NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2023
5
TO TRY
California Reds
DIAM OND p. 33
Girl p. 42
HOLIDAY Gift Guide p. 24
Dion Giolito
THE MAN BEHIND ILLUSIONE
p. 74
DISPLAY UNTIL 01/08/2024
editorials NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2023
24 GIFT GUIDE Santa Claus is wondering, ‘what up?’ Here’s your answer, with some of the latest gear and gadgets for your gift list, from book to backpack, cutter to clothing.
28 BRAND BREAKDOWN ROCKY PATEL DBS
30 BRAND BREAKDOWN VILLIGER TAA EXCLUSIVO 2023
33 5 TO TRY - CALIFORNIA REDS We have five primo reds from California’s Sonoma County and Napa Valley to match with five of the best cigars going. We find and describe the history of the wines, their strengths and flavor profiles but in the end, we make sure your palate is pleased.
34 PAUL HOBBS CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2018 COOMBSVILLE/ PADRÓN 1964 ANNIVERSARY SERIES
35 DUCKHORN THREE PALMS VINEYARD MERLOT 2020/ PLASENCIA ALMA DEL FUEGO
36 EIGHT YEARS IN THE DESERT 2021/ OLIVA SERIE V MELANIO
38 FLOWERS SEA VIEW RIDGE PINOT NOIR 2021/ ROCKY PATEL WHITE LABEL
40 TITUS CABERNET FRANC 2021/
AGANORSA LEAF ANIVERSARIO
74 DION ILLUSIONE The rangy fellow from Reno tells us of his early love of cigars, a brush with rock ‘n roll fame, his embrace of conspiracy “theories” along with his vindication and his steadfast love of everything tobacco.
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features NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2023
14 LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
16 FEEDBACK
18 WHAT’S BURNIN’
42 SMOKING HOT CIGAR SNOB QUEEN OF DIAMONDS FEATURING MONTECRISTO 1935 ANNIVERSARY EDICION DIAMANTE
57 RATINGS
82 X SCOREBOARD
84 INSTAGRAM SCOREBOARD
86 EVENTS 86 CIGAR DOJO BLOCK PARTY WITH CAMACHO CIGARS
88 ROCKY MOUNTAIN CIGAR FESTIVAL 90 GET TOGETHER INTERTABAC 91 VCF FRIENDS AND FAMILY DINNER 94 TAMPA CIGAR BASH 98 CIGAR SMOKING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
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WE DELIVER A DIVERSE COLLECTION OF SOME DISTINCTIVE GIFTS FOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON. THIS YEAR HAS SEEN ESCALATED CONSUMER SPENDING, AND BRANDS HAVE STEPPED UP THEIR GAME. OUTDOOR-FRIENDLY TECH, FASHIONABLE ATHLETIC WEAR, WATERPROOF AND LIGHTWEIGHT OUTDOOR GEAR AND TECH, FINELY CRAFTED CIGAR ACCESSORIES, WEARABLE MUSCLE SOOTHERS, AND ILLUMINATING READING MATERIAL PRESENT SOME BIG CHOICES, ALTHOUGH WE SUGGEST AN “I’LL HAVE ONE OF EACH” APPROACH.
GIFT GUIDE
THE GUARDIAN P-38 LIGHTNING LUMINOX X VOLITION AMERICA volitionamerica.com
$695 A watch series that is inspired by the navy blue uniforms of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, this is the newest member of the Luminox X Volition collection. The dial and band take on the color of the sentinels at the Arlington National Cemetery, with the dial accented by gold numerals and indices, just like the uniforms. A portion of each sale goes to Folds of Honor, a group that supports the families of fallen or disabled military and first responders.
COR SURF 25L WATERPROOF DRY BACKPACK corsurf.com
A PASSION FOR WHISKY octopusbooks.co.uk
$74.99
$29.99
When you land in some deep water with a backpack strapped on, you’ll want it to float. The COR Surf 25L has got you covered on the pack; you’ll have to handle the rest. This bag features a padded laptop sleeve, industrially welded seams, mesh side pockets, and a reflective strip for nighttime identification. We’re particularly enamored of the 2.2-pound weight and relatively small size, which tops out at 18 vertical inches and 13 inches wide.
Subtitled “How the tiny Scottish island of Islay creates malts that captivate the world,” author Ian Wisniewski dutifully profiles each of Islay’s 13 distilleries, a place considered a mecca for lovers of malt whiskies. Wisniewski is also the author of “The Whiskey Dictionary,” and “Classic Malt Whiskey” and an accomplished spirits ambassador and drink writer. Tasting notes, tips for tasting techniques, and a detailed glossary round out the 250 pages of his latest.
EMBER CIGAR PURSE jcnewman.com
$95 This is where the Vegas lounge singer says, “This is a little something for the ladies.” For real, the Ember Cigar Purse is for cigar-smoking women, designed by women. It has a pleasing, simple aesthetic edge with a black crocodile pattern. But it’s also functional, as it contains a case that fits neatly inside and holds three cigars. The package is completed with closed compartments for cutter and lighter, credit card slots, and a bit more room for more.
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ROBUSTO
ROCKY PATEL DBS COUNTRY
Nicaragua
WRAPPER
Mexico
BINDER
Nicaragua & USA
FILLER
Nicaragua & Honduras
PRICE
$20.00 - $23.00
FACTORY
Tabacalera Villa Cuba S.A.
Rocky Patel President of Rocky Patel Premium Cigars The DBS, which stands for Double Broadleaf Selection, is an anomaly in the cigar market. It employs a San Andres wrapper and two broadleaf binders; these are also thick leaves. Typically when a blender is planning on using a thick wrapper tobacco, like San Andres, they will enlist the help of a thinner, faster burning leaf for the binder to ensure good combustion. You guys not only didn’t choose a thin leaf for the binder, but you used double broadleaf binders! How were you and your team able to make that happen and what does it bring to this blend? I have to give a lot of respect to Amilcar Peréz Castro, who is my partner at the factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. He does a fantastic, fantastic job of curing and fermenting the tobacco. He’s got so many family members that he’s brought over from Cuba; they’re running our farms now in Estelí and Condega.
AVAILABLE IN 3 SIZES
Like you mentioned, it is a very thick leaf. We have a Nicaraguan broadleaf and a Pennsylvania broadleaf as binders in that blend, on top of which we have a San Andres wrapper, and it’s a higher priming wrapper. So you’ve got three thick leaves and there’s really no seco in it, there’s viso. So when you actually spend a lot of time fermenting the tobacco and curing the tobacco, you can see how well that cigar burns. You know, it’s gotten rid of all the nitrogen, the boron, the potassium, the magnesium, all that fertilizer, so it took a lot of time in the curing and fermentation. And that’s the beauty of that cigar,
it’s rich, it’s decadent but it’s also velvety and smooth because of the aging. And you get so much flavor from the broadleaf. I mean, one of the hardest tobacco leaves to get right now is broadleaf as you know, so to have that with the Mexican San Andres is amazing. We’ve loved the DBS but there’s another cigar that we’ve been able to taste samples of that has really blown our minds. Can you tell us about Conviction, the new luxury project coming out of your company? We’re really proud of this project. We wanted to showcase luxurylifestyle, which is really what this beautiful industry is about. You know, it’s a cottage industry, the amount of art and passion that goes in all the way from the farm to the curing and into fermentation, and on to the craftsmanship of the cigars. We wanted to showcase it to the world. We started our own farms in 2014, in Estelí and Condega. And I recently happened to go down there while we were doing inventory because we’re building a new factory. By the time we were done with inventory, I counted 18,697 bales of tobacco. Now, these are bales that have already gone through the fermentation process, they’re just aging. This doesn’t include all of the pilónes that we have in three different buildings. During that process I came across some 2014 bales and I said to Amilcar, “How can we still have those?” “Well,” he said, “I’ve been saving this for some special projects.” So we literally took that tobacco and we had some of the old San Andres wrapper, which we love, and we tried to get it as close to the tercios process that they have in Cuba. We didn’t have the palms but basically we took that technology and did it in a box with the fermentation. Then we took the best four rollers that we had, teams of two, limited them to 250 cigars a day. We used the tobacco from Estelí and Condega, from these bales and made blends. This is like going back, I’ve been working on it for a year and a half. We made like 78 blends, came down to three and couldn’t decide. It was the 5th box-pressed. 13th round, 15th round, and going back and forth, back and forth. Anyway, I ended up choosing the box-press. The cigar was just so rich and I was worried it might be a little too strong but after it’s been sitting, it’s really smooth. And it’s mellowed and it’s balanced. So we’re excited about the project and we wanted it to scream luxury, kind of like Louis Vuitton.
SWEET
Robusto 5 1/2 x 50
Toro 6 x 52
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Sixty 6 x 60
CHOCOLATE
NUT
EARTH
CREAM
WOOD
COFFEE
SPICE
LITTO GOMEZ L A F LO R D O M I N I C A N A
T RY B OV E DA .CO M @bovedainc
@bovedainc
@bovedausa
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CALIFORNIA REDS
RUNNING NORTH ALONG THE PACIFIC.
CALIFORNIA DOES WINE BIGGER THAN ANYWHERE ELSE.
AS RECENTLY AS THE EARLY 70S, CALIFORNIA WINE WAS PACKAGED MOSTLY IN GALLON JUGS, THE VESSELS WITH THE LITTLE LOOP ON THE SPOUT, PERFECT FOR CHEAP INDULGENCE BUT WIDELY DISMISSED BY THOSE SEEKING A MORE ELEVATED DRINK. THEN CAME THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS IN 1976, A BLIND TASTE TEST BEFORE A SOPHISTICATED PANEL THAT ENDED WITH TWO NAPA WINES BEATING ALL OTHERS. EUREKA! THE CALIFORNIA WINE INDUSTRY WAS BORN AND NEVER LOOKED BACK.
THE GOLDEN STATE’S 4,800 WINERIES ACCOUNT FOR 84% OF ALL WINE PRODUCED IN THE U.S., PRIMARILY IN NAPA VALLEY AND SONOMA COUNTY. SPANISH PRIEST JUNÍPERO SERRA PLANTED THE STATE’S FIRST VINEYARD AT HIS SAN DIEGO MISSION IN 1779. AS HE FOUNDED MORE MISSIONS, HE PLANTED VINES SPANNING 600 MILES OF VALLEY
by Gavin Maliska & Erik Calviño
FEATURING
MONTECRISTO 1935 ANNIVERSARY DIAMANTE EDITION
42 CIGARS
IT’S NOT YOUR IMAGINATION: ILLUSIONE FOUNDER DION GIOLITO IS A TRUE BELIEVER - IN TOBACCO BY STEVE MILLER