Cigar Auction Time!

Thankfully the back problem is steadily getting better and I was able to get back to my usual routine this week with a splendid trip up North to the Turmeaus Cigar and Whisky empire 🙂  (I reckon Scotch could well be the best pain killer!)

mitch_turmeausStarting off at Turmeaus Liverpool on Tuesday and spending a few hours working on Turmeaus – The Albany project whilst thoroughly taste testing a Cohiba Robusto Supremo I just love this cigar! It’s a bit of a gobstopper though I hear the cigar made for the Cohiba 50th Anniversary will be a monster 60 ring gauge! No need to ask when these will be available as I don’t know! but… I will try to find out next week when I head to Havana for the Festival del Habanos.

Moving on to Turmeaus and La Casa del Habano – Chester with industry colleagues Keith and Michael ( Road trip !) and we merrily herfed some rather remarkable 2012 RASS  which were blended to perfection, simply first rate sweet tobacco and faultless construction. One of my all-time favourite robustos. It was the first time Keith and Mike had seen the expanded Turmeaus and I think they were suitably impressed with our beautiful whisky department and La Casa del Habanos Humidor and lounge.

We grabbed dinner at my favourite spot in Chester, Bar Lounge which was as perfect as ever followed by yet more RASS on their smoking terrace. I reckon Bar Lounge service is the best in the UK, I love this place and its super cigar friendly.

Next stop was to Turmeaus-Knutsford for a wine tasting session as we have almost completed the fit out of the new wine room which is due to open in March. My lovely Turmeaus – Knutsford team (Andrew, Sue and Liz ) are looking forward to holding regular wine tasting events. It started as a pretty small project but I understand we will have something like 1000 bottles of wine for a kick off so it should be quite an impressive range.

We have finally completed the cigar sampling lounge at Turmeaus – Knutsford and it does look super cool and cosy if I do say so myself, airy and spacious, news on the TV, soft background music , soft drinks and espresso, a perfect environment to sample cigars before you decide what suits you best. The walk in humidor is now fully stocked with Cuban and New World cigars and the whisky range is quire comprehensive £25 – £1,500 a bottle) wine, whisky, cigar and pipe tobacco – who could ask for more ?! well, there is more ! we also sell drinks by the dram and have a great range of single malts and Cuban rum.

Next month we are doing a joint promotion with our friends at Guys Barber Shop in Knutsford, grab a haircut or wet shave and get a voucher for a half price dram! I tested out the wet shave and it was very very good 🙂

Back to La Casa del Habano – Chester for a massively packed whisky and cigar tasting event which was enjoyed by all. The aperitif cigar was a Montecristo Media Corona followed by a Bolivar Royal Coronas. A selection of whisky and rum was sampled including the magnificent Robert Graham exclusive Littlemill which is available directly from the new Robert Graham website and Ron Santiago which paired up very well with the cigars.mitch_herfing

The big success story is our Stalla Dhu single malt whisky which has taken us by surprise  created by my partner and whisky expert Ron Morrison this Speyside and Islay are exclusive to C.Gars and Turmeaus and exceptional value at 35 quid a pop for a quality single malt.

So, auction time is upon us ! Check out the Lots on the auction website  300 Lots of aged, rare and interesting Havanas of all vintage, shapes and sizes. The auction ends this Sunday and it’s easy and fun to bid, we like to think of it as cBay … a bit like eBay for cigars  🙂 Very best of luck to all of our Bidders and Sellers.

Next week I’m off to Havana for the Festival and looking forward to catching up with many friends from around the globe. The Festival celebrates the iconic Cohiba brands 50th anniversary so I expect it to be something special. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter I’ll try and post up some photos (connection in Cuba allowing!) after all this cold weather in the UK, I’ll be hoping for a little sunshine herfing on the Island.

This weekends baggie is filled with cigars from 1997 as we are celebrating my daughter Tasha’s 19th birthday on Sunday. So I have Saint Luis Rey Petit Coronas cabinet selection, Romeo Tubed Churchills and some Punch Double Coronas plus a bottle or two of Dom Perignon to suitably celebrate with 🙂 Happy birthday to Tasha, the official language translator for C.Gars lol

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

 

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Ouch!

Ouch indeed as I have damaged a disc in my back schlepping a rather too heavy for Mitchell humidor last Sunday whilst sorting through auction lots for the upcoming February 28th auction sale.

Cuban-Davidoff-AuctionLots-Mitchell-Feb2016I didn’t realise how much trouble I was in until the evening when I met friends at the Bull and Bush for a few stiff drinks and that didn’t ease the pain. So, it’s been a very light weight weeks work for me whilst the physio does her stuff to try and get me back in shape, and next week looks the same.

I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not as tough as I used to be and can’t quite work the same as I did in my teens. 20’s, 30’s or 40’s! (now I sound like an old boy!) I’ve actually been working for the last 36 odd years having started my first (and only paid employment!) when I was 15. I left the education system rather young convinced that many would be smarter than me but no one could ever work harder than me. Generally I was correct though, with the experience of many years and some ups and downs in business neither hard work nor a brilliant education bring a guarantee of business success. I rather think it’s a combination of business acumen and luck with luck playing the greater part.

In my early 30’s I would routinely work huge hours in the office only to continue doing my famous ‘sell outs’ all night from home. Great fun, financially lucrative and a hell of a buzz despite the tiredness the next day I merrily soldiered on feeling invincible! My favourite memory was knocking out 200 boxes of Bolivar Gold Medals in a marathon 8 hour night shift.

Age catches up with everyone and it’s caught up with me with the back ache signal! Note to self: Leave the heavy lifting to the younger chaps in the team!

Whilst stuck at home I busied myself re-evaluating some of the limited editions stuck at the back of the humidor (good way to pass the time!) including the Cohiba 1966 which was no less than magnificent, The PSD2 which has evolved into a beast of a smoke, quite excellent and the Hoyo Piramides which used to be my favourite LE but is now a tad too mellow to be on my favourites list. I also managed to blast through a complete box of Orchant Seleccion 2007 vintage BBF’s which were sublime smokes. Simply like candy for me… edible.

So despite health issues it looks like the Auction Catalogue will be online on time, a week before the sale on the 28th February and if I do say so myself I am rather impressed with this catalogue of almost 300 Lots.

There are around 50 Pre Embargo Lots including singles (great if you want to try a rare pre embargo on a budget) boxes of all shapes and sizes as well as some outrageous cabinets of 25, 50 and 100 cigars in pristine, if not magnificent condition and appearance. There are some super Dunhill cigars, an excellent range of almost every Davidoff vitola and a good variety of aged, mature and limited edition Havanas. I know of no other cigar auctioneer or merchant in the world that is able to offer this type of auction service for almost 1000 lots of vintage cigars annually.

The auction finishes on the 28th of February and I’m sure you’ll find it’s a very user friendly online system that we created in house and continually tweak to ensure fastest speed and reliability. Most of the Lots are available to view at our London offices but if you don’t live near you can always email Laura and the Auction Team quoting Lot numbers and asking for a further detailed condition report. We also assist with shipping arrangements to complete a full service.

In other news this week our next three planned whisky and cigar tastings are almost fully booked already so don’t delay if you want to have a fun evening at Turmeaus or our beautiful La Casa del Habano. I’m planning to be at all of these events.

Last call on Cohiba Robusto Supremo, as we are down to our last 200 boxes so if this is a cigar you enjoy, get them while you can. Bit of a gob stopper but a total flavour bomb that I love. Same deal with Por Larranaga Sobresalientes. Get them while you can, this cheeky smoke is delicious and one of the best regionals ever made in my opinion.

Welcome back to Sara from Chester who has just had a fantastic visit to Nicaragua. I dare say she was very impressed with Drew Estate and will give us a full report as soon as she has recovered from the jet lag. Check out the Drew estate range on the website.

The Davidoff Year of the Monkey Toro is now available in boxes and singles and a very fine smoke it indeed is.

Our whisky range is now rounded off but for the best range of all visit our partners and check out the new Robert Graham website.

Finally the wine room at Turmeaus – Knutsford is nearing completion #yay! And should be ready for stocking up with a mouth watering range of fine wines to suit everyone’s budget in the next week or so.

Righto, I’m off for a herf with Mr Voltarol and another Cohiba 1966 🙂

Have a smokey week.

Peaceful puffing.

Mitchell

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I’m Baaaack!

I feel like I have been away for ages! But, I’m back; toned, tanned and into the C.Gars action after 3 weeks in the sunshine 🙂 I love to get away after the physical pain of working like a madman during December but I think this is the first time in many years Karyn and I were actually able to escape the cold January in London and herf in the sunshine. And… we did indeed herf!

Starting off in South Beach and hanging out at Deco Drive cigars on Lincoln every day watching the craziness pass us by whilst enjoying Orchant Seleccion by Oliva, Alec Bradley Prensado and a few Fuente Opus X to get us well chilled and ready for the main event which was a 2 week cruise round the Caribbean.

I’ve been resisting doing a cruise for some years despite most of my friends having enjoyed them already but as Karyn assured me there would be no issues with cigar smoking I decided I was finally old enough to set to sea! The ship was huge and super luxurious and the cigar lounge more than comfortable so I was in good shape for two weeks serious herfing 🙂 We stopped at some beautiful islands, met some fabulous people, enjoyed some super excursions and had plenty of sunshine too. I think this may well have been our first totally non business related trip in memory!

I managed to stay in touch using the ships satellite internet connection which probably cost me more than the actual vacation it was so expensive!

We visited: Eleuthera, very pretty but no cigars. Grand Cayman, excellent cigars at my friend Valerio’s La Casa del Habano. Cozumel, every single cigar was counterfeit and bad ones at that (glass tops, sizes never made etc.!) Costa Maya (as Cozumel – everything fake) St Thomas where I was told it’s against the law to smoke within 25 feet of a building(!) St Martin, Dutch side, plenty of fake cigars. French side – delightful La Casa del Habano with an excellent range of cigars.

I can confirm that I am now an expert at mixing Margaritas and making various different salsa having done a class, although I did manage to escape for a cigar when the dancing part of the class started!

Straight back into the action with a meeting at Hunters & Frankau last week and great to kick off the first new release of the year with the Hoyo Anejados that I saw being boxed at the La Corona factory last November. I smoked them for the first time thanks to H&F and have to say this is my favourite out of the 3 released so far (the others being the Montecristo Churchill and the Romeo Piramides) Rolled 5-8 years ago, the blend is well balanced, sweet, full flavoured, delicate and complex. The construction was perfect and the wrappers smooth and with a good sheen. This will be a very successful smoke for my clients.

Singles and boxes of 25 available, Get them while you can, it’s a limited production!

I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the Montecristo 80th anniversary in the next month. Its overdue (as we are used to!) but no doubt will be well worth the wait.

C.GARS have released another 100 boxes of the fabulous UK 2014 Regional Edition Por Larranaga Sobresalientes but I reckon when this lot are gone that will be the end of the line. They are just the most delicious Havanas.

Also down to our last 300 boxes of Cohiba Robusto Supremo – still online at the low mail order price whilst stocks last.

Very excited that work on our wine room at Turmeaus – Knutsford has just commenced. That’s the final part of the project which completes a very full Turmeaus offering of: cigars, pipes, smokers accessories, spirits, wines and sampling lounge. Who could ask for more?! (Knutsford Photo Gallery below)

Turmeaus – Chester has had a final few tweaks as well with additional cabinet work on the whisky side of the store and increased ‘by the dram’ ranges in both bars. I’m looking forward to getting customer reaction and feedback at the upcoming whisky and cigar tastings.

Turmeaus – Norfolk is busier than ever, possibly because there isn’t another cigar specialist around that I can think of and we have just been granted our alcohol premises licence too which completes my plan to have all Turmeaus licenced for spirits 🙂 Checkout our mouth watering range online.

I’m just waiting for some changes to the cabinets in Turmeaus – Mayfair which should happen any time now so we can better present our lovely product range in this small oasis in the heart of London.

If you like a Scotch with your cigars try a dram or two of Stalla Dhu. Highland and Islay single malt whisky exclusive to C.Gars and created by my business partner Ron Morrison. Its outstanding value for money and pairs up well with a fine Havana.

I’m still battling to keep up with the growth of Inka – Secret Blend cigars from Peru they just seem to get more popular by the week. One or two sizes are sold out yet again but we hope to have another huge import on our shelves very soon.

Michelle and I are now doing the finishing touches on the February 28th Vintage Cigar Auction Lots will be listed online around 8 days before the sale. We have a breath-taking selection of Pre Embargo, Dunhill, Davidoff and other aged and rare cigars being offered by collectors, aficionados and estates. Cigars can be viewed at our London offices and the auction team are always happy to advise and provide condition reports by email [email protected]

A warm welcome to our management Team to Roy Price who has joined C.Gars as my personal assistant. A familiar face to many of our clients up North already Roy will sort of be ‘me’ when I’m not there!

Still plenty of time to treat your loved one to something special for Valentines whether its romantic Romeo cigars or a bottle of Champagne, C.Gars online and Turmeaus retail shops will have the ideal gift for you.

Have a smokey week.

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Turmeaus Knutsford Gallery

Turmeaus Tobacconist Knutsford Turmeaus Tobacconist Knutsford
Turmeaus Tobacconist Knutsford Turmeaus Tobacconist Knutsford
Turmeaus Tobacconist Knutsford Turmeaus Tobacconist Knutsford
Turmeaus Tobacconist Knutsford Turmeaus Tobacconist Knutsford