A well aged cigar

[Aristide]

Allow me to pose a very ignorant question.
Should the aging take place inside a humidor or outside?

No question is ignorant, Luca. It should happen inside a humidor, in the box in your wine cellar or in the box in the humidor.
When you live in a tropical climate, such as Cuba itself, or Thailand, you might not need a humidor for cigar storage. On the other hand, the humidor will provide stable humidity even in those climates - which would help ageing.
If a cigar is kept outside a humidor in a dry climate, you can in most cases sort of save it by putting it back to the humidor for a couple of weeks. In the earlier days of the 20th century, it was common practice to keep the big stock in the wine cellar at stable conditions (this is important), and taken to a small humidor at least 2 months before smoking. Cigars will suffer when drying out completely or when stored in unstable conditions.

What is the minimum amount of aging that is likely to make a difference?

In my experience, this largely depends on the cigar. That experience is based on Cuban cigars only, knowing that tobacco quality varies from year to year, and only really grand cigars deserve ageing. The quality will not differ as much as European red wines, but there are distinctive differences the connaisseur will spot. You can talk of ageing from 3 years after purchasing, but it is getting interesting after 5 years. Not all cigars mature at the same speed, and you should be particularly attentive during European summer months (August in particular) when the cigars are having "fever" (quoting Zino Davidoff). A grand cigar well stored will stay in shape for many many years and likely survive most of us.

May be there is another limitation to what I'm saying. I smoke strictly cigars type colorado-maduro or maduro, because I find the claro and doble claro types less interesting. I was told by experienced men of the trade that claro and doble claro types should be smoked immediately or after 12 months latest. Unfortunately, most of the savvy connaisseurs in the trade are dead or have closed their shops - these were typical discussion topics I used to have with experienced cigar sales people. Today, I would suggest you figure it out, by keeping good stock in good conditions over time.

I hope this helps a little.

cheers, david

NEVER in the wine cellar. Conditions favour long-term wine storage (cool and dry), but definitely not the leaf (relatively warm and humid.) To be avoided.

[jwh]

Do any LL members have any other personal favorite cigars? I'm quite partial to the Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial, but I'm curious about other recommendations.

I am a Hoyo de Monterrey fan as well. (Epicure 2 Cabinet)

Cheers

I am also a great fan of Hoyo de Monterrey. At the bottom of my jacket pockets you will always find a couple of Petit Robustos and an Epicure No. 2. It's good to be prepared. I can think of no better cigar for the man about town than the Petit Robusto, in terms of taste, size, and price. Another excellent but smaller cigar is the Ramon Allones Small Club Corona.

[davidhuh]

NEVER in the wine cellar. Conditions favour long-term wine storage (cool and dry), but definitely not the leaf (relatively warm and humid.) To be avoided.

Dear Aristide,

I was just saying what people with decent wine cellars did in the past and in the absence of modern humidors. I happen to have one of those. The temperature is stable, never too warm, but never dry. There is natural soil in an old house and no heating. Of course, my cigars sit safely in a humidor.

Cheers, David

[alden]

Here is an Elie Bleu 110 cigar humidor



It has not had water added in nearly two months and maintains an even 70 degrees humidity:



And here are some lovelies ready to go, including a few vintage H de Monterrey 2001, 2003 and 2004. They will be nice.



As far as humidors are concerned, the ideal configuration is an EB 300 for long term storage out of box, a 110 EB for the desktop to hold those cigars that are ready, and a few large Rubbermaid containers with a CREDO humidifier to hold boxes of cigars for long term storage.

Cheers

Michael

[Gilles Deleuze]

I completely forgot that I had posted about humidors and favorite cigars. Thanks, Michael, for the humidor recommendation. The Elie Bleu seems lovely and, most importantly, idiotproof. I will have to take a look at one in person next time I am in Paris.

Also, what is the Vegas Robaina cigar in the picture above? I tried a VR Clasico and liked it very much.

I will be in London in November where I will be able to try out some new cigars. Hopefully a Trinidad Fundadores and some aged Partagas.

[alden]

Gilles

It is a VR robusto. I very much like VR as a brand. But I have found over the years that their quality can be inconsistent. The make is excellent always but they can be very green at times...asparagus.

My go to brand is H de Monterrey because I do not have to open the box before purchasing because I know they will be good. I also prefer medium bodied cigars and both VR and HdM fall in that category. These days I have trouble with the heavier smokes like Punch, Partagas or Bolivar. There is too much nicotine for me. I can turn green myself pretty fast.

Trinidad is another medium bodied cigar. The Fundadores is excellent but so is the entire range. If you like this style of smoke, try San Luis Rey, Sancho Panza (Coronas Gigantes), Juan Lopez and Ramon Allones.

I looked at a lot of humidors over the years and have never regretted getting my Elie Bleus.

Cheers