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.