Hogmanay

Fidel loves bringing in the New Year. 

Bonne Annee, bonne sante everyone.

The last Nov-Dec batch was late due to an unfortunate supply issue... Greg - the latest Passeur Heretique - will hopefully bring back our Australian stock (via France to NZ how ironic) end of January to resolve that. Also i got some a few in from the U.S the other day so there will be plenty of cigars you have never tried in the months to come.

The only new cigar in this batch was in fact a tiny flavoured cigarillo donated by said Sheep's Bane: the Wellingtonians got the vanilla ones and the Aucklanders the cognac ones. Will synchronise perfectly with your short black. Speaking of Wellingtonians, the unheard of 30+ degree heat and heavy humidity was a bit of a challenge over christmas, certainly slowed down my eating and smoking during the day. Makes you wonder how the Cubans smoke at all in their climate!  

It is worth noting that Hadley is leaving our shores for browner pastures across the Ditch (Melbourne) but will keep in touch. If someone has a better job offer for him, make it now and he might stay (does being a high class Escort for poker players pay better?). Also Michael from Whangarei is back after suffering withdrawal from too extended a period without the loving company of the fermented leaf... another place in NZ to drop in for a cigar with a fellow member. 

Enjoy your New Year's celebrations...

Christmas greetings from St Auban sur l'Ouveze, on this day of our Lord's birthday - a gentle reminder of the importance to live life to it's fullest before one runs out of puff or that he returns in a blink of the eye before one has finished one's last puff. I have nonetheless been reassured after reading the scriptures that some words have been mistranslated and failed to capture the full flavour of the meaning contained within. For example, the world 'life' is actually a brand of cigar and so when Jesus says, I came to give you life, and life to the fullest, he was referring to a heavenly cigar brand and the latter part of the phrase would have been better translated 'of the fullest flavour'. I haven't the time now to extend the bible study but will get back to you at a later date.

P.S. 1 The wine was being coaxed past room temperature as the room was a bit cool. The name of the wine was 'Domain du Faucon Dored made by Lou Sanglier (very 'alcoholise' at 15%) and the cheese that is being caressed by my loving lips, was Beaufort with delightful tangy notes found in a mature gruyere.

P.S. 2 I was surprised to see Louisa's birth year inscribed in the brickwork.

Greetings from the snow sprinkled land of St Auban sur l'Ouveze.

Jean-Michel and I decided to do some hunting and after an extensive stalk in Le Hangar, we showed this boy who could hunt.

Some talk about a lamb to the slaughter but this fellow had balls and wanted to go out in style. He was still smoking it when he lost his test tickets. I must confess that I let out a yelp when the knife removed them. The beast in his mouth was a Nicaraguan 'Bahia Blu'.When he ran out of puff, I did the decent thing and finished it off.

Greg (Le Chasseur).
P.S. Pleasant cigar with hints of 'mouton'. I found the end a bit soft - the previous puffer had done a 'Gloria' and salivered it up more than was necessary.

San Cristobal + Pairing drink

Finally the wet butt hole of Auckland shone some sun rays.

This required my lonesome self to take heed of a little cigar time and light up. It's been hit and miss over the few years of trying this San Cristobal but I thought out of all the choices available in my humidor, this would be the best choice for the Founders Fair Maiden Ale that I was keen to quaff to the blue sky bliss.

Not sure if it was the mood, the weather or the age of the cigar but this was delicious. The San Cristobal gave great warm and soft draws the whole way through, filling the mouth to blow out plumes of whitish grey smoke. First third was sweet light wood developing into its 2nd third of dry cocoa a lastly, a dominant chilli skin or capsicum skin which was strangely good. All of these flavours went really really good with the fine organic NZ craft beer. The beer kind of lined the mouth with a balanced bittersweet freshness for inviting the cigar to do its thing.

Here's a photo of my first attempt in growing tobacco and the pairing drink that served well for accompanying the cigar

fala lala laa! it's the season for golf

A quick pause during a great 18 holes of golf to get this nub doing it's thing yesterday. Hadley shot his personal best for the course with a cool 76 and coming in 2nd place was my very contestable 105 hehe. The nub went great - never going out between swings and swigs and was the perfect size companion to the golfballs seated in their holders of the cart.

Montecristo Especiales no.2

Joined my son in a cigar on his birthday. I chose an Especiales because i had nothing to drink and it was around lunch... performed well, definitely bigger in body and stronger in flavour than a couple years ago (still mild though). From memory, nice leathery Montecristo style flavours without the cocoa of the No.4, maybe a touch of oaky fruitiness. Enjoyable and smooth. Deserved some kind of drink especially near the end... I still wouldn't smoke it after a strong tasting meal. Overall this box has improved with age, a little, but my overall impression is that the tobacco for both filler and wrapper was not the tastiest ... luck of the draw. Hence why i now try to get our boxes from merchants who will open them up and select according to requirements... 

Nub 464 - Handstand

A beautiful smoke in the little out side section at Motel. It went well with the unpronounceable whiskey I had at the time.

Arnold's Secret

Not much to do with cigars but Arnie smokes them, bourbon can accompany them, and they were great penalty shots at our invercargill poker game. So by Triangulation it has everything to do with cigars.

Essay Writing on Labour Weekend

The question is, what cigar do I smoke to console myself for not being in Wellington this weekend?

Review from Stonetown

Sept-Oct Batch

• Arturo Fuente Exquisitos Maduro: Great way to taste maduro wrapper over a coffee break
• Illusione Bombones: Try before breakfast. Call Ambulance. Or enjoy it with an islay malt. Smoke now as they are full of flavours and like many american market cigars will get boring with age. 
• Montecristo Especiales no.2: is to the Bombones what fairies are to pirates. Smoke on a clean palate after light food e.g. Joel's salad review . Mar'09 box. 
• Rafael Gonzalez Coronas Extra: another '09 box - as old as the club so a third anniversary special. Waves of ever-changing flavours, complex and reaching maturity as in this review. Mushrooms, cream, cedar etc ... more of a port cigar. 
• Ramon Allones Specially Selected: the last of our veteran Mar'08 box. Restrained complexity absent the strength of its youth. Pair with light sweet whiskies e.g. i tried mine just recently with a Glendronach (selected after tasting almost a dozen other whiskies ;-). Give it a good send-off. 

Texas Hold'Em Up

The cast

The whore

Howdy, Wild Bull Hardcock reporting back on the poker evening last friday. The entire Tamaki Makaurau chapter was present, including overseas returnees Smidgen (Andrew) and Stands-with-a-Flush (Zach), whose prognosis of an impending 30th bday required repeated and large prescriptions of liquor inhalation.

Perhaps the highlight of our cast of characters was this beautiful young lady (Gl(wh)oria aka Hadley) and her enticing assets: a bottle of 25 yr old Glenlivet and a Montecristo A. I will not dwell on the matter of prostitutes and their extremely well lubricated gran coronas, but i sampled one (orally!) a couple of times over the night and the cigar was a cracker.

The occasion certainly broke the midwinter-weather-imposed cigar drought for me, as i had a record three cigars and would have moved onto a fourth had a storm not interrupted proceedings (i suspect it was sent by the all-knowing Ministry of Health). It's amazing how whisky cleans the palate, and my careful progression from a light Nub 464, through a strengthening Vegas Robaina Clasico, to a nuclear-powered Illusione Bombone left me with no regrets... i thoroughly enjoyed the lot of'em. That nicaraguan Bomb certainly lived up to my name.

Other cigars present were a lovely cafe creme flavoured Quai d'Orsay Panatela (def. not a whisky match), more than one Bolivar Petit Corona, and Joel's consolation Bolivar Gold Medal.

Many thanks to ¡Chupapoya! (Sam) for setting up the occasion.

¡Chupapoya! y Wild Bull Hardcock

Chupapoya trades in Injun for chips

.

Dapper Dan caught in Gloria's fishnets

Stands-With-a-Flush with a Quai d'Orsay panatela

TV Cigar Hero of the Month

Mainly because he has hair all the way down the front of his deltoids/biceps and narrowly escapes death by termination. [Yeah i saw it on TV last night.]

After the cowboys, indian and Glwhoreria have gone their separate ways

Candice and I went out for some romance tonight - cigar, chilli chocolate denso and strolls down the Parnell boulevard... score















Cohiba Siglo I

JULY-August: the Deadwood Batch

Howdy partners,

A very late batch but a good'un nonetheless. Poker is the theme, poker requires heavy liquor, heavy liquor requires heavy duty cigars. So that's what you've got...

• Arturo Fuente Exquisitos x2: little brothers of the Hemingway Short Story but with a maduro wrapper. Very handy. 
• Cohiba Secretos: a repeat prescription at Sam's request, not quite a full batch but hey. The tobacco in these ones is so full-flavoured it could happily be joined with the heavy stuff.
• Illusione 68 Bombones: this little 4x44 calibre shell is a nicaraguan puro that packs a big wallop. Specifically made to embody the spirit of nicaraguan tobacco - good chocolatey sheepshit. OOMPH. You have been warned. 
• Bolivar Petit Corona: recently video reviewed  these are only a year old but well into their stride and definitely deserving of a fine scotch. Spectacular.
• Nub 464 Cameroon: 4x64 sounds big but with a cameroon wrapper these torpedos have a smooth smooth flavour that won't get in the way of your favourite tipple (reminder: take almost 2hrs to get through)
• Partagas 898: This Churchill Party ain't as strong as a Short, but it has almost Bolivaresque tinges to it that match well with light whiskies. Still young but rich flavours which are hopefully maturing nicely - been a half year since we first tried it. 

How a master blender arrives at the blend you love

This is some interesting reading on cigar blending.
http://www.tabacordillera.com/tobacco-blending.htm

In Cuba, this is how it works for a new cigar (dixit Rob at Czars):
Habanos s.a decide on a new concept for a cigar. TABACUBA (separate to Habanos s.a. and owner of the fields, processing houses and factories) is then commissioned to come up with the cigar. TABACUBA is briefed on the vitola and marque which immediately gives them the parameters for blend.

TABACUBA selects a team of approximately 40 of their most experienced people and holds a series of meetings to discuss the new cigar. The questions covered are along the lines of:

"What will be the essential characteristics of the cigar in order to remain true to the marque?"
"How will we define this cigar in terms of flavour?"
"From what districts will the tobacco for the blend be drawn?" (ie there are approximately 16 districts in the Vuelta Abajo region. Take San Luis, it has 22 sorting houses to handle the tobacco grown from that district alone).

The TABACUBA team will decide on two different blends and commissions approximately 200 cigars of each blend to be rolled by the finest rollers available. Once rolled they are tagged and bundled separately and aged for 1 month.

After the one month a tasting team is assorted of the best tasters available and a blind tasting of each cigar (each taster is given a pair of unbanded cigars) is completed to a strict tasting sheet. In the flavour profile the core flavours only are assessed such as :Salty, Sweet, Sour, Tannin, Acid. Additional comments can be made on other flavours such as coffee etc. The tasting sheets cover wrapper, combustion, aroma, body etc.

Only half the cigars are tasted at this first session. A second tasting takes place exactly one month later. Tastings take place between 9am - around 1pm. Only luke warm tea is available to cleanse the palate.

The notes are collated and assessed and if the results favourable...the blend is chosen and final cigars submitted for final approval by Habanos s.a.

The blend is only known by a select few at TABACUBA. It is written down. It is not disclosed to Habanos s.a. 

Zino Davidoff

His is the quote of the month:
'Moi quand je prend un cigare dans les mains, je le regarde, je le tate, je le touche... et il me semble qu'a un moment donne, j'en ai fait le tour, eh bien je l'allume.

Et ben vous savez, quand vous avez une femme dans les bras, et bien c'est exactement la meme chose... Si vous oubliez de l'embrasser, de la caresser, de la choyer, elle s'eteint...'

'When I take a cigar in my hands, I look at it, I feel it up, I touch it... and it seems to me that at some point, i've been around it, and then i feel ready to light it up.

When you have a woman in your arms, it's exactly the same thing... if you forget to kiss her, to caress her, to spoil her, she goes out...'  

and the documentary it came from (below). Which completely omits the fact he fell out with the cuban tobacco company in 1991 and stopped putting his brand on cubans to instead make them in the dominican republic. Having tasted a couple of these dominican Davidoffs in recent years, I can say that they are smooth, light, simple and relatively boring (he ain't around to do the blend no more). The line of 1492 cigars in the Cohiba brand - the Siglos I II III IV V VI - was started in the early 90s to replace the Davidoff brand on the cuban side of things.

Bolivar Petit Corona & Pool Games

 

Forgot how young they were (Feb'11) when i first tried one a few months ago... As Scott and myself found out, they needed those extra 6 months to come into their own, and mature into their Revolutionary Identity.  

Icing on the cake...

Intrigued but the unlit fumes of this powerful scented cigar I had a half hour spare to light up. Pulling it out of the wrapper I was kicked in the nostrils with some massive vanilla bean fists. "go on try me" it said. Quick notes as follows















Looks

• sweet

Taste

• sweet

Draw

• sweet with some sugar on the lips

Lit

• cream and sweet and kind of what I was expecting

Never went out, even burn, nothing unpleasant and nothing spectacular. Overall, the most interesting thing was the sugary tip of tongue and lips moments at the beginning. This is not a review but just a quick post to say I tried the Greg cigar.

June-July - "Matariki transits Venus" Batch

The Seven Sisters rise again from the icy horizon while the goddess of Love cuts out the lord of Light... your manhood will be in the ascendant if you use both bed covers and the body of a loved one (or seven) to shield yourself from the coming winter.

As usual i'm making up for too many cigars last time with too few this time. It's winter so I chose a lucky trio that are basically the best of the best small cigars, all from top notch boxes, and one bigger newcomer.

• Vanilla flavoured non-cuban x2: Yes there are flavoured cigars out there - these jokers in the pack provided by Greg who is exploring el cheapo small coffee cigars. (don't keep them in the same humidor as other cigars without bagging them first). 


• Cohiba Maduro5 Secretos: a new box carefully selected for thin wrappers, which in this particular cigar makes for a richer sweeter smoke (last ones were ok but a bit bitter compared to previous examples). The King of luxury small cigars, very good for morning coffee or evening dessert cigar.


• Partagas Short: the short meaning of life. savour these, maybe after a heavily red wined meal. 'nuff said.


• Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story: another luxury short cigar from the top dominican manufacturer (but with a cameroon wrapper - check comments on this post).  Has a wonderful opening sweet christmas allspice once you fire up That Nipple - i could write poems about those nipples - that lasts for half the cigar before turning to minty white pepper. It marries well with a heavily sherried whisky like the Aberlour A'bunadh ... heavenly match as Matt and myself found out a few weeks ago. (and here's a vid review of the Hemingway Short Story from years ago)


• Juan Lopez Seleccion no.1: new cigar, new brand... this low production, lesser known cigar always delivers in the cedar department, and the right box with a little bit of age, delivers a characteristic biscuity vanilla sweetness (similar to the aged Hoyo Epicure no.1 as Scott pointed out recently when smoking them side by side). This jan'10 box is smoking damn well, really rich flavour... top tobacco, yum. Details to follow in a post.

No Angie, no wifi feed, no tub... but a grande plume of smoke aura.

Rafael Gonzales a la playa roja

Footage from our Rafael Gonzales experience in Red Beach the other day. Joel shares cigar impressions and there's some footage of the backyard and a bit of Leo in there too. Enjoy.

hereticomorphisms

when i saw those pics i could not help myself... now we are all one, brothers!!! ;-)

Cigar Legend of the Month - Angie

Real or Fakes? Angie advertises for a cigar website which is known for selling counterfeit cigars. [Notice that she wisely doesn't actually smoke the "montecristo" in the vid].

More importantly - what does that say about her own assets...? And will she be at the Heretics - Tamaki Makaurau Hot Tub Party on Wednesday night?

Rafael Gonzalez - Coronas Extra

Review in 2 parts because of a camera video format mess-up...  but a spankingly good cigar.

Southland cigar trip photos

there are plenty more to see thanks to Joel's great cameramanship... just check out your google + feed i will share them there (no way to link methinks?).

Cigar Hangout

ehh been meaning to do this for ages ever since the google added the multiple person "hangout" option to its gmail chat and google plus (it's just a videoconference but very handy through google).

As far as i know you just need to be on your pc with a webcam, or even your smartphone if you have a forward facing camera, and click through to the link.

So who can make Sunday arvo 5pm, i'll send out a link then, and try for a communal video smoke?

Ozzy and Jethro present...

... the Pool Cue. All the bands of the cigars smoked in this garage will be committed to memory forever on the cue you see here. It's a good measure of ring gauge as well...

You are all welcome to come and contribute to this magnificent trophy case. 

Greg smoking the first cigar to end up as a cue trophy

 

Montecristo A

Smoked in celebration of Leo's birth a few weeks ago. Thanks Joel for the photos. Also featured here is a 14 y/o Oban Joel got in Leo's honour.

Abril-Mayo batch

Greg aka Mozart working the HdM Epicure#1 

Thanks to Matt and Naomi's good smuggling, we now have some new cigars, which will trickle out over the next few batches...

Hoyo de Monterrey - Le Hoyo du Maire: alas the '99s are long gone, but i managed to find a May '11 box with some good tobacco, i am just trying one now and it has an intriguing mix of zingy, slightly sour, cedar and a mushroomy meatiness, sprinkled with coffee grinds, also plenty of tannin like a young cab sav. Not really much of the sweetness of the '99 box. Very interesting and enjoyable too. Often cigars are a bit muddled after travelling outside humidors for a while, can take at least a few weeks to settle, this could be the case... but who knows. Good stuff.

San Cristobal El Principe: from our stellar Jun '10 box - suits lighter sweeter drinks. Loved it with port and chocolate cake.

Bolivar Petit Corona: also very young - Feb'11 - lacked a bit of oomph last time out let's see how they're doing now. A good whisky cigar.

Hoyo de Monterrey - Epicure no.1:  '09 box. Greg smoked one for us at my bday party, was very happy with it, i had a quick puff and it had finally lost all of the closed off flavourlessness of its youth. Port or light speyside type whisky?

Nub 464 - This is a great drinking cigar, in fact was one of my picks from our club trip down south, simply because it has a nice smooth taste, lasts forever, maybe not that interesting on its own, but with as Joel can vouch, with penalty bourbons during a game of texas hold'em it really comes into its own. Enhances rather than clashes with strong liquor.

Rafael Gonzalez - Corona Extra: The new kid on the block. I have never tried an RG but its from a box that looks and smells superb, '09 so should be well into its stride by now (hopefully). Someone has to review this one!

pilgrimage to the home of cricket

yes we were there again today, there's basically only one international game a year at the basin at the moment, and we've done well to land a perfect sunny wind-free day 2 years in a row. Scott was smoking one of his wedding cigars - Bolivar Petit Belicoso EL'09 - big flavour full of steak and cocoa and hints of chilli on top of the usual hay and capsicum bolivar profile. I had this old Bolivar Corona Extra, churchill sized bolivar that i'd never tried before, like most traditional cuban churchills nice and mild with said bolivar profile above including plenty of cedar ... went beautifully with a soft glenkinchie single malt smuggled up to body temperature. 

El Shed de Scott

You've seen I am Bruce Lee, Pumping Iron and In Bed with Madonna... now it's time for another celebrity to let you into his world. [An Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story receives passing mention at the end]

Cigar Heretics: The Next Generation

 

Just to let you know that Sam, previously known as "Uncle Sam", is now also "Father Sam".

No he has not taken up the priesthood - quite the contrary - on Friday night Hannah gave birth to a healthy 3.3kg boy.

Anyway I think we should make some uninvited name suggestions so vote for your name of choice in the poll (...ok there might be a slight theme to all the poll names) and/or invent something and add it in the comments.

Should Sam & Hannah snub all of our no-doubt-brilliant offerings, then at least the Boy has his ready made cigar heretic pseudonym...