Smoke 'em if you got 'em...

By Gary J. Arzt

Random notes on IPCPR 2009
Also: Enjoying cigars with good friends in Oregon

Faced with the imposition of increasingly onerous taxes, and the constant infringement on our rights to simply enjoy a relaxing moment with a cigar through the imposition of odious smoking bans, you would think we aficionados would certainly start to give up. Add to it a bruising recession and you begin to wonder why the 77th IPCR Convention and Trade Show took place last month in New Orleans.

And yet, on Sunday, 9 August, at 9:00 AM, the doors at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center swung open to admit the first retailers in to the hall.

Of course, while setting up on Saturday, there was no smoking allowed. Even "host cities" can be inhospitable, but, from the opening bell, until closing, for the next three and a half days, the air was redolent with the smoke from a plethora of fine cigars.

Taking you on a tour of the show, discussing the presentations of all and sundry, would be redundant, inasmuch as Gary Korb & Hayward Tenney have already provided comprehensive details on the Trade Show in their reports from the Crescent City and their post-show blogs. That aside, my milieu is commentary; often, acerbic commentary...so, I'll tell you what I saw and smoked that I liked, and thought highly of. I'll certainly include a few things that were abhorrent, because there were.

There is no getting away from the fact that some of the brightest moments at the IPCPR; in fact, some of the brightest moments for cigar smokers...wherever they may be, is when we fire up anything made by the Garcias', Pepin and his son, Jaime, and marketed by the extended family of cigar distributors.

I could ramble through this section, with elaborate descriptions and ratings, but the first thing I promised when I started this column in a magazine several years ago was, that I will not rate cigars. I leave that to anonymous panels of gentlemen who have willingly turned a pure pleasure into work!

New from Don Pepin Garcia
That said, I'm going to list some of the newest Garcia products, coming out of their state of the art Tabacalera in Estelí, Nicaragua. I suggest you smoke 'em and you be the judge. I will assure you of one thing: You may not choose to smoke anything I mention regularly, after all, you may much prefer your Macanudos; but nothing I submit here will displease any sophisticated palate.

At the Garcia's booth, where the company is now called My Father Cigars, do to some ludicrous mischief by Altadis, there was an addition to the highly successful and eminently smokeable My Father...a line called Le Bijou 1922.

Perhaps, the most attractive thing at Pepin's booth was his daughter, Yanny, who looks spectacular and knows more about cigars than most of us boys!

Adjacent to the My Family Cigars outpost were Havana Cellars, Pete Johnson's company, and the distributor of his, always well received Tatuaje cigars. Pete is always unveiling something new, exciting and excellent; this time he is taking a leaf from the playbook of wine makers...French winemakers and is creating vintage cigars using the familiar Appellation
Contrôlée concept, where the cigar vintage is certified, in the instance of French wines by a government authority. I am not aware who is "certifying" the cigar vintages, as Pete was doing a land office business, and I never got a chance to really sit down with him.

The first such cigar is vintage 2008, made wholly from tobaccos of that year. The one I smoked was excellent. Will people take to the concept...only time will tell.

Perhaps Pete Johnson is not the first one to borrow a wine concept. Nick Perdomo had opted to follow wine makers when he produced his tasty Lot 23...all tobaccos being from the same farm/estate (if you want to take the winemaking analogy to its logical conclusion).

The other Pepin Garcia work on display there was La Giralda, by Forcade Cigars owned by the charming Chistrean Forcade. The original La Giralda was a Connecticut shade wrapped, mild cigar in a market clearly favouring full bodied. When she decided to re-blend, Chistrean knew exactly who to go to: Jaime Garcia.

I was, coincidentally, in Jaime's office that day, and I fear I, prematurely, let the cat out of the bag in my column on CigarReview.com. Fortunately, by the time I saw Chistrean at a La Giralda event, she had forgiven me.

Moving right along; I love what Pepin has done for Ashton with the La Aroma de Cuba Edición Especial, which was introduced last year. This year he reworked the regular La Aroma de Cuba line and turned a superb, price point, cigar into something even more memorable.

Between these and the San Cristobal created for Ashton by Pepin Garcia, and the Benchmade and Old Henry, I think Pepin has had a serious impact on their range of cigars. Serious and positive. Not that they were slouches before Don Pepin.

Greetings from Miami
I spent a lot of time at the Miami Cigar & Company, Espinosa y Ortega, La Aurora group of booths; it was comfortable as they are all good friends.

While the high point of the La Aurora experience was smoking, a couple of times, their Cien Años Lanceros, of which they have produced only 20,000 (800 boxes). Sadly, that production marks the end of the Cien Años. (The cigar made its debut in 2003, to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the company.)

Guillermo, with Jose Blanco and other members of the management team are constantly at work working on new cigars that will follow on the success of Cien Años, 1495, Barrel Aged, La Aurora Preferidos, and the Leon Jimenes 300. One was left with no doubt as to the quality and popularity of their products, when you saw the traffic at their booth.

Espinosa y Ortega were introducing two new cigars. The first, a line extension of the very successful Cubao, the Cubao Maduro was an enormous success. Presented in four sizes, these exquisite cigars carry an Ecuador Broadleaf wrapper and offer a hell of a lot of flavor, with all the nuances one has come to expect from maduro.

At the same time, a totally new stick, Murciélago (Spanish for "bat") is another maduro with the wrapper from Mexico. This beautifully constructed, lightly box pressed cigar, by Pepin Garcia, was clearly, one of the standout cigars of the show. The reception given to Murciélago, considering the trying economic times, was overwhelming. The orders accounted for the total initial run, not yet delivered from Nicaragua and them some.

As you can see, when one talks about today's quality premium cigars, it is hard to avoid mentioning Pepin Garcia and his family, who, just this past weekend held a party in Estelí to inaugurate the new factory, the home of My Father Cigar Company.

Cue the Quesadas
When you talk about a family enterprise, tradition and history in the cigar industry, you're talking about the Quesadas. Over at S.A.G. Imports, the Quesada family, pater familias, Manolo Quesada, and what he refers to as "the young ones," the fifth generation of the family to join the historic enterprise, were beaming at the success of their Quesada 35th Anniversary cigar – the first cigar to carry the family name.

A blend created by the 5th generation (daughters Pachy and Raquel; nephews, Jose Manuel Bermudez and Hostos Fernandez Quesada; niece Esther Fernandez, and T. J. Reilly - seen in the photo above), was premiered at Davidoff of Geneva's Madison Avenue store (NYC) on Monday evening, 29 June, and the web sites and blogs were filled with extraordinarily favourable reviews and comments shortly thereafter.

Not to be outdone, their other recent success, Cigar Aficionado's 2008 "Cigar of the Year," Casa Magna, the first cigar marketed by S.A.G. and made in Nicaragua, was joined by a maduro version. Even the label, a change of principal colour, from gold to silver, is striking, as is the flavour and taste. The silver looks regal against the rich dark maduro wrapper.

With Casa Magna you'll have to be very resourceful, finding them wherever you can and snapping 'em up. I am sure we will have to endure the same frustration with the Quesada 35th Anniversary stock supplies, as they become instantly popular, well before real distribution begins.

Telson does tobacco
Ambling along one afternoon, I bumped into Robert Telson, a retired business executive living in Texas, and a friend of mine since February of this year. I met Robert and his son Hartley at ProCigar 2009 in Santiago, DR.

Need I say they were starting a cigar company? Indeed they were, and while we chatted Robert handed me a Ziploc with the full range of Telson cigars. There was no Telson booth, so I can only assume they are not ready to start distribution; but I can tell you now, having smoked most if not all of them, it's a superb cigar. Rich in flavor from tobaccos grown in the Cibao valley and San Vicente. I would suggest keeping your eyes peeled for the appearance of Telson cigars at your favourite tobacconist.

New cigars were really in evidence as I visited David Levy & Carlos Mederos, a manufacturer from Estelí, who are producing the brand new Mederos cigar. It had a terrific debut at the show; and will soon be at a tobacconist near you.

The "Cuban cigar" with the French name
Likewise, a hardworking Cuban with a cigar that has a French name, D'Crossier, had been at work on his project for three years. The result, a beautifully made stick with an ingratiating flavour that burns beautifully.

Monte Pascoal, a unique cigar in that it is pure Mata Fina and Mata Norte from Brazil. Every sophisticated aficionado will recognize the quality of these tobaccos as well as being familiar with their reputation. To my knowledge, there has never been a Brazilian cigar that has established a market in the U.S. Nonetheless, I am convinced that Monte Pascoal can accomplish that. Moreover, Lorenzo Orsi, the founder of the manufacturing entity and its CEO, understands that market penetration takes time. Particularly in a market that is 'committed' to Dominican, Nicaraguan and Honduran cigars.

Be that as it may, Lorenzo and his colleagues were talking about their cigars with retailers, smoking them with the same retailers, and taking orders.

Ligas with Litto
I smoked some exquisite cigars with Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana, and was happy to see and have time to chat with Brad Arlington – La Flor's sales ace, now moved back to his home state of Texas and covering that state for La Flor.

Brad, who used to represent the line in, among other states, Florida, has been replaced in that market by Litto's son, Tony, who, at 6'7" will give most tobacconists the idea he is looking down on them.

Not so! As charming and warm as his father; Tony had intended to pursue further education in his chosen field of screen writing. Once again, the genes and DNA came into play, and Tony is giving the family business a shot.I don't think he'll be doing any screen writing. He will, however be writing a lot of orders, all over the state of Florida for the exquisitely crafted, Dominican cigars!

A few footnotes...
It would appear that Romeo & Julieta's Reserva Real has surpassed the sales of America's all time favourite, Macanudo! Proving that something mediocre can easily be overwhelmed by something equally mediocre.

Did anyone, besides me, notice the scion of a prominent cigar family was smitten in the Big Easy when he met the vivacious, attractive, fun-loving, and fun to be with manageress of one of Miami's most successful tobacconists?

Tobacconists must have been phoning in their orders to Tony Borhani, because not one soul, nor the cigar 'icon' himself, could be found at his booth, which was devoid of much in the way of presentation.

*   *   *

Cigars under Oregonian skies
With a short respite at home, I proceeded to Portland, Oregon to visit my friends Roberta and Les De Asis. On the schedule was a cigar dinner on Wednesday evening, 19 August, at the home of Bill King, Culinary Director of McCormick & Schmick's seafood restaurants.

The dinner was superb, and the members of the Gentlemen's Club of Oswego Lake were pretty much bowled over by the cigars I brought for the evening. We started with a 601 Habano Rabito (the red label); while the intermezzo smoke was a La Aurora Cien Años torpedo. The piece de resistance was a Nestor Miranda Collection Special Selection – 20th Anniversary "Danno." The Oscuro version.

Suffice it to say; I have been invited to return.

Friday evening was a real treat. Les and I, along with his Nat'l Sales Manager, my friend Charles Darby, headed downtown to Portland's classic five star hotel, The Benson. There in a beautifully appointed steak house, El Gaucho, we were shown to the Cigar Room. Yes, a room in the restaurant where we could both smoke and dine! Try that in NYC, Miami, Chicago or any of the myriad cities across the country that have become totally inhospitable to cigar smokers.

My last evening with the Robert and Les, as well as Les's sister, Millie, and his daughter, Melissa visiting from New York, was the occasion for a beautiful cocktail reception and buffet supper at their home. No, it wasn't in my honour, although it gave me an opportunity to meet dozens of their friends and business colleagues - and time to catch up with several executives from the Les' company, Benchmade Knife Company.

It was for an organization called Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition, a networking event for suppliers to the military attended by 150 people that included dozens of serving military officers - all of whom were cigar smokers.

Under a crisp, clear Oregon sky, we were gathered on the vast terraces behind the house to enjoy a meal catered by - no he doesn't cater; it was a favour - Bill King! I marveled at the whole thing, as Bill and his daughter had been three days preparing the vast array of delicious food. that was consumed in two hours, as if a swarm of locust had swept over the place. (That tells you something about the food!)

Smoke, wafting away quickly, came from more 601 Habano Rabitos, La Aurora Cien Años torpedos, Nestor Miranda Dannos and a treat I added to the repertoire: the Cubao No. 2, a fabulous 6-1/8 x 52 torpedos.

A good time was had by all, myself particularly, as I was the 'go to guy' when any of the guests needed a cigar. And who doesn't need a cigar?

The smoking lamp is lighted.