Celebrating 20 Years
After
many months of effort by the entire Cigar Aficionado staff, our 20th
Anniversary issue is complete. It reached newsstands at the end of
August, and on Wednesday, September 12, we brought together a beautiful
group of friends from the cigar industry for a party at the Grand Havana
Room in New York City to celebrate the issue.
The
party—like our summer spent putting together the issue—went by in a
blur. (You can read Andrew Nagy’s story about the event by clicking
here, and launch a photo gallery by clicking here.) The highlight for me
was watching editor and publisher Marvin R. Shanken induct our nine new
members of the Cigar Aficionado Hall of Fame, and listening to their
acceptance speeches. Each of the men—Carlos Fuente Jr., Hendrik Kelner,
Robert Levin, Benjamin Menendez, Manuel Quesada, José Orlando Padrón,
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, Nestor Plasencia and Jose Seijas—have dedicated
their lives to the world of premium cigars and tobacco. As cigar lovers,
your lives have been enriched by their hard work and expert knowledge,
which in most cases was passed down from their fathers or grandfathers.
Former
New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani spoke beautifully about the
cigar industry, and the city he loves, eleven years and one day after
the 9/11 attacks that changed his life—and the life of all New
Yorkers—forever. Executive editor Gordon Mott was the opening speaker,
and talked about how Shanken’s dream to start a magazine was one that
most people felt would fail. Menendez, in his acceptance, paraphrased
Mark Twain, saying “all ideas are crazy, until they work.” Look for a
video of the event on our website soon.
The
gathering was a way for me to reconnect with old friends. I haven’t
been with the magazine the entire 20 years, but for a little more than
17 years the seat from where I’m typing this blog has served as my
second home. I’ve had the privilege of covering the intriguing,
friendly, passionate and humble men and women of the premium cigar
industry for all that time, and I’ve gotten to know them extremely well.
I consider myself a lucky man to have a job that brings me such
pleasure, and brings me closer to such a fine group of individuals.
I’d
also like to thank all of you who read Cigar Aficionado. We couldn’t do
it without you. Thank you for reading. Cigar Aficionado magazine has
had a great 20 years, and we have a lot more still to come.
