SLR DC cabs

[MrGinger]

4 hours ago, oliverdst said:

You are right, I guess.

 

No guess about it.  They only came in a 50 cab.

I was able to get some from '06 and they are phenomenal!  

[wade1979]

These happen to be my white whale. Had one a few years back with buddies and can still taste remember the taste. Please PM if you know where one can find. 

[sjmistry]

Wondering if anyone has acquired any 2014 samples? Trying to find out what months and factories were released, if any. 

[Ken Gargett]

by chance, rob and i were talking about these only yesterday when doing another vid (sadly of some tiny crappy thing and not an SLR DC - rob, why don't we ever do them?). rob can confirm but he was saying just none around now. has not seen any for some time. the lack of large leaf means they simply are not making them at the moment so the only cabs that might be around are 3-4 years old. 

this has long been one of my fave cigars. i was reminding rob of the cigar dinner (back when he used to host them) at toowong when he served these when they were first released. they were the soon-to-become legendary 2001s. rob had them at A$40/stick. he could not get any interest at all in them - which completely amazed me - so slashed them to $20. i thought it was such a brilliant cigar. i had something like $402 in my wallet. handed over all i could, went home with $2 and a bundle of these. i think i still have 1 or possibly 2 of them left. have had to move on to other cabs over the years. love them. sadly, pricing (more than lack of supply) has meant i have not bought any in ages. they are not going to get any cheaper. 

[Fugu]

Funny you say that Ken, the SLR always used to be the cheapest of the DCs.

I guess there was not much love for them for a long time, simply because (my take) the marca wasn't very popular as, not being available outside the UK, it simply wasn't known to a broader audience, and thus had no nimbus like the Lusi or the Hoyo. This wasn't related to quality, obviously.

[JohnS]

On ‎25‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 11:01 AM, Colt45 said:

I've only smoked '05s and '07s, so I can't comment on recent production.... I thought of smoking my last '05 for the "throw a dog a bone" review comp, but couldn't bring myself to spend the time. For me, they have been lackluster. Rob held a five year group review of '07 cabs, reviews starting in '08 - they shouldn't be that hard to find. I don't recall anyone finding them anything special.....

 

On ‎25‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 10:15 PM, Fuzz said:

I remember that little experiment. From memory, only the first 3 yrs were reported. I think everyone lost interest after that.

Unfortunately, every single SLR DC I've had has been found wanting.

 

On ‎26‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 1:09 AM, Frinkiac7 said:

When I was a poor student I came across an 09 cab and knew I had to snatch it up. Have smoked less than 10 of them since then...some have been great and some have been bland...not bad, just muted. Figured they need more time. That was the only time I ever saw them with my usual vendor and I have checked back pretty regularly...it's been more than five years since I last saw them floating around. I was glad to snap it up and I anticipate this cab will be with me for a long time.

 

I've had some that I've found muted, as described here, yet at the same time, I've enjoyed some nice super-mild, aged, floral, citrus and honey wonders which makes me yearn for their re-release also.

 

[Ken Gargett]

16 minutes ago, JohnS said:

 

 

 

I've had some that I've found muted, as described here, yet at the same time, I've enjoyed some nice super-mild, aged, floral, citrus and honey wonders which makes me yearn for their re-release also.

 

i think i'll pull one out for tonight. for the origin. 

we might lose the 3rd game - very hard to get up in a dead rubber though a maroonwash would be nice - but at least i'll enjoy the smoke. 

[Ken Gargett]

found one from 2005. will report back. 

[Lant63]

found one from 2005. will report back. 

How was it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fabes]

2 hours ago, Lant63 said:

How was it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

On 7/12/2016 at 11:06 PM, Ken Gargett said:

found one from 2005. will report back. 

I think he smoked it at the best bar ever.

[TheMonk]

One of the best DCs in my book. Of course subjective, but would take them any day over a Lusi. Head-to-head with the mighty RAG.

Definitely one of the best DCs, but IMO they're actually on par with the Lusis, with the RAG being a few points behind.
Luckily there's no shortage on either, so I'm able to satisfy my love for DCs - this size and the Lonsdales are the ones I generally feel I more get my money's worth, in terms of tobacco quality and consistency.

[Colt45]

I've only smoked '05s and '07s - pretty boring cigars. I'd take an HDM DC over any other in this format every time.

[Fugu]

I can't help I am pretty bored by Lusis, although I'd much like to like them - so, goes to show again (I said it) how subjective it is... Or perhaps it simply is inconsistency of boxes, storage and aging.... and water content.... .

[dowjr1]

I've been slowing buying up boxes of DCs but alas no SLRs are present.

[Notsocleaver]

They never really struck my fancy. I never hated any of the ones I've had, but I never smoked one and thought 'Wow, I need 50 of these' either.

[NSXCIGAR]

This thread made me realize that the SLR DC is the perfect example of HSA's ridiculousness.

Always been low production and entire years with no production. OK, I can always be on board with this approach if the quality is top-notch and the consistency is there, but it isn't--in fact, consistency may even be below that of typical regular production. One would think, then, that the tobacco going into the DC is the nectar of the gods, but I've never heard anyone describe the cigar as anything other than "very good" when on--never in the "amazing" category. There's also no real shortage of any other SLR, so can a Prominentes available only in 50 cab really be their best seller over a Robusto and Corona Gorda? I think not. And again, how can they be so inconsistent (as they have been for decades) with such limited production?

HSA--making no sense since 1994.

[Fugu]

NSX - Did I mention yet, my SLR DCs and also the Churchills are pure nectar of the gods....

Now, seriously, to be fair a Double Corona is and has always been for a minority of connoisseurs only. That goes by sheer nature of the format. Can never be a "best seller" and has never been the claim for that format I'd guess. Would be a bad thing if HSA would only be aiming at best sellers - well...., do I need to remind of all the discontinuations... - and I fear, they are making serious sense since at least 2002 with regard to that. I am actually happy that HSA still sticks to its prod, even if it might make no much sense from a pure business / economic aspect. Sometimes, I think we can be thankful for a last bit of inconsistency and caprice in HSA's decisions. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't still see cigars like the MdO No4, QdO Corona, Party 898, SP Non Plus (if it wasn't for Spain), ERDM DT, Le Hoyo dG and dM and some others, not to mention the Monte Especial/es or the A.... I for one are certainly not bashing them for the occasional run of SLR DC.

 

Edit: ...and to add, as we are at it - I think in fact, quite contrarywise, it is questionable whether it has basically been the right decision or a big mistake of HSA/Altadis to reduce / having reduced - not to say killed - a large part of the former diversity of cigars and formats in the regular production lines in favour of a permanent flow of new and special editions. They are taking away a significant bit of continuity, not only of their own prod processes, but from their most valuable customer base of trusted long-term CC-smokers, for the sake of hype and short-lived profit. At least they certainly lost the balance here. My 2cts. Customer loyalty and customer tie is much about product reliability and continuity.

[TheMonk]

I've only had a few SLR DCs, and they were aged, so I am really unable to say with certainty that they are "amazing" in general, but the ones I had certainly were. They were different but as good as Lusis, and that is a cigar that has yet to disappoint me, new or aged.

I do agree with Fugu that sometimes HSA's apparent irrational behaviour works in our favour, otherwise formats like the DCs or Lanceros would most likely already ceased to exist, except in overpriced LEs. True, they've killed of a lot of skinnies over the times, and current LEs seem to almost always have big ring gauges, but that's just going with the market, I guess. I suspect that if and when the embargo ends, we will see even more big ring gauge LE cigars.

[Fugu]

Yes trend of fatter formats, true, but also the question is - do I want to always run behind a fashion or be setting the trends myself? Sometimes, well, it takes a long breath but pays off manifold in the end.

But I even don't think it is exclusively trends in the format. Slightly off-topic, but - for example look at the Boli Coronas Extra. Killing this in its days and still today quite popular format and then e.g. releasing a RA Franciscos as an LE around the same time, or even the recent Boli Super Coronas which is only slightly thicker than the CE? Doesn't make much sense to me if it were just for the format. Unless perhaps they figured that the price of the CE was becoming too low for the tobacco quality in use, and that that tobacco had better been redirected into other - more prestigious and as such more profitable lines (e.g. where has the tobacco of BHK been used before - well, just asking.... and in order that nobody so asks they came up with the idea of medio tiempo as the addition of a "golden" leaf....). They could've (steeply) increased the price of the reg prod, but that would have been too obvious and off-putting to buyers. So releasing something new and shiny instead allows them to more easily make larger leaps in price and profit of course.

As Piggy is also always bemoaning, and with time going by I have to more and more agree with him, it seems the CC market slowly moves from a consumer/smoker market to a collector's market (just have a look at the ridiculous BBC-article from a current parallel thread). Whether this marketing approach will be of sustainability in the long-term only future will tell. I fear it will. But in the end, a cigar still is a product that needs to be consumed, otherwise also a collector market will collapse. When there are much more special eds than regular productiion formats in certain marcas, then there is something going awfully wrong, if you ask me. They are 'stretching the bow' right now for sure, and some fine day people might realise - it's just tobacco!

Ok, sorry for the rant - back to SLR DC... haha.

[TheMonk]

It's true, it seems we are more and more moving in a collector's market, but I honestly don't think that approach will be sustainable in the long-term. Even with a big marketing push, and with the recurring "bad crops" argument, if they slowly remove all "smoking cigars", sooner or later they'll collapse.

Speaking of another consumer product, one that I'm professionally involved in, the same argument is true of wineries. Unless big wineries are able to present a few "drinking wines", available in supermarkets or regular wine dealers, they won't be able to survive exclusively on high end wines. Even though the individual margins on these are extremely high, the small quantity that is sold does not allow a company with a big structure to sustain itself. And even if there is a lot of demand for this particular high-end wine, they can't simply increase production because 1) they'll compromise the quality and 2) they'll be forced to lower the price once demand meets supply, and more often then not that trade off is actually not worth it, in terms of profit margin. That is of course not the case with DRC and similar niche wineries, but those are not only residual exceptions, but also mostly family-owned companies, with very small expenses apart from the actual production.

[Guest Robusto 107]

coooolllll！

[NSXCIGAR]

Came across a vendor today that appears to have 2005 SLR DC cabs at a not totally outrageous price along with some very interesting vintage stock such as ERDM PC cabs. PM me if anyone's interested... 

[stogieluver]

2 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Came across a vendor today that appears to have 2005 SLR DC cabs at a not totally outrageous price along with some very interesting vintage stock such as ERDM PC cabs. PM me if anyone's interested... 

Thanks again for the heads-up, G. 

[NSXCIGAR]

Just an update--this vendor is located in the Middle East and apparently doesn't ship, but if anyone still wants to know feel free to PM me. They are located in a major international airport.