Much, much more than a smoke
Nick Foulkes puffs lyrically on the social significance of the cigar Kipling’s famously sexist quote about cigars and women was all wrong ... a good cigar is more, much, much more than a smoke.
The social significance of the cigar in the modern world was made clear to me when I read recently that while he was making his film about the crucifixion, Mel Gibson was snubbed in his cigar club. The pomposity of such an action is ludicrous, but it tells you how far cigar culture has become integrated into modern life — a cigar has a place as a necessary accessory alongside an aromatherapist and a designer-label yoga mat. My approach to cigars is rather different from that of the average Hollywood cigar club: I treat them as an instrument of pleasure and I feel that a dodgy celeb aiming for a cheap photo-op with a smouldering Churchill clamped between the jaws does little to convey the true pleasure of cigars.
I had been introduced to cigars in my midtwenties and at first they were an affectation; at a time when few people smoked cigars I thought it an amusing contrapuntal gesture. Since then I have transferred the enthusiasm I had for wine to cigars. The similarities are remarkable. Both are agricultural products; both have long histories; there are celebrated and niche marques — even the artwork on cigar boxes and bands rivals that of the best wine labels. And then there is the subject of ageing your cigars.
It was not until I started getting serious about cigars that I discovered the pleasure of maturing them — it is almost as if one participates in their making. A year of box-age makes a tremendous difference to the flavour.
Each cigar is characterised by its blend of tobaccos, which are aged in bales, then blended, rolled, boxed and shipped. What is more, as cigars are colour-matched for boxing — ensur ing that effect is pleasing on the eye — the cigars in one box may come from a number of different rollers each working with different bunches of leaves. And as a cigar is a handmade luxury product, there will be the inevitable variations that come with having people make things. Thus what was a pile of cigar leaves which had been left quietly in the dark for a year or two to ferment and mature suddenly becomes a bundle of finished cigars. They are allowed to rest for a year or so but, according to cigar guru Edward Sahakian, proprietor of Davidoff of London, the longer the rest the better the cigar. ‘Maturing in the box allows the flavour of all the cigars to knit together and settle,’ explains Sahakian, ‘ideally one should age a box of cigars for at least seven years before smoking. And from seven to 15 years after the date it was boxed the cigars will be at their best. Some will carry on improving beyond that, but I would not keep cigars for more than 25 years if the intention is to smoke them.’ ‘In the early 1990s there were some quality problems as the factories struggled to keep up with the increased demand. However, from 1995, the cigars got better and a decade later almost anything from that time is superb.’ Among the cigars from that time at their best now are the Punch Churchill, a medium-bodied cigar that has lost its hard edges after a decade in the box; the Hoyo de Monterrey du Roi, a perfect daytime cigar from 1994; also mild and easy but slightly fatter is the El Rey del Mundo Choix Supreme 1996; and a personal favourite of mine the Rafael Gonzales Corona Extra from 1981 (the box smells of leather, chocolate, autumn fruits and ... very good cigars). At the other end of the age scale Partagas Piramides (torpedoes) from 2000 are showing considerable promise.
As the culture of ageing is not as developed as it is with wine, there are, as yet, none of those ready reckoner-type tables rating vintages at a glance and, of course, the tobaccos in a single cigar will be of various ages. That said, Sahakian recommends the following cigars if you can find them. ‘If I am going to lay down a cigar it would be the Cohiba Sublimes from 2004, a large cigar, the full flavour of which will last well into the next decade and only improve. A lighter cigar to mature for smoking in 2012–2014 is the current batch of Trinidad Robusto Extras [formerly the official gift of the Cuban state, the Trinidad brand went public a few years ago]. The Davidoff Millennium Blend Churchill is an interesting cigar from the Dominican Republic, it is ready to smoke now but it also has the structure to benefit from ageing.’ For those who can resist the temptation to open the boxes now, the only risk is that when these cigars are at their peak, the government will have banned them altogether.
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