Top 25 Cigars Of The Year • January/February 2020
The best cigars of the year take center stage in the new Cigar Aficionado. It’s our Top 25, cigars that have excelled after repeated tests by our expert panel of cigar-smoking editors. Also, we unveil the best bargains of 2019 and show you a devout cigar aficionado who smoked (almost) all of last year’s list on an epic trip to Las Vegas. Also in this issue, gambling expert Danny Sheridan unveils the five rules of Super Bowl betting, we name the very best golf courses in Las Vegas and introduce you to a cigar-puffing poker star who says needling the competition is one of his winning ways. We also take you on a photo essay of some of the best cigar celebrations from the world of sports, and sit down in Havana with the two men who run Cuba’s Habanos S.A. It’s all there, plus much more, along with more than 100 cigar ratings.
Features
Top 25 Cigars of 2019
Revealing our annual Top 25 list is always an exciting event. The cigars here represent the finest examples of creativity and craftsmanship in the premium, handmade industry, but …
The Best Golf in Vegas
Golf and gambling go hand in hand, and many players can’t even fathom teeing it up without a skins game or friendly bet on their match. But in 2018, two of the all-time best, …
5 Rules of Super Bowl Betting
Nevada Sports Books took in nearly $146 million in bets for the last Super Bowl, their second-best Super Sunday in history. The increase came the year after sports betting was …
The Sweet Smell of Victory
Basketball A haze of cigar smoke was once a common phenomenon at such storied basketball arenas as Madison Square Garden in New York City and Boston Garden. But even as …
Cigars
The Co-Presidents
The two men who run Cuba’s Habanos S.A. sit down to shed light on what’s new in the world of Havana cigars.
The Poker Provocateur
Card king Shaun Deeb is no stranger to controversy—or fine cigars.
The Big Smoke Lights Up Sin City
Cigar Aficionado’s biggest party.
Connoisseur’s Corner: El Rey Del Mundo Taino
Patience is rewarded in the humidor, as great cigars can turn into true classics.
Ratings from this Issue
Up Front
New Things for the New Year
It will be 2020 when you read this note, and we have some novel things in store for the new year. The most exciting is an event. Many of you have been to a Big Smoke, at which you …
The Good Life
NewAir CC-300H Humidor
You expect your humidor to humidify—hence the name—but what about the havoc that temperature shifts can wreak on your cigar collection? Blasting the AC in the summer and …
The Bloody Mary
While Champagne is traditional for New Year’s Eve, so much else gets slurped down in between toasts that come morning only one remedy is suited for the sins of the night before. …
The Classic Cashmere Coat
It’s the super sports car of overcoats. You don’t need a cashmere coat. You want one. You crave its sleek lines, its racy performance and the way it purrs when you touch it. …
The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
You might think that the world’s first guitar-shaped hotel would land in a place like Nashville or Las Vegas or maybe somewhere near the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. Instead, this …
Bowlus Road Chief
Sleek. That’s the word for the born-again Bowlus Road Chief trailers. These are not your father’s boxy recreational vehicles. They are the born-again editions of what your …
Kurobuta Pork
While the term is Japanese for “black pig” and today’s gourmets call it the “Wagyu of pork,” the breed arose in an English county, where it got the name Berkshire. But whatever …
IWC Perpetual Calendar
Whether your notion of a motoring adventure is clocking laps at the racetrack, attending a Formula 1 race or just fighting traffic, IWC’s latest Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar …
Winter Driving School
The reaction of most sane drivers to snow or ice is to slow down and avoid dangerous maneuvers. The Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Colorado takes the opposite tack. In the …
Knife Skills
Brendan McDermott grasps his intimidating chef’s knife and, wielding it with the grace of Roger Federer slicing a backhand, feathers a celery stalk into a hundred wafer thin …