CigarCraig's Blog

by Craig Vanderslice | November 15, 2019 · 8:07 am

News: C.Gars Auctions Announces December 1st Winter Auction

Here’s some news from my friends at C.Gars Auctions. I remember back in 1997 when I got an e-mail from this dude in England asking me to have a look at his new website. We met in person in 1999 and we’ve been friends ever since, we even went to his wedding in 2006 (I was in a picture in the back of Cigar Aficionado with his friends that year). So if you’re in the market for rare and vintage cigars, this is the place you should be looking!

C.Gars Auctions are holding the 4th auction of the year on Sunday 1^st December

Lots will be live and bidding open online on the 24^th November on the Cigar Auction website http://www.onlinecigarauctions.com/

This will be the 32nd cigar auction by C.Gars since the auction department was established in 2009

Over 400 Lots of Vintage, Mature, Pre Embargo, Davidoff, Dunhill, Limited Edition Havana cigars as well as aged Havanas from the 1960’s through to the 1990’s will be on offer on behalf of estates, investors and collectors. There will also be 70 Lots of splendid single malt whisky.

Auction Lots can be viewed and bid on online http://www.onlinecigarauctions.com/index.php

Featured Lots include:

2 rarest cabinets of Trinidad and Cohiba autographed by Fidel Castro

36 Lots of Cuban Davidoff including Dom Perignon, No.1, No.2, 1000,2000,3000,4000, Tubos, Latour, Haut Brion, Margaux and Lafite.

Dunhill Estupendos and Cabinetta

La Flor de Cano Diademas

For any questions don’t hesitate to email Laura Graham and the auction team at auctions@cgarsltd.co.uk

Substantial interest is expected from overseas buyers is expected due to the continued weakness of the Pound Sterling currently as well as the continuing increased demand from China.

Lots are available for inspection at our London offices from the 24^th November.

About C.Gars Ltd.

C.Gars Ltd was launched in 1997 and is now one of the world’s largest specialist cigar merchants. This family business sells premium cigars and related goods from its website, 24/7, every day of the year. C.Gars also owns and operates specialist cigar shops across the UK. https://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/our-shops/ as well as La Casa del Habano in Chester and Knutsford

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Tagged as Auction, c-gars ltd, C.Gars Auctions, cigar, cigars, Rare, Vintage, VIntage Havanas

by Craig Vanderslice | November 14, 2019 · 7:00 am

News: Ventura Cigar Company Will Keep Everyone Rolling at Big Smoke 2019

More news from Ventura Cigars, who is determined to show that they are here to stay despite the less than positive perception left by the recent downsizing (I know how that feels!) I’ve been a student of Michael’s on several occasions in the areas of rolling as well as blending and you can’t have a better instructor. I imagine this will be a real treat for the Big Smoke attendees.

Ventura Cigar Company to Hold Rolling Event with Michael Giannini + Indiana Ortez at Big Smoke 2019. Two industry stars share secrets of their craft as attendees learn to roll their own Psyko Seven Nicaragua Cigar.

Ventura Cigar Company will keep everyone rolling at Big Smoke 2019. Happening November 15 – November 17 at the Mirage in Las Vegas, Cigar Aficionado’s annual event is a popular draw for premium cigar enthusiasts. It offers attendees the opportunity to meet, greet, pose, and sample wares from top industry names. Ventura Cigar will be taking things to the next level, rolling PSyKo Seven Nicaragua cigars in their booth on Friday and Saturday, and offering a Rolling Seminar on Sunday, 11/17, where attendees will roll their own Archetype Axis Mundi cigar.

Michael Giannini, General Manager of Ventura Cigar Company, will be heading up the Ventura Cigar Company team and leading the rolling events.

“It’s great to be coming back to Big Smoke,” says Giannini. “Ventura Cigar is honored to be here, and excited to be rolling this weekend. The Cigar Aficionado team always puts on a solid event. And they ranked our Archetype Axis Mundi cigar as #13 of the top 25 for 2017, so we’re stoked to give Big Smoke attendees the opportunity to create their own on Sunday. We hope everyone also comes by the Ventura Cigar booth on Friday and Saturday to check out the PSyKo Seven Nicaragua cigars that we’ll be rolling with Indiana Ortez. It’s not often to get the chance to create with a cigar’s creator. It’s going to be such a good time.”

Indiana Ortez, rising industry star and the mastermind behind the PSyKo Seven Nicaragua blend will be rolling alongside Giannini at the Ventura Cigar Booth, and during Sunday’s Rolling Seminar. Hailing from the renowned Ortez tobacco family in Nicaragua, Indiana first collaborated with Ventura Cigar in 2018 on the Fathers, Friends, and Fire cigar, and has continued to add her expertise and youthful vibrance to their portfolio. The duo will share stories and behind-the-scenes info as they give Big Smoke attendees a hands-on rolling experience throughout the weekend.

“This won’t be as easy as people think,” says Ortez. “There’s a lot of factors that go into rolling, including patience, skill, and intuition- especially while using Connecticut Desflorada wrappers from a 2017 crop, like we’ll be doing for the PSyKo Seven Nicaragua cigars. But I know it’s going to be fun, and I’m looking forward to it!”

For tickets to Big Smoke 2019, visit thebigsmokes.com . For Big Smoke updates, more info on PSyKo Seven Nicaragua, and the other Ventura Cigar Company cigars, please visit venturacigar.com, or follow @venturacigar on Instagram.

About Ventura Cigar Company

Ventura Cigar Company (VCC) is a unique cigar brand born in sunny Southern California that is on a mission to create memorable, complex cigar blends that excite the senses and reward discriminating palates. Their flagship Archetype, Case Study, Project805, and PSyKo SEVEN brands offer multiple award-winning blends that earned 90+ ratings in Cigar Aficionado, Cigar & Spirits, and Cigar Snob. And Archetype’s Axis Mundi won #13 Cigar of the Year for 2017 from Cigar Aficionado. Ventura Cigar Company also distributes Silver Dollar Nasal Snuff and the 4th Generation Tobacconist and Comoy’s of London lines of pipe tobacco products, extending its reach and tradition of offering top-quality tobacconist products. Pipes and blends under these brands are cultivated through generations of craftsmanship, making them longtime favorites of pipe tobacco enthusiasts.

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Tagged as Big Smoke, cigar, cigars, Ventura

by Craig Vanderslice | November 12, 2019 · 11:03 am

I Goofed, I Didn’t Use My CigarMedics HumidiMeter!

Sunday my wife and I went into Philly and saw the Philly Pops presentation of the Beatles Abbey Road with a Beatles tribute group called Classical Mystery Tour. I can do without the Beatles tribute part, it would have been fine with the Pops orchestra and a band a good singers playing the material. It was still an entertaining show, I’ve seen a lot of Beatles tribute bands and always have trouble with ones where the Paul character can’t be bothered to

Too High!

learn to play lefty. Anyway, traffic sucked coming home, as per normal, and I was quite ready for a cigar, and grabbed a recently acquired RoMaCraft Aquitaine Knuckle Dragger. Here’s where I made a critical error. One of my pet peeves is when I light up a cigar that ends up being over-humidified and it doesn’t burn right, it smolders instead of burns and doesn’t give you a great experience. It’s so hard to tell when you light a cigar what it’s going to smoke like. This particular cigar I had hoped would be a sure thing, and it turned out that it just wasn’t ready, it hadn’t been in my humidor long enough, and the shop I bough it from was new to me and their humidor is obviously a little high. Here’s where the Cigarmedics HumidiMeter tool comes in! I’ve been using this for the last month. You might remember my video with Steve Saka from the 2017 trade show when I encountered him after the show floor closed for the day checking the next day’ sample stock with an industrial version of this sort of device.

Just Right!

Steve’s device costs thousands of dollars, and reads absolute humidity, the Cigarmedics HumidiMeter converts the results to numbers which we, as regular cigar smokers, understand, relative humidity numbers. I went back and check the other Knuckle Dragger I bought at the same time and my suspicions were confirmed, the readings were higher than what I like to see, which have been in the low 60s at the foot, and the mid 60s at the head. I’ve been checking every cigar, and if the numbers are higher than the mid 60s at the head of the cigar I’m putting it back and picking another cigar. Cigars are funny, different tobacco’s hold moisture differently, Broadleaf holds a lot more moisture than Connecticut shade, and all of the filler tobaccos have different properties too. My larger humidor has variations from top to bottom too, so there are a lot of variables. With this device, I can save myself from not only wasting cigars, but wasting my time and pleasure!

I can tell you that many of my friends and colleagues have reviewed this device. Most recently I would recommend the inaugural episode of the I’d Tap That Cigar Show from just this past week where they have discussed the device in detail. I tossed the idea of doing a video review of this, but it’s been done to death. I do agree with what everyone says about this, it’s one of the better new cigar tools I’ve gotten, and I’ll be honest, I was moments away from buying one of these when the folks at Cigarmedics reached out to me, it was in my shopping cart. Thank you to Tom at Cigarmedics for the information and support.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | November 10, 2019 · 10:39 am

Villiger Cuellar Black Forrest and Assorted Cigars

I’ve been smoking some random favorites this week, along with revisiting some cigars to re-evaluate my opinions on them. I spent a while with my web host’s support folks trying to iron out some back-end issues I’ve been having and I think something got fixed with the RSS feed and Google indexing. The e-mails seem to be going out again and searches don’t seem to be coming up in Chinese anymore! That was annoying! Spending ten years creating content, I’d like my legacy to be properly preserved in google searches! So it’s all sorted out, I think. I’ve been looking at new WordPress themes too, I’ve been using the same site design since 2012, and it might be time to refresh it a bit. When I find the right layout, you’ll know it! Anyway, Here’s some of my thoughts on some cigars I smoked

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this week.

Southern Draw Jacob’s Ladder Brimstone – I love the shape, it’s perfectly constructed, and I really want to love the cigar, and it’s great, but I think I like the regular Jacob’s Ladder better. There’s something about the regular line that is richer, maybe the added strength of the Brimstone overpowers he blend for me. If I had smoked this before the regular line I might have had a different opinion, but I feel a little disappointed when I smoke these. I want it to be a better Jacob’s Ladder, and for me it just isn’t, something gets lost.

Cornelius and Anthony Daddy Mac – As everyone should be aware, I have a fondness for everything in the Cornelius and Anthony line, except, maybe the Daddy Mac. I’ve always said I liked it, but it was my least favorite in the line, and the second half of that statement id certainly always been true, but it’s time to stop sugar coating it and just give up on the Daddy Mac. The cigar just doesn’t appeal to me. That’s not to say it isn’t a good cigar, and there are plenty of people who love it, it’s got that leathery, earthy profile that I don’t personally dig. I need to reach out to Steven Bailey and ask him what the future of Cornelius and Anthony looks like. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts from this weekend’s LaZonaPalooza and the name C&A hasn’t come up. Inquiries at a recent visit to El Titan de Bronze, where my favorite Cornelius is made were not exactly positive. I need to know how I should ration my existing stock.

Speaking of cigars made at LaZona, I also smoked a La Sirena King Poseidon, the brand’s 6″ x 60 vitola. This is another small brand that I’ve had a long time affinity for. The 6″ x 60 size was an experiment, and I like it a lot, but I think I like the Trident, the Churchill size, better for a large vitola in this line. I love the Trident and Devine (belicoso) sizes the best in this line. I still have a couple of the Tridents from a box that was made in the My Father factory, they are Devine…no that’s the Belicoso…you know what I mean. La Sirena’s family of brands, including Merloin, Oceano, and the 10th Anniversary, have a little something for everyone, and I enjoy the heck out of them.

Let’s talk about this new cigar from Villiger, the Cuellar Black Forrest. This is made at the Tabacalera Palma in the Dominican Republic, which is where the Cuellar Krēmē is made, as well as one of my favorite Villiger cigars, the long gone and poorly named Trill. It’t box pressed and has a San Andrés wrapper and Dominican binder and filler and has a really interesting aroma out of the box. They often send samples in really nice little boxes of two or three, and while the presentation is top notch, one can’t help but think they might be better served saving that expense. Just a thought. This is a

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beautiful smoke, and everyone has been smoking this and raving about it. It was different from what most think of San Andrés wrapped cigars. It didn’t have the heavy earth that is associated with Mexican leaf, but would still qualify as earthy I guess. It was solidly in the medium category and smooth, consistent with it’s Cuellar Krēmē sibling, it compliments it well as the maduro counterpart if that is the intent. I can recall smoking a Krēmē at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival in 2014 and really enjoying it, and I might have one of similar vintage someplace in the humidor. This was a nice smoke that I’ll look forward to smoking again.

That’s all for today. until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Black Forrest, Brimstone, cigar, cigars, Cornelius and Anthony, Cuelllar, Daddy Mac, Jacobs Ladder, La Sirena, Southern Draw, Villiger

by Craig Vanderslice | November 6, 2019 · 9:25 am

News: Ventura Cigar Company Still Strong After Recent Layoffs

This was reported a couple of days ago by a popular outlet (whom I consider to be friends, by the way), in a rather over the top doom and gloom manner, and subsequently defended on social media as being the end of the company. Maybe it’s best not to rely on recently released employees as 100% credible sources of information, there might be some emotions involved. Their sources are purely speculation on my part, but we have some responsibility to report things accurately. Clearly, the folks at Ventura are vehemently denying that they are going away. Considering Kretek’s involvement in actively bringing premium cigars into the Tobacco Plus trade show lately, I couldn’t imagine them divesting themselves of their premium cigar brand, especially one that’s been gaining traction. How this effects other distribution arrangements remains to be seen.

Ventura Cigar Company Still Strong After Recent Layoffs

Kretek International, Inc., Parent Company of Ventura Cigar, restructures in anticipation of FDA Action within Overall Tobacco Industry.

Ventura Cigar Company has just announced the restructuring of its national sales organization in advance of new FDA regulations expected to hit the tobacco industry in the coming months. In a continually evolving environment, Ventura Cigar Company, through Kretek International remains a strong and profitable company and will continue to deliver high quality products and service to our valued consumers and customers.

Michael Giannini, General Manager of Ventura Cigar Company said “Making tough decisions has kept Kretek International strong throughout the decades, and I commend the company for recognizing the changing market landscape and taking necessary steps to remain an industry leader. We are grateful for the contributions of our employees and wish everyone well as they continue their journeys.”

For more information about Ventura Cigar Company, please visit venturacigar.com.

About Ventura Cigar Company

About Kretek International, Inc.

Kretek International, Inc., parent company to Ventura Cigar Company, DRYFT Sciences, LLC, Phillips & King, and Tobacco Media Group (TMG) is America’s number one importer, marketer, and distributor of specialty tobacco products sold by convenience, mass, and national retailers. For over 30 years, Kretek has enjoyed a strong reputation for providing exceptional customer relationships and top-quality goods. The company continues to offer standout brands like Djarum, Cuban Rounds, and Djeep Lighters to distribution channels across the United States and Canada, bringing value, high margins, and growth to retailers and distributors.