The Proprietor Speaks

Greetings Cigar Enthusiasts!

What a fascinating time to be an enthusiast of Cuban Cigars! How lucky are we that the explorers of the old world found the new one and after careful study adapted and improved upon the rolls of leaves and pipes employed by the ancients to create the modern cigar. What a heart-warming tale of human evolution - in our journey from the swamps to the stars, surely this must rank as one of the most symbiotic relationships between us and the happiness we seek?

I went to a great club recently where the cigar sommelier gave me a specially made, unbranded and unbanded cigar - built about five years ago specially for them. It was a sort of chunky longer, Churchill size. Perfect draw. Rich and dry and so full of taste that me and my friend literally spent our time exclaiming, half up from our chairs, at the deliciousness of this unique vitola. There was no taste to compare it with. What a blissful hour in my life. We both bought one each to smoke ‘in a year’s time’ to celebrate a special occasion. We would keep them safe, give them another 12 months in the humidor and enjoy them in a sober act of celebration. Of course I smoked mine as soon as I got home - as I discovered so did he! With each guilty draw I tried to re create the ‘first time’ - and it was almost as life affirming.

I am also really rather fascinated by the economics of Cuban cigars at the moment too. I will post a much more detailed note on cigars as an investment soon, but for now all I will say is that the price rises and supply shortages are making what was simply an expensive hobby into a chase, a hunt, the Great Game of finding, evaluating and collecting. Fortunes are being made and will probably be lost too - anecdotes abound; I heard today of a man who in May, bought a humidor of Cohibas for a vast and frankly totally unjustifiable sum only three weeks ago to discover than since then they have quadrupled in value. Even my Trinidad Vigias (a decent but not life changing cigar) have soared. Amazing and frankly very stimulating too! 

We do not encourage thinking that cigars are an asset class to be traded but I do think that the concept of a cigar as a true collectible has now taken root and the frisson of value appreciation has entered our world. The quantities are tiny, the varieties endless and yet finding a rare box of LEs or regionals and tucking them away hoping they will get more valuable over time is a very human sentiment and at the core of the collectors nature. At the very least it allows you to explain to your partner that ‘this is an investment’! 

What more an excuse do we need to further indulge our passion!

So please enjoy your weekend and your currently appreciating cigars too!

The Proprietor