Nottingham herfing :-)

After a days herfing in Scotland with my partner Ron on Monday,it was good to relax in the London office for a few days and get in shape for what turned out to be a bit of a marathon herf in Nottingham on Thursday/Friday!

At the kind invitation of one of my clients (now a firm friend!) I zoomed up the M1 smoking a Diplomaticos no.2 on Thursday morning. Met up with my client and checked out his fabulous collection of Havanas. He noticed that I was paying a lot of attention to some old Monte 2’s and promptly told me to grab a handful and we’d smoke them after lunch. Needless to say I didn’t need telling twice! (TY AS)

Off we went to lunch at the delightful Harts restaurant Slick service, chic decor, delicious food accompanied by a 2007 Sancerre and followed by a cheeky Pomerol 2003.Perfect. Highly recommended

But where to smoke after lunch? Easy said my friend,the lovely Harts Hotel is cigar friendly and set us up with a lovely (and comfortable) outdoor covered and heated smoking area.

We sampled a few goodies including Diplomaticos no.2’s Bolivar Belicosos, Monte Edmundos and Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 and yes you guessed it, the Punch was the big winner (every time!)

Friends joined us over the rest of the afternoon and quite a few more smokes and bottles of that cheeky red were put away 🙂

By 9 pm we thought we had better have some dinner and The World Service was just a short walk away. Another thoroughly excellent choice of restaurant that I would highly recommend.

I think we were all kind of herfed out at midnight so a quick gift of a Cohiba Gran Reserva to my friend ended the evening in style.

Great to see old friends and new in Nottingham and I look forward to coming back again in the future.

Laura, Karyn and Mish have worked ridiculously hard on their new website and I’m terribly proud of them. Do check it out Great Gifts. Any constructive criticism always welcomed.

Christmas season is upon us and our retail cigar and whisky stores seem to be busier by the day. Edinburgh Rose street had a madly busy few days as they had a fabulous roller from the El Laguito factory rolling custom blends. Always popular with the customers. I never even got to try one as they all sold out!

The auction catalogues are printed now and looking pretty cool if I do say so myself 🙂 You can view ( and bid) on Lots online or come to Boisdale for the actual auction on the 1st December

Well that’s all the news for now except to say I’m off to Havana next week for the annual Partagas Festival 🙂 this one should be the best ever. The gala dinner is at the Habana Libre Hotel and I’m looking forward to seeing friends from all over the world in sunny Havana