Treat of course 🙂 as I herfed my way across the Robert Graham shops in Scotland this week and managed to sample my way through a few of our top secret new releases planned for the next few months. Also contrasted them with some of the current releases such as Clynelish 1995 and Linkwood 1997 from our award winning Dancing Stag range.
 ‘Joys of being a whisky merchant’ or should I say ‘ joys of having a superb partner who is a whisky expert!’ (I only know how to drink the water of life!)
Our Rose street shop is going through a bit of a face lift with some great new LED lighting in the cabinets and our new corporate Robert Graham branding on the fascia as well as a nice refreshing paint jobbie in the next week or so. Our lovely and knowledgeable Manageress, Jo, seems to have filled Rose street up to the ceiling with the finest single malt whisky, Cuban rum, Cuban coffee and an gigantic range of Cuban and other premium cigars… So I think she’s all set for Christmas 🙂
Dougie and Danilo at our Canongate branch (The Treasurer) have reorganized the stocks in the walk in humidor and they look absolutely great, splendid range and great condition and you can always find some well matured Havanas and early regional editions.
Over at our new store in Glasgow, Linda is busier than ever and just hosted our first whisky tasting evening with Jamie from Carn Mor. I understand it was a very successful evening and the first of many. We have a gorgeous tasting room in Glasgow and I’m so happy to see it put to good use.
The Glasgow store is a bit of a work in progress as we continuously increase the already substantial range of whisky, cigars and hand made chocolate (all the good stuff!)
We are now planning on opening our humidor showroom next to the wine room which will feature more humidors than any other store in the UK. Just about something for everyone and every budget from £40 – £4000. Of course most of the humidors we exclusively import to bring our customers the best value for money in the UK as well as ranges that can not be found anywhere else.
I do love it up in Scotland (as long as its not too cold!) in fact I think I’ll spend a week or so at Robert Graham Scotland before Christmas… In the cigar department of course as I’ll leave Ronnie and his Team to advise on the whisky 🙂
The best news of all for me was that our ward winning Dancing Stag range of single malt whisky is now officially our best selling range of whisky across all of our retail Group and our Inka – Secret Blend brand of cigars from Peru is our best selling non Cuban cigars… By a long stretch. Quality, mature tobacco, perfectly constructed and very competitively priced… Who could ask for more?
Its definitely the season for tastings with Turmeaus Liverpool and Turmeaus Chester both holding new world cigar tasting evenings last week featuring Dunhill Aged and Alec Bradley Tempus cigars.
Next Wednesday I’ll be at Robert Graham Cambridge for a cigar and whisky appreciation evening. Last few tickets available for what will be as usual a sold out event.
The new LFDC Gran cano UK regional edition has proved to be a ridiculous success and we are already more or less out of stock and desperately waiting for more stock to arrive from Havana. We have released some of the earlier UK regional editions due to popular deland
Punch Serie D’Oro no.1
La Gloria Cubana Gloriosos
La Flor de Cano Short Robustos
New items ideal for Christmas gifts being added all the time to the online store by Michelle, Laura and Michael. In fact our range has grown so huge we can hardly move in either of our London or Norfolk warehouses!
If you are a fan of Partagas cigars you should check out this Partagas SD No. 4 book of cigars, superb cigars that I selected from our finest English Market Selection stocks in a beautiful presentation.
Just over two weeks to go before our Vintage Cigar Auction and The Spectator Cigar Smoker of The Year Awards dinner at Boisdale Canary Wharf. Online bidding is now open and closes 24 hours before the auction.
Chatting with Ranald earlier and he mentioned that Charlie Sheen and Sylvester Stallone has been nominated for the award amongst some other great personalities from sport (Julian Dicks) and movies (Alan Greenspan and Marc Sinden) to name a few. Should be an outrageous evening. I hear the Cuban Ambassador will also be at the dinner. Probably last chance to book for the event if not already sold out.
If you can’t make the dinner you can always join us for some fabulous Fuente cigars and the auction.
Have a smokey weekend
Peaceful puffing
Mitchell
