Ageing and the humble cigar

Age tends to mellow flavours slightly as well as give added complexity to the taste as the various oils and aromas in the blend of leaves mix over time - ie the 1998 "Hoyo des Dieux" you just smoked probably has more discernable flavours (e.g. plum) than if you had smoked it in 1999.

Like wine however, more age does not necessarily mean a better cigar - cigars need to have a decent body to start out with or their flavour will die out too quickly. Generally speaking, larger cigars are better candidates for ageing as they have a wider variety of different leaves (volado, seco, ligero) rolled into them, so there is more potential for the exchange of oils between these to "marry" and produce more complex flavours.

Many cigars are made to be smoked straight out of the box, but most aficionados of the cuban leaf agree that a year or 2 can do wonders (In recent times, Habanos S.A. has upped its quality control and ages the leaves for a decent amount of time before sending them off to the rolling factories - so it's no longer always necessary to age for a year before smoking). Going beyond 5-6 years of ageing is a gamble for most cigars, as their flavours can fade quite quickly after that - but it all depends on the cigar.

Hard out connaisseurs will check each box of cigars and only age those which have oily, aroma-full, leaves; they might also smoke one every 6 months to check how things are progressing (hence they tend to buy 50-cigar cabinets rather than boxes of 10 or 25!). Many agree that most cigars "peak" between 3-6 years of age, but there are also those who prefer the strong flavours straight out of the box. As usual, theories and rumours abound, but a lot of it is down to individual experimentation and preference.

And if you don't have a stable humidity environment for your cigars (ie a humidor), ageing probably won't do them any good - they are most likely to dry out and lose their tasty oils... Cigars are like women - always beautiful, often fragile, but troublesome and even downright frustrating some days, and agreeable and understandable on others. Generally with no apparent reason for either state of affairs (well to us men at least). These challenges, however, are part of what makes them unique, attractive, and downright interesting - hehe.