Arrowtown Cohiba club

Winter in Central Otago is hell for your cigars they freeze over as quickly as Arrowtown does when the sun drops behind the hill at 3 p.m. The only storage solution is to wear them close to your heart at all times, and exude body heat. The alternative is finding a spot in the sun and smoking something very small like this Cohiba...

queenstown golf club cafe Monte

Half corona in cold winter sunshine 

Romance sans parole (ou presque) avec Greg et le Romeo y Julieta Churchill

Watch this romance unfold here

Diplomaticos Numero Dos

enjoying my first Diplomaticos no2 in a few years,  definitely fits the "Christmas in a cigar" label,  it just tastes like Christmas pudding spices with a whole heap of cinnamon on a medium body,  beautiful wrappers on these exemplars as well. Good shtuff. 

No2 torpedoes (well Piramides actually in habanos speak)  are definitely one of my favorite vitolas when it comes to lengthier enjoyment,  you get all the benefits of the 50+ ring gauge like the richness from plenty of seco leaves, with a nice taper to concentrate the draw and the flavour to avoid the massive dong in mouth scenario. Sur ce,  Merci a tous. 

Romeo y Julieta Churchill chez Xav

Starts out with charred coffee grind , touch of rose essence , and sandalwood. Sirloin and mushrooms on the retrohale (guess what we had for dinner)

Black pepper and cedar tang developing with stronger mushroom and Worcester sauce undertone 

Montecristo Numero Uno

Que aspecto maravilliso - mirais bien a este capa de color espresso y humus !- como si fuera inspirado por la tierra fertil de la Vuelta Abajo, o torcido del piel arrugado de los vegueros, esculpido por la caricia del sol Caribe, Dios mio, que piel!

Enough of the lyrical sexwax already! In non-mangled spanish, this little beauty gave up a classic Montecristo body of coffee grounds, cocoa and leather, with a cedar bite... but with a noticeable citrus undertone over a medium body that sets it apart from the marca. There was also just a touch of creaminess to its smoke, and white pepper and paprika on the retrohale. In line with the Cervantes tall corona vitola, it was a touch more elegant and lighter in body than your average Monte. It was also slightly plugged so I had to decapitate a fifth of it where a knot had strangled it. All in a good day's work... 

Dubbel Biatch Mayo - Agusto

Thanks to school holiday week, I had time to sit down in the sun and present this batch.

I'll add that the Ramon Allones Superiores i was enjoying came on with some light medium body of mushrooms, steak juices, cedar, finishing with cream and touch of maple syrup sweetness, and some cinnamon and hint of cumin on the retrohale (and white pepper when over-puffed). A wonderful cigar.

The Oban single malt was the perfect match for it, full of honey and cloves and balanced by a lovely biting acidity with a touch of citrus that cut through the whole, perfect for that 11am slot.

The little Monte Media Coronas are from a March '17 box, similar to the H Upmann Regalias (Feb'17). The Rafael Gonzalez Perlas are May 18, and Monte no.4s March 18 - and they both taste like it although the blend is also a bit stronger for them.

Enjoy.

Ze Dubbel Biatch

a beaut box of RG Perlas, beware they are little flavour bombs at this point

Ramon Allones Superiores LCDH, wish we had more of these

Oban was the winning match on the day.

Latest Batch ...

... is winging its way to Sam with some young and powerful Montecristo no.4s (March 2018 box), the last of those magnificent short little Romeo y Julieta Petit Royales (Jul 17) - equally powerful and so well matched to a speyside scotch or similar...

and newly arrived H Upmann Epicure no.2 (singles don't have the box but max 1 yr old) in robusto vitola for an hour's pleasure, should be a tad gentler than the other two, probably a good accompaniment after a sunday roast and a few wines. 

And finally, a trio of Cohiba Shorts each for any time of day or night, a 20-30min habano punch made for espresso.

Montecristo A (...verybigcigar)

Greg sizing up his Coffin...

.. Prematurely ... there is still life in the old fella!!

 

And in the Lil' Fella too

It creates some problems for your usual accessories ...

But puts Life back into its proper Perspective...

... even Time slows down ... the planets start revolving around It (not You)

RyJ Mille Fleurs Abr 14

A review from April earlier this year that had a very long upload phase...

Por Larranaga PC au garage

Trinidad Reyes Salvation

The weather was a bit driech (as they say in Scotland), so I thought I'd try out my garage as a smoking venue. Nae bad. I took a risk on a Reyes, which as you may recall were super strong in their youth (2014 box?). They were so firecracker strong that the only thing that gave me hope that they had mellowed out to elevensies acceptability was past experience and a bit of faith. Past boxes have been through two distinct stages - voluminous creamy smoke and meaty full bodied strength for the first 6-18months evolving to fuller-medium biscuity cedar after 3 years. 

The beautiful dark wrappers and intense filler in this particular batch amounted to Islay-level requirements in whisky parlance. (In fact I may have some photos of Matt, Naomi and Bryony demonstrating this a couple of years ago.) But once again Los Reyes have proven their ability to mature and become more of a versatile pleasure of the breakfast, lunch and tea variety. In fact they remind me of those San Cristobal piramides (La Punta) that we have had, with a cumin, nutmeg and cedar sweetness. Very impressive.

Although well constructed, the piggy tail capa was no match for my garage cigar cutter.

Sweating with Sancho on ABs replay

Sancho Panza Belicoso for and Indian Summer's day

Autumn has arrived but thanks to Climate Change in Wellington, this is no obstacle to enjoying a big belligerent (well actually, medium-bodied, smooth, salty and creamy with a cedar kick)  habano with a cup of coffee...

RyJ Petit Royales - Half Corona

 

These are the latest trend out of Habanos - short but thick cigars for the time-pressed aficionado, first released just a few months ago. Cute. Pretty much half coronas although this vitola is officially a Capricho, a little caprice. Less than 10cm long but ring gauge 47, the same as a Churchill, but half the length. So a Half-Churchill? 

Smoke on a whim but ye gods, be careful not to puff too fast. 

At present these have almost the same body as the mighty Cazadores, so pretty damn full, but they are a little damp and packed full of tannins. All the best of the RyJ profile is there, charred cherry, coffee grind and a hint of burnt sugar. Perfectly enjoyable... But these need a little rest and a little dry-boxing (i.e. 50% humidity for a week or so) to relieve them of the excess moisture. They were rolled less than 6 months ago I think. As it is, I had to clip and reclip and reclip again to avoid the tannins building up around the slightest hint of saliva at the tip, which pushes out a pretty strong ligero hit more reminiscent of Syrian Latakia pipe tobacco than anything in the cigar world. They have a wonderful white ash and relatively thick smoke, great for smoke rings, but keep going out.  

I will dry box these, bring them back up to 65% humidity, and try again. And maybe with real port rather than red wine mixed with cheap cooking sherry (which to be honest does the trick if you're short!)