Post strike? who cares! business as usual :-)

I have to laugh at the current Royal Mail strike as I honestly think it will speed up the demise of Royal Mail and it couldn’t come a day too soon. Fortunately we were able to switch out of Royal Mail and move to courier services a few weeks ago so business continues to boom as usual 🙂

I zipped over to Geneva for a spot of lunch at the lovely Kempinski Hotel on Monday. Geneva always seems so civilised especially as you can smoke cigars on the 2nd floor of the Kempinski and no one bats an eye lid.

Had a look through the wonderful Gerards humidor and snagged some of the Swiss regionals which are most impressive but I’m still hooked on the UK regionals and in particular the Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 ( 2008) which I rate as one of the best blended Havanas in the last 10 years

I don’t know how long they will be around for as only 1210 boxes were made and I have probably smoked or sold half of them already! The fabulous folks at Hunters and Frankau recently sent us box No.1 which has pride of place in the world famous “Ming Collection” where the original 1970’s box (yes – full of cigars) is laid down. How cool is that? 🙂

Now I reckon that the Ming collection may well be the largest and best collection of vintage cigars in the world. It’s a privilege to have created the collection and still be caring for it. I salivate every time I walk into the humidor!

Partagas Serie D No.1 Limited edition has finally sold out in the UK sadly and sorry to all our regulars who were fans of this smoke. We were given no advanced notice that the stock was short. Probably best to switch to Partagas P2’s, another one of my daily favourites. Full flavour, medium strength, rustic and spicy with the most perfect construction.

La Gloria Cubana Gloriosos (the UK regional edition for 2008 only 2040 boxes of 10 made) is a cheeky little smoke, actually not so little as it measures 6 1/8″ length and 50 ring gauge and it’s a first rate day time smoke. Snag them while you can.

The big surprise has been the 2009 Juan Lopez Seleccion Suprema. 2000 cabinets of 10 made exclusively for the UK market. This cigar is showing well now and has a blend that lends itself to long term maturing. In fact this will go and go…for years

Finally finished my auction catalogue and it should be online tonight. We are still getting a lot of late entries and in fact we should have another 40 or more Lots over the next week. You will be able to find the catalogue link on this web page Bidders are welcome to bid in person at my favourite restaurant, Boisdale Belgravia on the 1st of December but if you can’t make it we are welcoming online bids. It’s all easy!

We shall have a little Mojito reception at 7 p.m with the Brian Ebbesen (ex Christies) starting the auction at 7.30. I hope Brian knocks down the Lots fast as we have a cigar dinner following the auction with some guests of honour including Jemma Freeman, Simon Chase, Edward Sahakian, Albert Stagnetto to name a few. Should be a great evening.

I believe C.Gars Ltd was the largest single buyer at Christies cigar auctions (when they used to hold them) and I certainly snagged some great cigars over the years. No doubt a lot of happy bidders may snag some fabulous vintage cigars at the C.Gars Ltd auction particularly as I noted that some of the estimates looked like great value. Lots can be viewed by appointment at our London humidor

So next week it’s dinner at Boisdale on Tuesday with the editor of Smoke Magazine and then I’m off to our La Casa del Habano in Hamburg to smoke some of the incredible (and incredibly expensive) Cohiba Gran Reserva which have just come out, looking forward to seeing the regulars in our cigar lounge on Wednesday.

The following week will be a busy one as Robert Graham Ltd are opening another fabulous whisky and Cigar shop on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile (to add to the existing shops in Edinburgh West End and Glasgow) I will of course be deciding and supervising the Havana cigar range.

Finally having been asked for years and years whether we have a cigar shop in London we have decided to open a cigar shop in London! More details very soon 😉

Have a great weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

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