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Part Two: Las Vegas Big Smoke Saturday Seminars

Top Legal Cigars

Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2007

By David Savona  

A view from the back row inside the ballroom where the Saturday seminars took place.

The Saturday seminars at the Las Vegas Big Smoke are all about cigars and getting a rare inside look at the people behind the cigar business. It's also an opportunity to smoke amazing cigars. This year the theme was hard to beat: a tasting of some of the best cigars of the year as rated by Cigar Aficionado magazine, dubbed The Top Legal Cigars of the Year.

This tasting allowed everyone in the audience to sample three extraordinary cigars -- the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 Cigars of the Year. (Cigars No. 1 and No. 4 were not included, due to the U.S. embargo against Cuba.)

Gordon Mott

Executive Editor Gordon Mott, who emceed the entire morning's program, began the day by welcoming the more than 500 cigar lovers in the sold-out room. He noted this was the 12th year for the Vegas Big Smoke, and congratulated attendees for rising so early after what was certainly a late night for many.

As the crowd was eager to begin smoking, Mott introduced the first speaker, Charlie Toraño, a lawyer–turned–cigar man who is president of Toraño Cigars Inc. Mott instructed the audience to light up the first of the three Top Legal Cigars, the Carlos Toraño Exodus 1959 Torpedo (91 points), the No. 5 cigar of 2006.

Charlie Toraño

Hundreds of gorgeous, dark-brown torpedos lost their heads as the aficionados clipped their cigars while Toraño walked to the podium. He explained how his family has worked tobacco for generations, first in Cuba, now in Central America and the Caribbean. The Toraños lost their farms in Cuba during the revolution and were forced to leave -- the Exodus is named for the diaspora of Cuban cigarmakers who left Cuba for other lands, searching for new tobaccos from which they could make cigars.

The Exodus is a product of the Toraños' ability to blend from various countries. Beneath the richly hued Honduran wrapper and binder is a mélange of tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The result is a rich, sublime smoke with an easygoing style. The sizable 6 1/4 inch by 54 ring gauge cigar is also a bargain, retailing for only $5.45.

Toraño mentioned his earlier days as a lawyer, something his father, Carlos, encouraged as cigar sales were poor at the time. He thanked the audience for their passions, for the newfound love of cigars that has allowed him to join his father in the family business. The two are so close, he said, that they share not only the same office, but the same desk.

An attendee enjoys a seminar smoke.

The audience smoked the Toraño during the wrapper panel, then Mott returned to the podium to introduce the next Top Legal cigar, the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series Imperial, Cigar Aficionado's No. 3 cigar of 2006 (92 points). Mott described how Jorge Padrón had been instrumental in making his family's brand a national one, and said Padrón had learned everything from his father, Jose Orlando Padrón. "At least," said Mott with a smile, "I hope you've learned everything from him."

The audience lit up their Imperials, gorgeous trunk-pressed, six-inch beauties with hefty 54 ring gauges. The Nicaraguan smokes are brimming with flavors and full of richness and complexity.

Jorge Padrón

Padrón described the early years of the brand and the eventual creation of the Anniversary Series, which is made using some of the company's oldest tobaccos. Unveiling them at a trade show in 1994 he impressed one client in particular, Robert Levin of Ashton, who also owns Holt's, the cigar distributor. Levin, said Padrón, asked for scores of boxes of each of the sizes. Padrón said he only had one of each size he could sell. "What am I going to do with one box?" came the answer.

The Padróns have grown considerably since then, but they still stress quality over quantity, said Padrón. He, too, thanked the audience for their allegiance to their cigars, something that has motivated his father and given him no small sense of pride and enjoyment.

"My father is 81," said Padrón. "Every year he has now is a happy year."

The final cigar of the day was the highest ranked -- the Coronado by La Flor Double Corona. Mott welcomed the brand maker, Litto Gomez, to the podium as the audience clipped their Coronados, 7-inch-long, 50-ring gauge beauties that rated 93 points.

Litto Gomez

Gomez described the moment he realized his cigar had been named No. 2 Cigar of the Year. He went to his office, saw the latest copy of Cigar Aficionado and turned to the ratings first, as he usually does. Then he flipped to the Top 25 coverage, and saw his cigar in the No. 2 slot.

"I had to check it again, a couple of times," he said. In a state of disbelief coupled with overwhelming joy, he took the magazine home to show to his wife and son. He was honored and humbled by the accolade.

The Coronado is a wonderful smoke, made with a Nicaraguan wrapper grown by the Plasencias and blended with Dominican binder and filler grown by Gomez himself, who said he feels the combination of those nations' tobaccos is "a marriage made in heaven."

Just as the other presenters of these marvelous Top Legal cigars did, Gomez left the stage to heady applause.

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