Several Amicigar friends in l'Havana

[Mr. Japan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/am...mp;ref=americas

From JS Blog :

JS blog :

(HAVANA) I arrived here Monday from Mexico City and smoked my first cigar at the La Casa de Habanos at the Club Havana. It’s one of the best shops on the island and Enrique Mons is one of the cigar masters. He knows it all and nearly always has a great selection of cigars.

It was a lonsdale that Mons made me seven years ago. A bundle of the dark chocolaty smokes sit in a small locker at his shop. The cigar was wonderful. It was spicy and chocolaty yet bala nced and delicious. What beautiful harmony in that smoke.

What a sensation to be smoking the cigar in Havana. I have written it before, but it’s the same sensation for me when I am drinking Burgundy in Paris or Brunello in Florence. I think it is the reason why so many people are here now for the XIII Festival del Habano.

The opening night was the welcome event for the five-day festival. It was also the launch of the Partagas Serie E No. 2 and the Partagas Serie D. No 5. I loved the Serie E No. 2 (54 ring x 140mm). The thicker ring gauge is great and I thought the cigar delivered loads of that “traditional Partagas” spice and funk – some call it **** – as well as the coffee and tobacco character. I scored it 96 points. The Serie D. No. 5 (50 ring x 110mm) was a disappointment. My short robusto was a little dirty. I am going to have to smoke another one before I give it the thumbs down!

I have to say that the short 3D film aired during the welcome event in the Gran Teatro de la Habana was candela, or a big surprise. It was insane (in the good sense) watching huge Partagas cigars flying in front of you in Cuba’s biggest and most traditional theater. It was sort of like Star Wars meets Cigar Wars. Unfortunately, the music that followed was not as interesting!

I spent the next day hanging with friends, smoking and working. I am preparing to start filming a documentary on cigars and Havana on Monday. So I have lots of work to do. It was a relief to hang with some cool friends such as Alex Iapichino, Jimmy ***, Nino Munoz, Ian Pepper, Colin Ganley, and Nobuhiro Nakamura at a new Havana restaurant in Centro Asturiano at 309 Prado. Lucio, the chef from the old private restaurant La Paila, is still on form with his seared tuna Teriyaki and raw fish dishes, not to mention all the grilled meats for the main course.

Alex brought some incredible 2002 Rafael Gonzalez Corona Extras to smoke. I was stunned how much coffee, spice and tobacco character they had. And it was wonderful how fresh and clean they were on the palate on the finish. They reminded me of great cigars from the mid-1990s. We are going to smoke the same cigar but from early 1970s in the afternoon at an “aged cigar tasting” at the Hotel de Conde Villanueva.

It was a great cigar-smoking session with Alex and Jimmy. The latter supplied the Rafael Gonzalez in a cedar cabinet. It was so flowery, cedary and fresh. Then it turned to tealeaf. It got better and better as we smoked it down. 95 points senor! The combination of aged, refined tobacco and the smoky, toffee and sweet wood character of the mature 1974 Macallan was wonderful. The sweetness of the smoky and toffee character of the Scotch was the perfect foil to the cigar.

I asked Nino what he thought, and we both agreed that when the aged cigar got down to the end, it began to become more and more like the 2002 with a roasted coffee bean and tobacco character.

Tonight the new H. Upmann Half Corona debuts; it follows the trend for short, quick smokes. It measures 44 ring by 90mm. It’s slightly shorter than a petit Corona. I would prefer something a little thicker. But we will see how it smokes later today at the Salon de Protocolo de El Laguito.

I ran into Simon Chase of Hunters & Frankau, the UK agent for Cuban cigars and arguably the oracle of aged cigars, and he said that the Half Corona originated in 1912 at the La Corona factory. It was made exclusively for a London restaurant and was later incorporated in most UK cigar lists. It hadn’t been made for years.

“It simply complements what people want today – that’s a cigar you can smoke quickly during the day,” he said, noting that it’s 44-ring gauge, instead of the normal 42 ring for a Corona. “It was called the Half a Corona in London. It was a cigar that needed to be brought back.”

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[mazolaman]

Thanks for this Mr Japan,interesting to read these pieces regarding the festival.

[compitaveggie]

Good read!! Like how he mentions Nino.

Jose

[shrink]

Here's a video of the proceedings...

[PigFish]

Nice report Gino, thank you for sharing. How can you not have fun with that group? As the RG CE is currently running at the top of my favorite cigar column, I can see that I am in good company.

Good luck on the project. -Ray

[CanuckSARTech]

Nino always around somewhere in these stories, hobnobbing with everyone - cheers to what sounds like a wonderful time!

(...wish I was there.... )

[khomeinist]

Am mildly intriqued by the new Upmann product.

Overall, the Festival is not a scene that suits my personality. Lol.

Would be fun to smoke some aged RG CE though with 74 Macallan.

Cheers.