Festival del Habanos 2006
FESTIVAL DEL HABANOS 2006
MITCHELLS DIARY
In fact the old La Corona factory has closed down, but a new one has
opened on 26th May Street.
The old Romeo factory collapsed a few weeks ago and production has
now been transferred to the H. Upmann factory which is working at a
daily capacity of 30,000 cigars. All carefully quality controlled
and draw tested.
The factory manager kindly presented the Hunters group with freshly
rolled Upmann 2´s and Montecristo Edmundo in the boardroom following
our tour around this modern and impressive facility.
The Partagas and Cohiba factories are the only other Havana
factories operating at this time but there are a further 43 cigar
factories outside of Havana.
Last night we had the pleasure of seeing the Cuban national ballet
performing Shakespeare and his Masks at the Gran Teatro de la Habana
followed by the welcome party at the Capitolio building for the
launch of the new Romeo Short Churchills.
These
delightful robustos will be available in and beautiful tubed version
as well as dress boxes of 25 cigars.
They
are an easy drawing, medium flavour, light strength cigars that is
sweet in taste from the first to the last puff.
We
expect them to be available in the next month and are certain they
will be extremely popular as well as a decent value cigar...highly
recommended.
Today we visited the Pinar del Rio and plantations. The harvest is a
few weeks late this year due to last year's hurricane but it looks
like it will be a good one.
Simon Chase and Ana Lopez are of course hosting the tour for Hunters
and Frankau and it's a pleasure to be part of the group following
the Silver Chaveta award in 2005.
There is a lot of buzz around the 40th anniversary Cohiba humidor
but I have yet to see one...watch this space!
Weather is sunny and warm but a bit windy...service is on manana
time as ever!
But
there is nothing quite like Havana!
After a quiet day relaxing on the beach in Santa Maria enjoying some
finest custom blended Havanas the Festival week draws to a close but
the best it yet to come.....
The Gala dinner was held last night for 850 cigar aficionados,
connoisseurs, retailers and distributors.
Celebrating the 40th
anniversary of the Cohiba brand, this was sure to be a night to
remember and since coming to Havana almost a decade ago I can say it
was one of the best nights ever.
We were greeted by beautiful Cuban models offering us exquisite
leather Cohiba cigar cases filled with 3 Cohiba Siglo VI, followed
by Corona especial, the new Siglo II Tubed, Siglo IV and finally
Esplendidos.
Slick films were shown chronicling the last four decades of Cohiba
since it's commercial launch and everyone was "wowed" by the latest
limited edition Cohiba "Behikes" Humidor by Elie Bleu. Only 100 of
these incredible humidors of 40 cigars have been made with each
cigar band individually numbers.
There was a raffle for no.1 humidor which was one by Rafi in
Geneva.....congrats Rafi!
James Suckling from Cigar Aficionado won the Habanos award for
communications and it was well deserved....congratulations James!
Sitting with the crowd from Hunters and Frankau we were delighted
when Alejandro Robaina from the famous brand Vegas Robaina joined us
( excellent photos to follow)
Simon Chase conducted the auction in his usual cool and professional
manner ....no one doe it like Simon ! and it was a great success as
ever.
I tried bidding on all of the Lots in partnership with Albert
Stagnetto but alas we were outbid!
The results were:
Lot 1 65000 Euros
Lot 2 50000 Euros
Lot 3 55000 Euros
Lot 4 180000 Euros
Lot 5 250000 Euros
All of the exquisite humidors were of course signed by Fidel Castro.
The food, presentation and service really was second to none....Cuba
has come a long way over the last decade.
Best
SmokeyMo
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| Dinner at El Aljibe |
Simon Chase |
The new H Upmann Factory |
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| H Upmann Factory |
Mitchell with Robert Emery
of JJ Fox |
Romeo Short Churchills launch
Mitchell with Mike Mirecki of
Cuba Welcome travel |
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James Leavey ( journalist and cigar
aficionado known as Hemmingway!)
chilling at the Nacional |
Fraser Gilchrist of Robert Graham Ltd
cigar merchants of Scotland |
Ana Lopez and Simon Chase |
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Tobacco growing under
muslin shade |
Lots of tobacco ! |
Ana Lopez
Hunters and Frankau |
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| Plenty of tobacco growing this year:-) |
Not sure about Frasers hat! |
Volado leaf |
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| ...everything by hand |
Bales of tobacco wrapped
in palm leaf |
John from Choice Select cigars |
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| Custom rolled from volado leaf...yuk! |
Enjoying a Daiquiri with Hemmingway at
Floridita:-) |
Mitchell and Nino herfing at the Nacional |
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| Christoph Wolters mooches a cigar at the
Robaina shop :-) |
Kiki at the Partagas LCDH |
La China ...one of the best rollers ...at Partagas |
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| Gala dinner...do you think we had enough
glasses?! |
Sampling the new San Cristobal
compliments of Havana Holdings:-) |
Viv...the loveliest Cuban I know! |
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| Mike and Viv |
Tropicana! |
Christoph Wolters |
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| Albert Stagnetto of Gibraltar LCDH |
Gala dinner |
Alejandro Robaina |
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| Ummm...girls..lots of them ;-) |
Ajaz...and more girlzzz |
Auction lots...awesome! |
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| Simon Chase |
Mitchell and Jose Marti :-) |
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Cohiba Leaflet |
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Cohiba Menu |
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| New addition to the Cohiba range due out
in the next few months ....Tubed Cohiba Siglo II |
Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill
Tubed Romeo short churchills due to be launched in the next month or so
and a welcome addition to the Romeo range.This robusto sized cigar is
light in strength and full in flavour and reminds me of an old Hoyo
Epicure no.2 blend |
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New sizes of San Cristobal exclusive to
La Casa del Habanos shops |
Diploma |
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Romeo y Julieta Leaflet |
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Auction Catalogue |
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| Festival Diary 2006 |
Visit to Plantations |
Menu |
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| Invitation |
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