Partagas 15th Anniversary Festival

Just back from the fantastic gala dinner which was held at the Habana Libre Hotel where some 300 “Amigos de Partagas” enjoyed an incredible evening of good food, wine, Havana Club rum, great music, incredible cigars and of course the best of company.
Specially banded cigars were handed out throughout the evening including an excellent Laguito no.1 and the incredible new Salamones.
Massimo held the auction of 5 special humidors containing a variety of specially banded cigars. The final lot sold for 10,000 C.U.C to Roberto from Italy. The auction was a great success and the money raised is donated to a Cuban charity.
It was a pleasure to be amongst so many fellow cigar smokers and friends from all over the world including Italy, France, USA, Canada and Greece to name just a few, although I was surprised that the English contingent amounted to …3 (Me, Zaff and Wilkes!)

Proudly representing C.Gars Ltd and La Casa del Habano-Hamburg, I was invited on to the stage to be recognised as a “Friend of Partagas” and presented with a beautiful box of specially banded cigars. The box has also been signed by the team working at Partagas LCDH including “La China” one of my favourite rollers.
Towards the end of the evening, a raffle was drawn. Their were a variety of prizes including a holiday for two in Sardinia kindly donated by an Italian aficionado and it was great to see one of the guys on our table win the prize.
Finally the most enormous cake was wheeled in and it was made to look like the Partagas factory.
Thanks to LCDH Partagas and the Italian cigar clubs for putting together such a wonderful evening
Photos to follow in the next few days
Have a great weekend
Saludos
Mitchell

Another Day in Cigar Paradise :-)

Greetings from Havana!
 
Today’s weather was monsoon in the
morning and sunshine in the afternoon!
 
Custom blend Yolandas and
Vigia rum at the Melia Habana this morning and custom blend La Chinas and Havana
Club rum at Partagas in the afternoon.
 
Lunch at Prado Neptuno for
the best pizza in Town (plus smoking of course permitted!)
 
Jazz
club this evening (near Melia Cohiba) with a few Siglo VI’s gifted to me at
Partagas today 🙂
 
It’s been a fabulous week in Havana for the
Partagas Festival, possibly the best one yet.
 
The Italians win the
prize for being the best represented country here! They are everywhere 🙂 A few
Germans, French, Canadians, Americas and Austrians and ummm Me
representing the UK!
 
Partagas LCDH is one of the best places to
herf in Havana and I’m always meeting new friends from all over the world (Hello
Josey from Canada!)
 
What has struck me is the incredible quality of
Havanas. In terms of blending and construction as well as appearance, the
improvement over the last 4 years has been breathtaking. Its so rare to get a
badly rolled cigar these days and the newer the vintage the better the cigar in
my opinion.
 
 

In the 11 years I have been visiting Havana
it amazes me how so little has changed. The buildings are still crumbling. The
people in general appear to be living in varying degrees of poverty but everyone
seems happy and friendly. Everyone asks me when I think the embargo will end and
what the ramifications will be. The answer is in truth I have no idea. Hopefully
Havana will not lose its charm but the people will have a better standard of
living.


No sign of Havana Club 15 year old rum anywhere, seems like its not being made anymore, so if you have a bottle – savour it!

Italy possibly has the most enthusiastic Havana cigar scene anywhere in the world with the
incredible Cigar Club association represented all over the country. Massimo is
definitely El Jefe 🙂
 
I’m off for a Daiquiri on the veranda at the
Hotel Nacional with Zaff 🙂
 
Hasta
luego
 
Saludos
 
Mitch