That’s it!…another year done and per my Christmas blog our best year ever 🙂

I’m spending a quiet evening in with friends and have a nice selection of Davidoff/Dunhill cigars for the long evening ahead starting with a mild Don Perignon and building up to a Chateau Y’Quem and finally a Cabinetta…and I’ve decided to stick to 1989 vintage Bilecart Salmon champagne. Should be a match made in cigar and champagne heaven 🙂

Wish you a safe and happy new year and looking forward to a smokey 2010 !

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

By the 24th December 7000 Christmas mail orders shipped – 99.9% delivered 🙂 Now that’s what I call a merry Christmas.

Thank you and well done to all the boys and girls of C.Gars Ltd, Turmeaus Tobacconist, Robert Graham Ltd and LCDH Hamburg – an incredible Team – our best year ever.

Our Group expansion in 2009 has likely made us the largest Havana Specialist in the UK and with our Partners in Ireland, Germany and Mexico we look forward to further expansion Domestically and Internationally in 2010.

A full list of our locations can be seen here

As well as being specialists in Havana cigars, smokers accessories rum and whisky we added an extraordinary range of chocolate to our retail range which we will bring online in 2010. We also added our dedicated Gifts website which has already proved very popular with our clients.

Our proudest achievement of the year was winning Gold and Bronze award winning independent Bottler 2009 from Whisky Magazine

Our beautiful new cigar and whisky shops in London’s West Hampstead and Edinburgh Royal Mile are fast becoming a must stop destination for cigar and whisky aficionados.

Our Vintage Cigar Auction at the fabulous Boisdale restaurant in Belgravia was a resounding success and we are already planning our Summer 2010 auction as well as taking many fabulous entries

And to cap the year off my book with Mike Mirecki “Once Upon a Time in Cuba” is now published and will be available from next week. Our book has a foreword by Simon Chase of Hunters and Frankau and is a 147 page compilation of our original photograph collection of Cuba which includes chapters on Famous people, The Cuban Revolution, Pre Revolution, Bars, Music and Cabaret, Buena Vista Social Club, Tobacco (of course!) and Sport.

Only 1000 individually numbered hard back coffee table books will be made available at £29.99. Available by mail order, as well as in our retail stores and a few select other cigar stores and book stores

Thanks to all our clients, suppliers and friends and wish you a smokey new year!

Mitch, Laura and Mish

I think I have enjoyed this year and this particular Christmas season more than any in my memory. Simple reason is that more people seem to be enjoying a good stogie and a wee dram than ever. To forget recession? to give that “feel good factor” at home? yes probably both and add to that the favorable exchange rate, the quality assurance of English Market Selection cigars and we now know why we are busier than ever 🙂

This seasons best sellers have been the fabulous cigar cases. Beautiful presentation, first rate cigars and limited edition. It was obvious to me that these would be very popular from the start. My personal favorite is the Cohiba Siglo VI case. Here’s a link to the whole list of gift best sellers Christmas Gift Best Sellers

The years success story has been the exclusive UK regional edition cigars of 08 and 09. The release timing may have been a bit ‘all over the show’ but there is no denying these are excellent cigars. I think the Punch Serie D’Oro No.1 are likely to be sold out fairly soon.

El Rey 2009

Juan Lopez 2009

Punch 2008

La Gloria Cubana 2008

Our best selling whiskies have been our award winning independent bottlings (no surprise!) so if you enjoy a single malt with a good cigar you will, be hard pressed to find a better match.

At this time Robert Graham cigar and whisky stores are operating in Glasgow, Edinburgh Rose Street, Edinburgh Royal Mile, Edinburgh Highland Village on East Princes Street and Broadhurst gardens, West Hampstead in London. All of our shops have a great range of Havanas, Whisky and Chocolate

Turmeaus Tobacconist shops in Chester and Liverpool have enormous ranges of Havana cigars as well as pipes and pipe tobaccos. Contact details on this link and if you are visiting Dublin, please be sure to stop by the Decent Cigar Emporium on Grafton street… the best place to buy your Havanas and other fine cigars in Ireland

I’m off to Robert Graham Ltd in Scotland for a few days to check out our new stores and leaving C.Gars Ltd in the capable hands of Mishie and Laura and their sales team. Looking forward to seeing friends old and new in Scotland and then back to London for Christmas 🙂

Happy Chanukah and peaceful puffing to all

Best

Mitchell

Our first auction was held at Boisdale in Belgravia and was a resounding success.

The auction was conducted by Brian Ebbesen (previously of Christies) on the splendid cigar terrace (so cigar smoking was allowed if not actively encouraged!) at Boisdale in Belgravia

Despite the cold weather, the heaters kept the auction bidders warm enough to keep raising their paddles to bid

Around 50 bidders attended the event and enjoyed UK exclusive regional edition El Rey del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque and Hoyo Epicure no.2’s (finest English Market Selection of course)

Lots were sold to commission bidders from all over the world

Many Lots sold for bargain prices whilst other mouth watering Lots sold for… mouth watering prices including:

Cubatobacco 1492 £16,000

Hoyo limited edition humidor £3,600

Punch Presidentes jar £2300

Davidoff Chateau Latour £1850

Dunhill Atados £1450

Partagas Selection Suprema no.154 £3200

Por Larranaga Dunhill Selection no.33 £3700

Bolivar Corona Grandes £3,600

Dinner at Boisdale for 24 guests after the auction was a delight and we enjoyed the company of Jemma Freeman and Simon Chase of Hunters and Frankau, Albert Stagnetto from the famous Gibraltar cigar merchants, Simon Speller owner of the splendid Simply Cigars cigar merchant, Edward Sahakian from Davidoff of London amongst other friends.

We are now planning our next auction for June 2010 Buyers and sellers welcome to register with us by emailing [email protected]

My thanks to Brian Ebbesen for conducting the auction as well as my sales team, Michelle, Marci and Eli for all their help organizing the event

Finally many thanks to Ranald Macdonald, Nathan and his team at Boisdale for allowing us to use the cigar terrace and for all their support for our event.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell Orchant

Photographs by Tillmann Pretscher (www.pretscher.com)