Innehållsförteckning för July/August 2017 från Cigar Aficionado

With monster scores of 94 points, outstanding on our ratings scale, a trio of fine cigars from two of the industry’s most popular producers topped this issue’s tasting. The Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series Toro, exclusive to Tobacconists’ Association of America merchants, paced the robustos while the rare Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Eye of the Shark tied with a Padrón Serie 1926 to lead all figurados. This superb tasting continued with newcomer Archetype Axis Mundi Toro (93 points) leading the corona gorda category, while the Alec Bradley Post Embargo Lancero was the best-performing oddity, scoring 92 points in the miscellaneous category. Cuba’s traditional-sized Por Larrañaga Petit Corona (91 points) showed that a cigar needn’t be large to make a big impression. Altadis U.S.A. turned to the Plasencias for the Romeo 505…

At very few urban hotels can a visitor arrive by boat. Take the water taxi from Logan Airport to Boston Harbor Hotel, however, and you put your flight behind en route to the private dock of one of the best locations in the city. Within walking distance are Faneuil Hall, the Aquarium, the Italian North End and the new Boston Public Market. But at this luxury gem, one of the nation’s best, the prime location is just the tip of a stellar experience. Even if you prefer a five-minute cab ride, The Boston Harbor Hotel has been one of the finest—and most overlooked—luxury properties in the Northeast for years. Boston Harbor is the city’s only independent Forbes 5-Star, and as such, it always tries harder. It could not be rated…

Two tenets of collecting that seem axiomatic are that it’s always wise to invest in that which is timeless and that men of all ages will collect baseball cards. That second notion was challenged a few decades ago when two natural enemies whipsawed the category. Cards—and, later, autographed pictures and balls—were all the rage for collectors, when so many companies were producing cards that the market was oversaturated. Supply outstripped demand and the cards’ value plummeted. And for autographs the buzz became the “F” word: fraud. It emerged on a grand scale, as the FBI estimated that 90 percent of the autograph market in the 1990s was bogus. We adored those looping “Ms” in Mickey Mantle’s signature, but they were easy for an imitator to copy. But for those who…

The loosening of travel restrictions to Cuba brings good news and bad news. In the 1990s, the few Americans who were approved to make the trip were smart to bring basic amenities—even toilet paper—and to be prepared for sporadic electricity and nonexistent hot water at hotels. Now, tourism to Cuba is widely available and modernized, but is no longer the great deal it had been. Today’s visitor may pay $600 a night for very basic hotel rooms, $350 a day for guides and chauffeurs and $40 for restaurant entrees. The soaring prices coupled with slow-moving improvements to services and infrastructure are a bitter pill for travelers to Cuba, which could slow down the phenomenal growth in tourism to the island, which increased by 13 percent last year alone. One of…

While the name Ventura Cigar Co. may not be known to every cigar enthusiast, the Archetype Axis Mundi brand might be more easily recognizable. The Toro scored 93 points thanks to the creative blending of Drew Estate in Nicaragua, where the cigar is made. Archetype consists of four different brands, Axis Mundi being one of the more full-bodied blends in the Archetype portfolio. According to Ventura, the cigar was named for the repeating characters (or archetypes) that recur in the dreams of all people and myths of all cultures. Both the Honduran Eiroa The First 20 Years 54 x 6 Prensado and Nicaraguan Rocky Patel Special Edition Robusto scored 92 points.…

Once a large Cuban brand with many sizes, Por Larrañaga today is made up of only two or three regular-production cigars. Rather than mourning the loss of discontinued vitolas, we’d rather celebrate what’s left—a delicious Petit Corona that scored 91 points. These particular samples were produced in May 2016, so there’s plenty of aging potential should you choose to put them away for awhile. Made in Nicaragua, the Oliva Serie O No. 4 scored 90 points. Once owned by the Oliva family, these cigars are now owned by J. Cortés, which purchased the company last year. The Cuban Romeo y Julieta Romeo No. 2 scored 90 points as well and comes in a handy aluminum tube.…

A corona-sized pre-Castro Cuban joined our small club of perfect cigars. The cigar, wrapped in a sleeve of cedar for the last 60 or so years, exhibited not only a perfect draw and burn, but a panoply of fine flavors. Three younger and far larger Cubans (a Bolivar, Ramon Allones and Hoyo de Monterrey) also scored well, each earning our classic accolade. ?? ?Some believe that only Cuban cigars improve over time. They are mistaken. There is a pair of non-Cubans in this impressive roundup. A Coronado by La Flor, rolled in the Dominican Republic seven years ago, earned a classic rating. A Miami-made Padilla with a decade of age also scored well. When it comes to aging a cigar, you only nccolade. ?? ?Some believe that only Cuban cigars…

An Open Letter to Newly Named FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb Dear Dr. Gottlieb, Congratulations on your May 9, 2017 appointment as FDA commis-sioner. You step into this role at a crucial time. I am writing you on behalf of a small, artisanal industry—the handmade cigar industry—which has a proud heritage dating back more than 200 years. It is composed primarily of small and medium-sized businesses, many of them family owned. They fear extinction. Not from market factors, nor from consumers rejecting their products, but from their own government. The Obama Administration moved control of the cigar industry to the FDA, and after years of threats and uncertainty the FDA has shackled the cigar industry with a great number of unmanageable operational restrictions, not the least of which is severely limiting…

SAND VALLEY For new golf courses, 2017 is a very special year. While course development in the United States was shanked out of bounds by the economic downturn of 2008 and new construction is still rare, gems are emerging that are defining a new era of golf architecture. This year courses are opening across the land, from Pennsylvania to Oregon, from Florida to Wisconsin, from New Orleans to Alameda, California. Many are privately owned resorts, some are publicly owned municipal courses. Some are built on sand located far from the ocean. A couple are designed to be played forward and back. Some are forgiving layouts. One even has a place to smoke surrounded by green. What they have in common are creative, driven developers with a passion for the game…

Arizona Route 89A is not for the faint of heart. One blind curve flows into another, the hilltops linked by short straights of well-worn asphalt with sheer cliffs menacing on either side. It’s the sort of road that locals avoid and tourists dread, a narrow ribbon tracing the mountain spine linking Old West Prescott and New Age Sedona. Yet another breed is entirely drawn to roads like this. We’ve spent the last two hours working our way north from Phoenix, skipping the interstate in favor of the more entertaining back roads. Of course, we’re not driving a Winnebago or an old pickup. Our car of choice is the new Mercedes-AMG GT C Roadster. Only the second model ever designed specifically for the Mercedes performance brand-within-a-brand, the GT C puts 550-horsepower…

From pressed perfectos to tapered torpedos, this category has a preponderance of high-scoring cigars, but two near-classic smokes flirted with perfection. Each scored 94 points and both came from two legendary producers. Made in the Dominican Republic, the Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Eye of the Shark is so named because of its shape—the lower half is box-pressed, the upper half round and tapering to a point, giving it a curiously sharky appearance. Eye of the Shark is attached to the Don Carlos line, but brand-owner Carlos “Carlito” Fuente is a consummate tinkerer when it comes to his cigars, and he’s changed the blend for this unusual shape. The result is a resoundingly complex cigar that’s as interesting to look at as it is to smoke. Padrón, on the other hand,…

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to read the words finesse and elegant to describe a Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series cigar. Seeing how the Toro size scored 94 points, the word consistent should also come to mind, as this brand is usually on top, or at the very least, at the upper echelons of any CIGAR AFICIONADO tasting category it happens to be part of. This blend does not emphasize power so much as it does balance. While strength for strength’s sake is more the domain of other brands, the 1964 Anniversary normally has a core of medium-bodied chocolate notes and builds from there. This Toro is no exception. That’s not to say that this is a mild smoke—far from it. But the strength seems only incidental to its…

The crowd was festive and lively, their excitement equaled only by that of the cigarmakers. It was CIGAR AFICIONADO’S first Miami Big Smoke in nearly 20 years, and the cigar show was being held in the hometown of the premium cigar industry. It was a night of cigars, great cocktails and some of the biggest names in the business. Held at the luxe Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach on Friday, April 7, the event drew hundreds of eager cigar lovers not only from around Miami but from the New York area, other parts of Florida and the United States and even from Toronto, Canada. “The Miami Big Smoke was a smashing success,” said cigar star Jonathan Drew. “The biggest cigar event in Miami,” said Rafael Nodal of Boutique Blends Cigars.…

For some folks, a day in paradise means soaking up the Hawaiian sun. For us, it’s about climbing behind the wheel of the new Lexus LC500 and heading off to explore the hidden corners of the Big Island. Since Toyota launched its luxury brand nearly three decades ago, Lexus has built a reputation for delivering quiet, lavishly equipped cars with bulletproof reliability. Where those products have fallen short is in the passion quotient. But if the LC500 is any indication, that’s about to change. “I never want to hear the words, ‘boring’ and ‘Lexus,’ in the same sentence ever again,” proclaimed Toyota Motor Co. CEO Akio Toyoda, as he pulled the wraps off the new sports coupe at the Detroit Auto Show. One glimpse suggests the grandson of Toyota’s founder…

Picture a driver, his car on a highway. There’s traffic. Movement. Slower. Faster. Clutter on the right. Construction up ahead on the left. He’s got the radio on, listening to The Voice, a sound he’s heard for more than 20 years. That game last night was amazing. Will the team make the trade? Should a new coach be hired? Can you believe that guy missed that putt? And what about the next game? The driver enjoys what he hears. It’s like he’s listening to a conversation inside a bar, on a playground, outdoors on his buddy’s deck. Here’s one caller, saying why the coach is a bum. Here’s another, dead certain the general manager was the bad guy. Though the next caller takes it in a whole other direction—he wants…

Altadis U.S.A. has taken aggressive steps to ensure that its heritage brands stay relevant in the world of premium cigars. Romeo 505 Nicaragua by Romeo y Julieta is a perfect example. The Churchill scored 91 points and is a creative collaboration between Altadis and the Plasencia family, one of Nicaragua’s most prolific growers of tobacco. In this case, both parties stand to benefit. Altadis not only gets a fresh, new interpretation of its Romeo y Julieta line, but can now boast its first truly Nicaraguan Romeo—the Romeo 505 tobacco is all-Nicaraguan and made in Nicaragua as well. The Plasencias, in turn, get to showcase their tobacco using the platform of a major, national brand. The consumer gets a rich and flavorful cigar without paying too much money. Everybody wins. If…

This category is an assortment of mostly squat, fat cigars that have been rolled for the express purpose of delivering large volumes of smoke in short periods of time. A few deviate from that mission, most notably, the Alec Bradley Post Embargo Lancero, our category leader. It scored 92 points. At a thickness of 41 ring gauge, it’s just a bit too fat to fit the girth parameters of our panetela category, so here it stands, a thin baton among these dwarfish cigars. The sweet and savory aspects of this lancero’s smoke are brought together by an intermittent earthiness that adds balance and body. Note its two binders, one from Honduras, the other, Nicaragua. The Cohiba Medio Siglo is the first addition to the brand’s Linea 1492 (aka the Siglo…

Marvin Shanken, editor and publisher of CIGAR AFICIONADO magazine, was looking squarely at Rush Limbaugh, who had an unlit cigar in his mouth, impatiently waiting to light up. Limbaugh, the radio star, was seated at the head table with an unlikely mix of people: Ray Lewis, who won two Super Bowls with the Baltimore Ravens; former NBA superstar John Salley; financier Michael Milken and Rudy Giuliani, who stood tall as Mayor of New York City on 9/11. Despite their vastly different backgrounds, they were brought together by the Night to Remember, the charity cigar dinner created by Shanken to raise money for prostate cancer research. On this particular April evening, the event raised $1.6 million. “Welcome to the 23rd Night to Remember,” said Shanken. “I haven’t added it all up…

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