Cigar Auction Time Again…

It’s that time again! Our 4th auction of 2018 is now live and online and will finish on Sunday the 16th September.

330 Lots of aged, rare, mature and limited edition cigars will be sold and no doubt some bargains will be bagged 🙂 It’s easy to get in on the action and it works a bit like eBay. You have to register to bid and you have to request an appropriate credit limit. The whole process takes a few minutes and the bidding is lightning fast thereafter.

  • Our first cigar auction was held on the 1st December 2009 and we have held 26 Cigar auctions since our specialist auction department was established.
  • We hold an average of 4 cigar auctions per year (usually Spring, Summer and Winter) though this year we plan a 5th auction in December as well.
  • Our auctions have sold a total of 8,073 lots since we held our first cigar auction. Including 545 Davidoff, 447 Dunhill and 469 Pre Embargo lots sold!

The interest in these cigars seems to be insatiable and it looks like this will continue as we see more and more stock shortages from Habanos SA.

Some of the featured lots in this auction include:

Lot 317 – Pre Embargo cabinet of 500 Punch Coronas in exceptional condition and of beautiful appearance

Lot 276 – Box of 10 Dunhill Estupendos from the 1980’s

Lot 295 – Ramon Allones Hunters & Frankau 225th anniversary humidor of 100 cigars

Lot 283 – Cohiba Majestuosos 1966 humidor of 20 cigars

Lot 324 – Pre Embargo Ramon Allones Trumps cabinet of 50 cigars

Lot 298 – Trinidad 40th anniversary humidor of 40 cigars

All quite breath taking!

We leave all of the sales data online from previous auctions so it can be used as a reference for collectors to see how prices have increased (or decreased) over the years which can make for very interesting reading! For any advice or condition reports email the auction team at [email protected]. The Team is online 24/7.

I’m just back to the office after a couple of days off for New Year (Happy new year to all who celebrated!) and getting back into routine with a sampling session at Turmeaus Mayfair followed by smokes and drinks at The Lanesborough (good way to start the year I reckon!) I’m getting quite partial to Romeo Belicosos as a change of pace to Bolivar Belicosos these days. The Romeo is far milder which suits my palate better as the current production Bolivar seems to have kicked the strength up a notch or two.

It’s a return to form for the Romeo which has been exceptionally unpopular for many years, though I remember back in the mid 90’s when just about every enquiry we had was for Romeo Belicosos, RASS and PSD4’s! In that time period they were more or less impossible to get. I even went over to Holland by car with my father to buy up all the retailers stocks and import them to the UK!

I hope we are not going back to those days as we are still seeing patchy supply on Cohiba and various other brands/vitolas.

We seem to be steaming towards 10,000 products on our website and I love the New Product feature. I remember when Laura and I started the website and we had around 200 products and a target of 50 orders a month! Now we have warehouses full of the finest tobacco and spirits and thousands of orders a week… incredible!

I think I will go and celebrate that with a dram of my current favourite and award winning Stalla Dhu Auchroisk; 19 years old and perfect with another Romeo Belicosos 🙂

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Whisky & Curry!

Ok… Now I know many a whisky aficionado who sings (or sang before converted) in perfect harmony with the choir 🎶 Nooo Way! 🎶 I completely understand that, savouring the purity of “The Water of Life” without subjecting your taste-buds to an onslaught of spice and heat fighting for survival so they can savour the next caress of a gentle dram, blah blah blah.

Well that’s just it for a starter, not all drams are gentle and peaceful, in fact many are prepared for battle in full armour and ready to take on all challengers.

So after a recent and necessary whisky tasting I invited my tasting partner, a visitor from the States, for a curry where I advised him we could continue our tasting experience elevated of course by the pleasures of as the Indians themselves say “First Class” experience. He of course was massively sceptical both about food and the pairing.

Now we arrived at the sparsely seated establishment early evening and were promptly seated when I asked for some poppadoms and sparkling water to refresh and prepare 🙂

A selection of Tandoori starters were ordered and I took the lead in ordering the booze. First up a Bowmore Old Fashioned, no explanation needed this just works at every level with the starters.

For his main, being a novice, he opted for a safe Chicken Korma. No problem, double Eagle Rare Bourbon on the rocks (25 ml just does not do it and to interject; Puffin’ Rooms is the only place to get 35ml) anyway it’s candied fruity, honey complexity and oakyness was perfect.

Now I ordered Lamb Rogan Josh and Garlic Naan… when your pairing anything, particularly cigars and whisky, the rule of thumb is contrast or compliment. But I like to take one step further and challenge.

The idea is to bring out the best in both, not that it’s advised to have a mouthful of complex food and swirl it around with a counterpart spirit, but to take a bite enjoy all that the dish has to offer allow settle then reach for the glass of challenge see it raise to the occasion.

So fortunately this restaurant had a whisky that fit the bill Laphroaig Lore. Spicy, peaty and seriously good with hints of sherried sweetness! Perfect Harmony to my Rogan Josh.

Oh and on the table, left over from the poppadoms, sat my favourite lime pickle which I emptied on to my curry and left out of the equation just because it’s the “Pickle King!”

On the way out my friend said as Americans do that was “Awesome”.

Slainte

Ron Morrison
Chairman of C.Gars Ltd