out if premium cigar smoking is just becoming more and more popular in the UK or if clients are defecting from other cigar merchants… or both.
We expanded into our new building a week ago but I can already see we are utterly at capacity.So that’s both mail order fulfillment premises in London and Norfolk completely at capacity again! (Woohoo) It’s hard to capture the madness on camera as we have various warehouse areas in the same building but I have popped up a few photos to give you an idea. I like to think of us as the Amazon.com of cigars 🙂
The weather’s turned bloody cold in London but thankfully still dry so I am getting my last few days of topless driving in while I can. I love car herfing! No idea why but my baggies in the boot keep my smokes in perfect condition despite temp fluctuations. I keep cigars in the car based on the length of journey time, so short journeys: Monte Medias Coronas, medium journeys: Bolivar Belicosos (2007) and Hoyo Epicure Especial (2008) and long journeys: Cohiba Piramides Extra. (now you get why I love car herfing lol)
Supply shortages of Havanas are getting worse week by week and we are doing our best to release enough of our reserve stocks to meet demand. We released 100 or so boxes of Behike last week but they all sold out in around 19 minutes. Sorry but we do on occasion have to restrict clients to one box per order.
Latest casualties include Cohiba Siglo VI, El Rey del Mundo Choix Supreme and Por Larranaga Petit Coronas (oh no!… all of my faves… maybe I caused the shortage!) Anyway, stock up while you can as I gather supply ain’t likely to get better any time soon.
So, Christmas season is upon us 🙂 and I have one more event before I head up North with Karyn to work in our shops. This really is the UK cigar event of the year. C.Gars has a huge table of friends for the event and I can’t wait. Maybe able to squish a couple more people on our table but you will need to hurry! More info and ticket booking here.
To get me in the Boisdale mood and relax a tad now the auction is over I’m heading over to the lovely Boisdale Belgravia for supper and smokes with friends next week. Still one of my favourite places to herf 🙂
I’m finishing off the week sampling a Hoyo Epicure Especial from a 2008 50 cab and a wee dram of Ben Nevis 1999 which we will be bottling early next year under our Stalla Dhu label. It’s a stunning combination after a splendid week!
Have a smokey weekend,
Peaceful puffing,
Mitchell
