Indholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2017 i Cigar Aficionado

If your take on the classic combination of Port and a cigar includes only the thick, dark wine labeled as “vintage,” you’re not giving Port all the credit it deserves. It’s time to consider tawny Port. Each type brings its own charms to a cigar pairing. Richer in feel and flavor, vintage Port exudes notes like fruitcake, licorice, bramble and cobbler. Its racy sibling, tawny, emphasizes more elegant notes of caramel, hazelnut, almond, cinnamon and dried fruits and flowers. Both are fortified wines, born from the same process. During fermen-tation a neutral brandy is added to the grape must (juice, skins, seeds and stems), which stops the conversion of sugar to alcohol. The wines end up sweeter, but with more alcohol (about 20 percent, or 40 proof). It’s in maturation…

Since the fi rst time a caveman sharpened a stick and skewered his hunk of saber-toothed tiger because he wanted his meat dead-on medium rare—not bloody, but certainly not burnt—man has worked fi res with tools. The instinct to poke at a blaze remains, but today’s instruments are hardly as crude and far more effective. Cooking in front of an open pit may have taken a back seat to sitting around enclosed fl ames, but every hearth deserves a sturdy, rugged set of fi re irons. They should be handy and functional as well as attractive, quality tools that can stand up to a three-pound chunk of burning oak. In managing a blaze, Job No. 1 is making adjustments to your fi re as it burns. You move wood around…

Distinction and consistency are the hallmarks of high quality in the cigar world. There are plenty of merely good cigars in existence. Many great ones too. But Cigar afiCionado’S list of Top 25 cigars show-cases the exemplary—smokes that, even after multiple rounds of scrutiny and analysis, continue to produce one of life’s fi nest experiences. Now in its 13th year, the Cigar afiCionado Top 25 list is a tournament of sorts. First, we review the lineup of cigars rated throughout the year in Cigar afiCionado and Cigar Insider—nearly 750. Then, we choose the cigars that scored 91 points or higher (but eliminate brand redundancies). After that, our tasting coordinator purchases those cigars at retail, strips the identifying bands and passes them out to our panel for an entirely new blind-tasting…

STYLING: JANE ROSS • GROOMING: JOANNEL CLEMENTEHAIR: ANGELA ROJAS • LOCATION: MELODY RANCH STUDIO Arnold Schwarzenegger, a cigar clamped between his jaws like a punctuation mark for his broad smile, climbs aboard a tank on a warm November afternoon. This is no movie prop, and it’s not just any tank. The 46 tons of moving metal belongs to Schwarzenegger himself, the larger-than-life success story who has been everything from Conan the Barbarian to the Terminator, Governor of California to cigar-chomping icon. • Spend any time with Schwarzenegger and you quickly get the impression that this is his world. We’re all just along for the ride. • “It drives as well today as it did when I was 18,” he says. In his black, short-sleeved polo and black leather pants, he…

Tiger Woods has won again and again in the world of golf, but who would have won without him? We analyzed his victories to see who would have finished first if he didn’t play. 1 Ernie Els two more majorsfive more total wins THE MAJORS Who would have won? Masters 1997 Tom Kite 2001 David Duval 2002 Retief Goosen 2005 Chris DiMarco U.S. Open 2000 Ernie Els/ Miguel Ángel Jiménez 2002 Phil Mickelson 2008 Rocco Mediate British Open 2000 Ernie Els/Thomas Bjørn 2005 Colin Montgomerie 2006 Chris DiMarco PGA Championship 1999 Sergio Garcia 2000 Bob May 2006 Shaun Micheel 2007 Woody Austin 2 Phil Mickelson one more majorfour more total wins 3 Chris DiMarcotwo more majorsthree more total wins 4 Vijay Singh no more majorsfive more total wins PGA Tour…

verything in America is bigger. Our heavy-handed culture of size is either expressed as a badge of honor or rebuked as a gaudy sign of excess. McMansions, Big Gulps, Hummers and Mega-churches are all oversized emblems of American appetites. And now, in keeping with this American tradition, premium cigars have become thicker, fatter and larger than ever. Over the last 10 years, many premium cigar manufacturers have stopped producing coronas, lanceros and other slim sizes formerly associated with the gentlemanly art of smoking. Outside of niche markets, they simply don’t sell like they used to. Today, the consumer’s preference for heft has forced every cigar manufacturer to make thick, fat cigars in sizes and proportions that would have been laughable a few decades ago. Although self-styled connoisseurs will never miss…

For sand traps and sandy beaches, for scrumptious eats and opu-lent shopping, well-heeled northerners who would rather wear sandals in the winter have long gone to Naples, Florida. Naples sings a song of casual affluence, and what better place for Ritz-Carlton to play a duet. It has two properties in Naples, the Ritz-Carlton Naples on the beach and the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort Naples at the upscale inland Tiburon development. The properties bring the world of Naples together with golf, tennis, surf and sun through a connection of a shuttle and sophistication. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort has the higher visibility of the two. The Greg Norman’s Franklin-Templeton Shootout event held on the Gold Course has been a fixture for 15 years, and the LPGA’s final event of the season, the CME…

If it hasn’t dawned on you yet, there’ve been some big changes at Rolls-Royce in recent years. And one of the most obvious signs is the arrival of the new Rolls Dawn convertible. No, the staid British maker isn’t about to move into the mainstream, and it isn’t shifting gears to battery power—at least not immediately. But it is expanding its lineup with a series of new products that gives the elite marque a more modern look and feel while retaining that classic elegance and exclusivity that have made it an icon for more than a century. Let’s start by pointing out that the new Rolls-Royce Dawn is, in British lingo, a “drophead,” or convertible. But for the fabric top, it shares most of its basics with Rolls’s Wraith coupe.…

For avid skiers, heli-skiing is the sport’s Holy Grail. It promises deep unbroken powder on every run, all day long as well as no crowds and no lift lines—in fact, no lifts. That means more time going down, less time going up, and even the time aloft is spectacular, something people pay top dollar to do all around the world just for the scenery—except skiers do it eight to 10 times a day in some of the most stunning settings on earth. Hardly anyplace has bad heli-skiing, but few destinations are more acclaimed than Alaska, with famously reliable snowfall, first-world safety and aviation standards and thousands of square miles of dramatic, varied terrain. It’s all long descents and stunning vistas, from knife-edged peaks to glaciers to coastal fjords. But even…

Life seems to get more and more expensive each year, so it’s com-forting to know that you can still get a highly rated, handmade cigar for only a few bucks. In 2016 we rated nearly 50 smokes that scored 88 points or higher but cost $6 or less (before taxes). Our list includes offerings from the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba—even two of our Top 25 cigars. They come in a range of shapes and sizes, with a considerable number of familiar brand names. And while some of these cigars are small, like the 4-inch-long Arturo Fuente Short Story, there are a few large Churchills that made the grade, two from Alec Bradley Cigars and one from Oliva Cigar Co. Cigar fans on a budget, take notice: affordable luxury is…

The traveler stood in line at JFK. In his bags, he had $2,000 worth of Cuban cigars that he had purchased in London. His arrival was a week after the U.S. Treasury had further loosened the rules for American citizens importing Cuban cigars and rum into the United States. Still there were limits: $800 worth or 100 cigars to come in without duty. The traveler was honest. He declared everything, expecting to pay a four-percent duty on the cigars in excess of the limits. “Have a nice day,” said the customs agent. “We’re giving you a holiday on the extra duty.” Just a few weeks later, I stood in the Global Entry customs line in Dallas. For the fi rst time since I began working at Cigar afiCionado, I carried…

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It’s easy to think of camel hair strictly as the fabric for dowdy jackets or overcoats worn by the polo set. But take another look. The breathable winter fabric is getting more versatile. Once seen strictly in solid tan, camel hair jackets, like the one pictured from Kiton ($5,845), are sporting patterns and rakish peak lapels. Last year, Caruso took a bold step making an entire suit out of blue pinstripe camel hair. The fabric house Loro Piana further boosted camel hair’s image by spin-ning from fibers as small as 17 microns, comparable to a Super 120 fabric. Camel hair has always had its natural thermostatic properties, providing insulation in the cold and keeping its wearer cool in the heat. You can thank the Bactrian camel—from which hair is collected…

If you’ve been underwhelmed after trying Spain’s much-hyped Jamon Iberico, there’s a reason: you probably weren’t tasting the best. Banned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture until a decade ago, the luxury, free-range Iberian ham with the rich, nutty splendor was known here only by its reputation. What wasn’t clear when the import floodgates opened was that it comes in several grades. Some are merely good. The utmost—those that exhibit a rare combination of breeding, feeding and curing—are exquisite and fetch prices of $190 a pound. To get the real deal you must learn to read the label or simply buy from brands like Cinco Jotas (aka 5J) that import only the top tier. Spain designates the best as black label. It starts with a purebred Iberian pig, called pata…

Asylum 13 Connecticut An offshoot of Asylum 13 made with an Ecuadoran Connecticut-seed wrapper over tobaccos from Honduras. Aurora Preferidos Double Barrel Aged The tobaccos in this limited cigar were aged inside rum barrels for three years, rolled into a perfecto and then aged some more inside those same barrels. Bellas Artes Made by A.J. Fernandez, each of the sizes in this line are box pressed and covered in a wrapper referred to as “Rojita,” a hybrid of Connecticut, Corojo ’99 and Havana 2000 tobacco. Big Papi Tabacalera El Artista teamed up with former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz to create a limited, one-size cigar. The Caleanoch 50 Part of the filler of this 6-inch- by-50-ring gauge cigar is rolled using tobacco cured with smoke from imported Scottish peat.…

On the 30th of December 1975, Eldrick Tont Woods was delivered into this world in Cypress, California. The son of a retired lieutenant Army offi cer and the Thai woman he met while on a tour of duty in Vietnam, Woods wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he had a sensational swing, a precise putter and an insatiable drive in his DNA. He had the ultimate golf gene. We all came to know him as Tiger, the nickname his father gave him. He was a product of his calculating father, Earl, and his passionate mother, Kultida, who nurtured their son with uncanny skill to become one of the greatest golfers to ever stride a fair-way and lift a trophy, dozens of them. He won 14 majors…

For more than two decades, cigar fanatics from across the globe have made a pilgrimage to the sun-roasted streets of Las Vegas. They arrive by airplane, bus and car, landing on the hot pavement of Sin City with a shared goal in mind: to smoke handmade cigars, drink fine spirits and attend educational tobacco seminars. For these cigar devotees, all roads lead to Cigar afiCionado’s annual Big Smoke weekend. Nearly 4,000 people trekked out to the event in November, which kicked off with a traditional Friday evening celebration. The audience embraced friends and loved ones, shook hands with their favorite cigar-makers and collected a lion’s share of smokes from more than 35 premium cigar brands. For the first time in Big Smoke history, a special VIP ticket was offered that…

In a world of fast food and one-size-fits-all sensibilities, how often does something feel made especially for you? The “Made for You” section celebrates those items that are created with such high quality of hand workmanship and degree of customization that they become individual to you. In each issue, our editors will endeavor to bring you special things from anywhere on the globe, choosing them solely on the basis of outstanding quality. Our goal is to give you guidance on the best of everything. 1 PERSONAL DOCUMENTARY—STORYKEEP Ever admire the work of people like Ken Burns and think, “That’s great, but I’d like something a bit more close to home?” That’s the concept behind StoryKeep, the ultimate family selfie in which the Brooklyn-based production company produces a documentary of your…