V AMICIgar day - part 1

Cigars are great - not only to smoke, of course - but also because of the opportunity they give to meet new people and in fact visit new places! That is why I jumped at the opportunity to join Ajay of La Casa del Habano, his family, Magali de la Cruz from Sautters and a few other cigar aficionados from London, including the master Simon Chase of Hunters & Frankau, for the V AMICIgar day!

 

This was an event organised by the AMICIgar club of Naples and Avellino, in Italy. For the non-italians amongst you, the name of the club is a play on the words "amici" (friends") and cigar... The event was in Pozzuoli, by Naples, in Villa Habiba on 17th and 18th June. It was truly an amazing weekend, filled with great cigars, awesome food and fantastic people!

As you can see, the Villa where the event was held was absolutely beautiful!

Here is Magali - the two of us got a 6am plane on the day to be in Naples on time for the event! what you don't do for cigars! :)

The "cultural" part of the event included a sampling of a "Tacos Imperiales H. Upmann" coupled with Moet & Chandon Magnum Grand Vintage Collection 1990 - see picture below.

Simon Chase and Angelo Bigi provided their views on the cigar - a 2006 release in only 200 humidours. The cigar was good, quite peppery but overall medium bodied, not necessarily my favorite. It was complemented very well by the champagne though!

The sampling was followed by a great dinner on the same evening with drinks and dancing to the tunes of live cuban music! In the pictures you can see Simon Chase, Ajay and Alex Iapichino having a good time - like the rest of us!

The day after was also full of surprises - which I will report on in a following blog post!

 Thanks again to the AMICIgar club for organising such a phenomenal event - thanks in particular to Gino and Antonio - in the picture above! And to their whole team!

Roller!

I stopped by Ajay's La Casa del Habano in Teddington on Saturday and, to my surprise, Yoel Ulacia Diaz was custom rolling cigars in the shop. Yoel has been in the UK for a couple of months already demonstrating the art of cigar rolling around the UK, showcased by Hunters and Frankau.

Yoel is a 9th grade roller - the highest ranking you can achieve - and currently is a Master of Quality Control at the Partagas factory. And of course he definitively knows how to roll good cigars... Some of his goods are shown in the picture below

I tasted a freshly rolled puro while in Teddington and I can say they have a very distinctive taste, with a coffee flavour small to my palate and a hint of mint. 

Here is Yoel at work. If you want to see directly, next week he will be at Sautter's, in Mount Street, Mayfair, London - worth a visit to take a look and sample!

Have been out of touch but have a lot to report on from a trip in Italy, at the V Amicigar Day in Naples, organised by the local club (pictures already available on facebook) and a week holiday in Hong Kong!