Posted: 09:31 AM ET, 05/27/08Every year, a friend of mine nominates the top ten days of the summer. The criteria are pretty loose, but basically it has to be warm, but not too warm, sunny but some clouds are allowed, and of course, no rain any time during the day. Last Sunday here in the Northeast wasn’t just a contender for a top ten day, it may have already won the title for the Best Day of the Summer: mid-70s, not a cloud in the sky and a light breeze to keep the bugs down and moderate whatever warmth there was from becoming too much. Read more
Posted: 12:42 PM ET, 05/20/08So I thought I knew all of Jose “Pepin” Garcia’s smokes. I was wrong. I had lunch the other day with John Gonzales, national sales manager for El Rey de Los Habanos, Pepin’s company in Miami. John and I were talking about cigars when he mentioned Vegas Cubanas, a brand I’d never heard of. Read more
Posted: 12:57 PM ET, 05/19/08There’s always a collective relief here when we finish up a tasting for one of our upcoming issues. I know most of you don’t understand this, but when you have to smoke for a living, it detracts from the great pleasure one normally gets from a cigar. Read more
Posted: 12:39 PM ET, 05/18/08Have Gun – Will Travel rerun, “Show of Arms” (circa 1957).
DAWN in SAN FRANCISCO’s Hotel Carlton, where the TV western’s main character, Paladin (played by Richard Boone), lives out his alter ego as a wealthy dandy (when he isn’t riding the range as a highly principled gun for hire, “the knight without armor in a savage land”). Read more
Posted: 10:26 AM ET, 05/16/08I froze my ass off last night in London just to smoke a cigar with my good friends Jemma Freeman and Simon Chase, both of Hunters & Frankau, the British importers of fine Cuban cigars. We smoked a number of aged cigars that they are currently putting on the market, including a delicious 1998 Romeo y Julieta Churchill. Read more
Posted: 04:16 PM ET, 05/12/08There’s just something special about firing up a great cigar (or two) on Derby Day. This year, my wife and I celebrated in style with a great group at the home of our friends Tammy and Jay Harris, who treat the annual Run for the Roses as if it were a national holiday. Read more
Posted: 11:49 AM ET, 05/07/08It is surprisingly easy to get Cuban cigars on the West Coast, especially Los Angeles. I was jonesing for a Cuban the other night in Los Angeles and a buddy of mine turned me on to a Partagas Serie D No. 4 straight from a nearby convenience store on Sunset Boulevard. Read more
Posted: 09:13 AM ET, 05/06/08Sunday night was my first great chance of the spring to blow smoke on my new deck. Perfect weather. A day of yard work behind me. It’s a school night so the kids retired early. No sound but that of the cardinal that’s nested in a mountain laurel. Read more
Posted: 09:27 AM ET, 05/05/08The day finally arrived--opening day at my country club. It wasn’t the best of weather on Saturday; the day dawned cold, cloudy and with light rain during the early holes. The weather didn’t really matter, however. It was just nice to be out on our newly renovated golf course (see the Jan/Feb Cigar Aficionado article Rebirth of a Classic) with all the machinery gone, and all the grass grown in. Read more
Posted: 04:42 PM ET, 04/30/08James Suckling was in town this week, so Monday night we headed out to an early dinner in midtown. We ate at Benoit, a new brasserie from Alain Ducasse that just opened. (It was so new, in fact, that they didn’t have a liquor license, something we didn’t know until after we sat down. Read more
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