Just back from the Costa del Sol in Spain which has now officially been renamed by me to ‘Costa del rain ‘ after 7 out of 10 very rainy days of vacation. In fact I’m pleased to get back to sunny London. ( rare for me as I spend half the year out of London in sunnier climates!)

Not to worry I stayed in a delightful Crowne Plaza hotel and met a very nice crowd of folks who when told I was a cigar merchant gave the usual response of ‘ do people still smoke cigars? ‘ to which I smugly give my standard reply of ‘ well around 16,000 on my database do, thankfully !.

Then I make the usual error and say I’m also a whisky merchant which perks them up ( more people like whisky than cigars ) and I usually get a barrage of questions with no hope of answering as I only drink the Scotch whilst my Partner Ron is the expert. ( and he’s sunning himself in Florida so he’s no use to me in rainy Spainy!)

So I spent rainy days in Spain smoking my way through a large baggie with a daily rotation of:

El Rey del Mundo Demi Tasse

H Upmann corona junior untubed ( silly name,I always preferred ‘Petit Upmann’)

Bolivar Belicosos Finos

Montecristo Edmundo or no.2

Just back in time for the Royal wedding and I’ll be smoking Bolivar Royal Coronas http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/bolivar-royal-coronas-royal-wedding-orchant-seleccion-p-9807.html whilst watching on TV of course.

Orders have been at record levels no doubt due to the great weather, bank holiday weekends and Royal wedding street parties J and I have no idea how my London sales Team have actually coped while our humidor and ground floor at Kingsgate are midst complete redevelopment ( note: I was in Spain during the major disruption/ I am no fool!) but coped we have done, with orders being zoomed out at the usual crazy pace from our other building in Kingsgate as well as Norfolk warehouse and our shops doing their bit too. Well done C.Gars Ltd and Robert Graham Ltd Teams- that must be the hardest week in the year so far.

The good news is that we now have a floor, a ceiling, lighting, air conditioning, client lockers and half of the humidor built and with any luck the builders will hand over the completed building to us on Tuesday ready to be restocked with one of the largest stocks in the country and I’m pretty certain the best vintage cigars stock in the country J

I’ll post up some photos on my next blog if all goes to plan.

Next week I start cataloguing auction entries for July 4^th sale at Boisdale Canary Wharf. Many interesting Lots arriving daily from mature bargain (potentially) priced Havanas to incredible pre embargo and limited editions. I’m looking forward to the event which starts off with a whisky tasting before the auction and ends with an exclusive dinner in the restaurant with a concert by Manolo and the Gypsies. Great cigars, drinks and dinner- not sure anyone could ask for more J email if you would like more details [email protected]

Ok so I’m off to put the Royal bunting up round the humidor J and smoke another Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 before we sell out of them !

Have a great weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Greetings from London where I have spent the last few days recovering from the most incredible cigar party we have ever hosted!

Our C.Gars Ltd Spring Cigar Dinner was held at my friend Ranalds new restaurant in Canary Wharf. We expected around 70 friends to join us for the evening but eventually sold out over 120 tickets !

Goodie bags and Champagne on arrival set everyone in the right mood for the evening.

Guests from Japan, the USA and all over the UK made the trek to this opening night party and were not disappointed. This star studded crowd included a titled Gentleman, A great footballer, a famous film producer and one of the most famous shoe designers in the world 🙂 Champagne and caviar to kick the evening off on the cigar terrace with a Seleccion Orchant San Cristobal La Fuerza vintage 2005 – proved to be a dynamite combo.

Top brass from importers Hunters and Frankau included Chairman David Lewis and Simon Chase. My gratitude as ever to H&F and their team for all their support

The food, wine and the service were quite superb (as expected at all Boisdale establishments) as was the music provided by Ruben Richards & The Soul Train.

After dinner the band played on for the Wags whilst a lot of the boys went to the terrace for a smoke of a Seleccion Orchant Bolivar Royal Corona, Seleccion Orchant El Rey Del Mundo Tainos vintage 2002 and Vegas Robaina Classico 1999 – all English Market Selection of course.

My partner Ron Morrison from Robert Graham Ltd came down from Scotland with a few bottles of our finest award winning Single malt whisky to finish off a memorable evening.

The Boisdale cigar Library is almost finished and will be a great place to sample cigars as well as browse the enormous selection of EMS cigars that will be on display and available to purchase

My thanks to the Boisdale Team as well as Michelle and the London C.Gars Team for all their help in making our party such a great success.

So the question is how to top this event ? simple answer: my next event is on the 4th July 🙂

– Whisky and cigar tasting from 5.30

– New premium cigar range launch

– Vintage cigar auction at 6.30 together with 4 charity auction lots (entrance is by pre registration only)

– Dinner with special guest world famous band – places strictly limited to 50 persons

– More smokes and drinks on the terrace

To be put on the guest list email me at [email protected] as the event will sell out fast. There will be a nominal charge for the first part of the evening and/or both parts of the evening.

Our auction catalogue will be online 4 weeks before the auction and hard copy catalogues available 3 weeks before the auction. Auction sellers should ensure that they deliver Lots for inclusion in the sale by first week of May. Advice and valuations always available with pleasure.

So I’m out of here for a few days R&R whilst Michelle and her Team supervise the installation of our new walk in humidor at our London offices which should be a vast improvement in design, layout and storage space, goodness knows we are bursting with the finest cigars! I’ll post up some photos on my next blog if all goes to plan

Wishing all my friends and clients a blessed Easter or Happy Pessach (delete as applicable!)

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

What a fabulous change in the weather ! warm and sunny last week and continuing into this weekend which makes it perfect weather for cigars smoking. We can always tell when summer starts as our orders go up dramatically and our shops are busier than ever.

But what is going on? Sales of Romeo Wide Churchills are going through the roof recently  Nice cigar and I smoked quite a few of them in Havana earlier this year but I still think they need some time to settle down and show how good the blend will become.

I have been herfing through some 2005 San Cristobal La Fuerza like a fiend this week as a change of pace to my usual BBF’s, Monte 2’s and P2’s. With 6 years age these cigars are now a very decent smoke indeed and a dramatically  ‘different’ smoke to when they first came out. Patience is indeed a virtue with so many Havana cigars.

Great timing with the weather as we have the largest cigar party  (so far!) of the year this Sunday evening at the fabulous new Boisdale in Canary Wharf  the event sold out some weeks ago but people kept asking if they could book up!

So it’s grown to a larger event than we originally planned which will make it one helluva party!

But it is definitely sold out now so if you are one of the lucky ticket holders, I look forward to seeing you on Sunday evening and if not sorry but please don’t turn up as we have taken over the entire venue for the evening and there is no admission without ticket.

Friends are literally flying in from all over the world as well as all over the country. Should be an evening of great food, wine, music and smokes- who could ask for more. Our PR James Leavey and photographer Tillmann Pretscher will be there too so there should be some good photographic evidence for the website and next blog 🙂

My last few days in London next week and then I’m away for the rest of the month so I’m hoping to grab my herf’dor and take the roof of the car if the weather stays good and take a drive over to a few of our cigars stores over the next few days and perhaps search out some locations for a few more cigar stores.

We’re already taking in some outrageously interesting auction Lots for the 11^th July cigar auction  nd I’m looking forward to cataloguing next month especially if our new planned London humidors all goes to plan. Any clients with Keeps that need cigars for next weekend should contact Michelle by email soonest as all client keeps in London will be closed during our redevelopment from the 15^th to the 26^th April.

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Greetings from my smokey office where I am currently revisiting Montecristo Sublimes Limited edition for 2008 

This delicious Havana measures in at 6 1/2″ length and a whopping 54 ring gauge and delivers volumes of rich smooth full and sweet flavoured smoke from start to finish. Beautiful maduro wrapper and a perfect draw.

2 year aged tobacco on release so it’s now getting on for 5 years matured. This is fast becoming my favourite LE and I even prefer it to Cohiba Sublimes plus it’s much better value. Not sure how long they will be available but we have a deep stock in our humidor that should last quite a while

Meantime Michelle and her sales Team have been selling Gil Gonzales  like crazy 24/7 ! pretty good smoke and great value

This week’s herfing activity was at Ten Manchester street for lunch on Tuesday which was very good indeed. The terrace was warm and sheltered and the service improves every time I visit so well done Number Ten J smoked our way through a few cheeky little El Rey Choix de L’Epoque, followed by a couple of evening herfs at the Lanesborough where my homies enjoyed some of the splendid premier cru Chablis with Punch Serie D’Oro no.1’s. Great to see our friends from New York and Texas enjoying some of our British hospitality.

No sooner than we announced the auction date of 11th July and the Lots are already rolling in which is the fastest response I can remember. This is our 4th cigar auction and it promises to be an interesting one with a variety of limited edition,pre embargo,Davidoff,Dunhill and other Havana cigars that you can’t find in the shops any more. Here’s a link to our auction website  to see details of our previous auctions.

Prices are held for this weekend but going up next week I’m afraid. It’s around 5% across the board following the budget but remember we will price match any bona fide cigar merchant in the UK 🙂

Next week will be a crazy one as we make the final arrangements for our cigar party at Boisdale canary Wharf  should be the largest cigar party of the year (so far!)

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell