'Tis the season - for cigars

Dear fellow cigarophiles,

At last. One of those times of the year when one can light up with impunity. No hectoring, badgering, snide comments, disdainful looks. Christmas is a green light period for cigars.

Other green light occasions include weddings (positively encouraged) the birth of a new child (expected) funerals (defiantly offering the two-fingered salute to the Grim Reaper) and on one's birthday (one-day pass).

At all other times of the year, the discerning cigar lover knows he may well face anything from nagging to downright abuse before he gets to relax with his beloved stick.

I've stocked up on all relevant materials for this year's festivities; bubbly, whisky, sherry, beer, port, wine and of course, cigars. Never pleasant to run out of sticks at such a time of excess.

It's been a blitzkrieg of a year at Cristo Towers; from launching the website in April, through a summer of London cigar events including auctions, dinners and taste tests through to a late flurry of articles including my piece on vintage Havanas for the FT How To Spend It magazine at the end of the year, it's been a blast.

Personal highlights for me have been a mind-blowing cigar luncheon at The Lanesborough, a wonderful evening of like-minded company at my first Prohibition Dinner and last, but by no means least, the long-awaited trip to Cuba in November.

This was a pilgrimage and a privilege, the first of what I hope will be many trips to this incredible, pulsating, paradoxical Caribbean island.

I thank you all for your feedback, especially those who have been good enough to say they have enjoyed some of my pieces; there's nothing worse than a wall of silence after pouring your efforts into a project.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas - and a sackful of smooth, complex, flavoursome smokes this festive period. It's time to light up.

Best,

M.

Missing Alejandro

IT was a lifetime ambition to meet him. Alas, I was a year or so too late.

I stood outside the gates of the rustic Robaina farm in the heart of Pinar del Rio and said a silent prayer for a man I had never met last week.

Such was his fame and magnetic personality that I, like many lovers of the Cuban cigar, felt like I knew him a little anyway.

I had bumped, swerved, dodged and scraped my way to the sacred plantation from Havana, losing my way several times and finally finding the rough mud track to the farm more by luck than judgment. The directions of young boys, old ladies and more than one mangy dog were taken en route.

Today, the Robaina plantation feels more like a museum than it perhaps should, only because of the huge numbers of pilgrims who visit to pay homage to the greatest wrapper producer the island has ever known.

Today, the last of the 150,000 tobacco seedlings have been planted in the red, dusty, mineral-rich soil of the hallowed Vuelta Abajo. Incredibly, in just 45 days, they will be 7ft tall and ready for harvest.

We stood alongside the limp looking seedlings, had a quick tour of Alejandro's former homestead and watched a 76-year-old minus a finger make short work of rolling a Robaina-grown Churchill.

But in reality, the place must surely be a shadow of its former self in the absence of the old man. His incredible wrinkled visage stares out benignly from umpteen photographs and drawings on the wall and while his nephew Hiroshi has now taken on the farm more than adequately, I can't help but feel sad I didn't make it to the Robaina farm just a little bit sooner.

In the red dust of twilight, I climb back into the car and begin the long journey home, the sound of crickets lining my route along the potholed farm track.

After the Lord Mayor's show...

I'm back and recovering from as intense a few days as I can remember.

I have a stinking cold, have to keep crashing into sleep every few hours and am drinking copious amounts of water in an attempt to make up for rum overdose.

But my trip to Havana was a blast, an incredible mix of old and new, prehistoric landscape and a timeless, pulsating culture of cigars, rum and people.

There are several articles to be written and photos and videos to be processed and tweaked. Highlights were a trips to Vuelta Abajo, a tour of Cohiba factory at El Laguito, a quick visit to the Robaina farm. Rest  assured I will lead you through my experiences in the coming weeks. Now I'm back off for a crash on the sofa...

Enjoy this bird's eye view of Vinales.

http://m.youtube.com/?client=mv-google&appcache_off=1321942960&errmsg=E-SER%3AQUOTA_EXCEEDED_ERR%3A%20DOM%20Exception%2022&rdm=4oox72hw1&reason=1#/watch?v=QwttvSS46ls

Best,

M.

Long first day

Just sinking into my bed at the Nacional.

Been up for 24hrs so need my sleep ready for a big day of cigar shops and hopefully Pinar del Rio plantations tomorrow. Weather looks set fair, city buzzing for Partagas Festival.

Ended tonight with Bucanero beer and smokes on the sensational terrace at The Nacional overlooking the Malecon sea wall.

Watch this space...

M.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to Havana we go...

AS usual, I've left everything far too late.

I haven't packed a thing, not sure what I'm taking and I have an awful lot of work to do before I depart; but the flipside of that coin is, I'm flying out to Havana tomorrow lunchtime for a whistlestop tour of the capital taking in the Partagas Festival, the city's best cigar shops, bars, music and atmosphere. If I can squeeze it in, I'll also be jumping into an old Buick and cruising down to the sacred Vuelta Abajo to check out this year's crops in the plantations.

Follow @MontyCristo1 on Twitter and keep your eye on this blog over the next few days. If I can get a reliable enough internet signal(!) I'll be blogging words and pics of the trip to give you a little taster of this Caribbean cigar Mecca and the amazing things it has to offer lovers of the leaf.

I'll smoke one for you.

M.

Lunch to end all lunches...

I'VE only just recovered from a barnstormer of a cigar luncheon at The Lanesborough last week.

It was so good I've taken a few days off the cigars for my palate to recover!

I'll be writing about the occasion for the lovely Arbuturian, so I can't go into too much detail, but I can tell you it was sensational. From the moment I was welcomed to The Lanesborough by the Royal Household Cavalry (an accident - I think) to receiving a cigar-shaped dessert, it was the height of food, drink and cigar pairings. Or is that treblings?

Anyway, I include a few taster snapshots for you and will of course let you know via my Twitter feed when the story proper is published. How's about this for a menu?

Not a bad drop this...



Now for the Cognac - now that's a quality pairing

The elegant Garden Room transformed:

And how about a little cigar-themed dessert?

Hope you've enjoyed the sneak preview. May there be many, many more ahead. My thanks to Ajay Patel of Casa del Habanos, Teddington, for his kind sharing of photos.

Best,

M.

Montecristo Open Day

I spent one day this week in the welcoming environment of the Cigar Terrace at Number Ten Manchester Street Hotel.

Armed with an Americano, wifi, walk-in humidor and my iPad, I was all set up and ready for meetings by 11am.

It's a great place for a catch up drink or business meeting; on a fine day, it's a pleasure to stroll down New Cavendish Street from Euston for 20 minutes or so before the welcome sight of the Number Ten fluttering flag greets you as you round the corner.

From there it's the work of but a moment to be ensconced on the warm, friendly terrace. Unusually for me, as I tackled the first emails of the day, I fired up a Montecristo Open - the Master to be precise.

I say unusually, because I've not tried the line before. I wasn't impressed with this one either.

It started dull and bitter and got worse. I discarded it with a third left.

It was incredibly boring, and while it's unfair to judge a cigar based on one stick, a Havana of this price point should be better.

I bumped into Dan from Hunters & Frankau and by an amazing coincidence, he recommended I try another Open - this time the Regatta. I told him of my disappointing experience earlier, but to his credit he stuck to his guns and won me over by telling me Simon Chase had been known to wax lyrical about this cigar. Sold.

I'm pleased to report it was a much better smoke; mild, yes, but flavoursome and with a really superb draw. Good daytime smoke. Thanks Dan.

Just goes to prove you don't know 'til you try...

M.