As we near the end of the year, the top ten lists for every new product inevitably follow. While many smokers take the words of Cigar Aficionado as gospel, some aren’t aware of its sister publications Wine Spectator and Whiskey Advocate. Recently, Wine Spectator put out its top ten list for 2021. The top spot went to the Dominus Estate 2018, a limited edition vintage whose brilliance came as a miracle during a drought year.
Built by longtime wine creator, Christian Moueix, the Dominus is said to be a culmination of his fifty years of experience. Described by the experts at Wine Spectator as “tightly packed, with sleek, pure, driven notes of cassis, plum reduction and blackberry puree allied to an iron spine, while subtle alder, juniper, sweet bay leaf, and tobacco notes peek in throughout. Very fine-grained, but impressively sturdy in feel, with a long, lingering note of iron piercing the finish.”
One masterpiece deserves another. It didn’t take us long to decide the ideal pairing for the Dominus Estate 2018 would be 2020’s own cigar of the year: the EP Carrillo Pledge. For those who haven’t tasted the immaculate wonders of the EP Carrillo, Cigar Aficionado said it best when they said “the E.P. Carrillo Pledge Prequel is a delicious smoke that delivers flavor in bold, zesty parcels of spicy oak, licorice, black cherry, and black pepper….when you think you’ve tasted all the cigar has to offer, a warm, familiar note of baked apple settles across the palate. That performance alone is what sent the cigar straight to the top of the list.”
Do you have a favorite wine and cigar pairing? Let us know in the comments!
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It’s the most wonderful time of year once again, where families and friends gather, warm regards are given, and gifts are joyously exchanged. No matter what you celebrate this festive season, we’ve selected just the right presents for that picky cigar lover in your life!
Arturo Fuente Casa Cuba Ashtray
To kickstart a smoking session, you need three things: a cutter, a lighter, and a place to ash the cigar. As it happens, we have all three on this list, starting with this vibrantly decorative Arturo Fuente Casa Cuba ashtray. A colorful addition to any collection, this lovely ashtray is emblazoned with the Arturo Fuente logo and makes a perfect combination gift with one of their trademark cigars. Buy here.
Romeo y Julieta Miami Deco Travel Humidor
Mike’s Cigars is proud to be the home of the new Miami Deco line of cigars, as we were founded right here in The Magic City! In addition to five deliciously spicy Romeo Y Julieta Miami Deco, whoever revives this gift will have a working humidor they can take anywhere! Buy here.
Vertigo Big Buddha Quad Torch Lighter with Punch
Vertigo has been doing amazing things with lighters in recent years, continually surpassing their own standards with new technology. The Big Buddha is one of their best offerings, sporting four instantly sparking flames and a built-in punch cutter to instantly light any cigar. Buy here.
My Father Humidor Deluxe – Pepin Garcia 70th Birthday Limited Edition Humidor
The absolute pinnacle of refined smoking, this top-of-the-line humidor comes fully stocked with over one hundred specially designed cigars that can’t be found anywhere else. An excellent choice for any long-time collector or fan of high-end, luxury boutique cigars. Buy here.
Montecristo White Toro Cigars Whiskey Gift Set
What would whiskey be without cigars? What would cigars be without whiskey? Include a bottle of something nice, and whoever gets this gift set won’t have to answer either question. Our personal recommendation, a bottle of Maker’s Mark Whiskey compliments the creamy flavors of the Montecristo White. Buy here.
Montecristo Toro Sampler
Montecristo is one of the signature cigar brands. Ask someone on the street to name a cigar, and chances are they’ll come up with either a Macanudo, a Cohiba, or a Montecristo. This Sampler has twelve of their best sticks all arranged for your perusal. The ideal gift for any fan of the Montecristo line. Buy here.
Cohiba Wood Ashtray with Cigars
Cohiba is for many, the quintessential name in cigars. This classical wooden ashtray comes with five of Cohiba’s world-famous Robustos, as well as an organized wooden ashtray with a detachable tray and drawer to store cutters and lighters. Perfect for smokers who value authenticity. Buy here.
Oliva Serie V Variety Sampler
If you’ve never smoked an Oliva, you don’t know what you’re missing. The modern gold standard in premium cigars, any aficionado will appreciate this sumptuous sampler of their most superb smokes. Coming in five distinct vitolas, whoever receives this sampler will be taken on a journey by its distinctive, award-winning blend. Buy here.
Rocky Patel Lighter Envoy 5 Torch Lighter
A sleek marvel of engineering, the Rocky Patel Envoy 5 Torch Lighter can spark up a cigar in even the harshest of circumstances. Wind-resistant, with a built-in punch cutter and clear fuel window, and perfectly sized to fit in your pocket, the cigar lover in your life will love this A+ grade lighter. Buy here.
Davidoff Gift Selection Robusto
Davidoff is the brand that helped redefine luxury in the cigar world, and this sampler is all the proof you need, Each Robusto is a work of tobacco blended art, having scored high marks from the critics at Cigar aficionado every time. This gift selection is practically guaranteed to put a smile on whoever receives it. Buy here.
Looking where to buy cigars? Mike’s delivers near and far!
It’s not very often that a cigar release has something mysterious about it. Every brand is quick to brag about the blend they’ve created, the origins of its tobacco, and the flavors it provides. This makes it all the more tantalizing that the White Label has a blend whose origins will never be fully known!
If you’ve ever smoked a cigar you know the name, Rocky Patel. One of the survivors of the cigar boom of the ’90s, Rocky Patel’s quality is only outmatched by its variety and the Rocky Patel White Label is no exception. Sporting luscious Nicaraguan and Honduran tobacco that’s been aged ten years, and a smooth Connecticut wrapper, the White Label’s real draw is what it doesn’t divulge.
The White Label is a truly one-of-a-kind smoke, and it’s very much by design. In addition to its decade-aged tobacco, its blend has a secret third strain of tobacco! This might be the first time a major cigar brand has kept part of its stick’s construction under wraps, and with good reason. Fearing imitators, Rocky Patel has taken great pains to keep its blend confidential. Only the master rollers know what’s really in the blend, that mysterious x-factor that combines to make its mix’s flavor more than the sum of its parts.
We’ve got some experienced aficionados here at Mike’s Cigars, with decades of tobacco experience under their belts. But no one has come close to guessing the White Label’s secret ingredient. Think you can figure it out? Try it for yourself!
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We’re proud to announce the arrival of the cigar event of the year, the Oliva Serie V Melanio Edicion Limitada 2021. For the past few years, Oliva has treated smokers to a limited release of a new Serie V Melanio. Each one with a unique size and selling point, its newest release is maybe its best one yet.
The new Oliva Serie V Melanio Limited Edition cigars
This bold new addition to the line of cigars once awarded Cigar of the Year by Cigar Aficionado proves the same Full-bodied, critically acclaimed tastes that smokers know and love, but with the twist of a rounded shape rather than its predecessor’s box-pressed shape. In addition to its new shape, the Edicion Limitada 2021 gets straight to the flavor with a NuB inspired size of four inches and a sixty ring gauge.
Only three thousand boxes worldwide are being produced, with ten cigars per box, so pre-order now before they’re all gone!
Looking where to buy cigars? Mike’s delivers near and far!
Even someone who’s only remotely familiar with cigars has heard the name, Rocky Patel. It has become synonymous with premium cigars and created some of the most renowned smokes to ever grace the public. To commemorate the sixtieth birthday of its illustrious founder, the company has created the equally illustrious Rocky Patel Sixty.
Rakesh “Rocky” Patel’s story with tobacco starts at the peak of the 90’s cigar boom. Already a successful entertainment lawyer, Patel began to notice that many of his A-list clients had become cigar smokers. Curious, Patel started to smoke himself and soon became a full-fledged aficionado. His newfound passion began to dominate his life, and even as he enjoyed cigars, Patel smelled opportunity when he was approached by a manufacturer about starting a new brand. Despite friends and family warning him against changing careers, Patel boldly dove full-speed into the industry. His zeal paid off, as Rocky Patel managed to be one of the few surviving brands to emerge from the cigar boom. Today it’s considered one of the most trusted and innovative brands on the planet.
The Man, the Myth, the Legend. Rakesh Patel.
At sixty years old, Patel is just as much the pioneer and enthusiast he was when smoking his first cigar. As a gift to him and all of us, Rocky Patel has brought us The Sixty. Built from tobacco aged six years before even being rolled, then aged an additional two years to allow its flavor to reach its full potential. Smokers can expect a pleasing, medium to full-bodied experience with the lovingly crafted tastes of caramel, espresso, and coffee bean on the draw. Due to popular demand, Rocky Patel has recently released a one hundred cigar humidor fully stocked with Sixty Toros.
Tried the Rocky Patel Sixty, what’d you think? Let us know in the comments.
Looking where to buy cigars? Mike’s delivers near and far!
Fall is finally upon us, bringing with it all the splendor the season entails. The leaves are changing color, the temperature reaches a crisp and refreshing level, there’s a charming aurora that simply abounds in the entire season. Despite how lovely the autumn times may feel, like all things in life, they can still be improved with a cigar.
That’s why we’re naming the H Upmann Connecticut Churchill our cigar of the Fall! It was a tough decision, we had to go through a lot of cigars to finally settle on the H Upmann Connecticut. Then we had to smoke all sizes of the H Upmann Connecticut to narrow it down to the Churchill. A noble sacrifice, we know, but that’s our level of commitment to our customers!
What put the H Upmann Connecticut over the top was its unique blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco. Whatever mysterious x-factor goes into its creation the results complement everything wonderful about the Fall season. The silky-smooth Connecticut wrapper brings to mind the gorgeous symphony of colors the foliage brings, but unlike most Connecticuts it has enough a bite that it adds to the cool embrace of that autumn breeze.
As for size, we chose the Churchill because the H Upmann Connecticut is the kind of cigar you never want to end. So the answer is to get the most amount of the cigar you can in a single stick!
Do you have a favorite cigar this season? Let us know in the comments!
Looking where to buy cigars? Mike’s delivers near and far!
We all know how a real cigar collection starts. You stock up for a weekend, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll last. You get a little more, but now your humidor is too small to store them all. So you buy a bigger humidor, but doesn’t it look a little empty? Better fill it so you’re not caught off guard. Pretty soon you’ve got yourself a full-fledged collection beyond any smoker’s wildest dream.
Cigar collecting isn’t simply about having enough to smoke when the mood strikes you. It’s about appreciation, preservation, the rich history inside every single stogie. Much like art collecting, it’s about appreciating the passion that went into making them and the larger-than-life personas who make them, just as much as the final product itself. But like any widespread activity, competition naturally arises. Someone always has to be the best, and when it comes to cigar collecting, there can only be one.
Alex Wong started collecting cigars after his father introduced him to them, but the Hong Kong resident soon turned it into his passion. Now boasting over five thousand boxes to his name, Alex Wong has the undisputed largest personal cigar collection on Earth. His personal full-scale humidor is described as the size of a large cigar shop, along with a luxury smoking room that sports a matching array of fine art and wine. Wong himself is a longtime aficionado, once saying in his college days he’d go through five or six a day. To this day he still smokes and adds to his already impressive collection.
Every aficionado has had that moment where a character from TV or film sparks up what just happens to be their favorite brand. It’s a moment of odd joy and connection to whatever character happens to be smoking, and we can’t help but project those positive qualities the character possesses onto ourselves. The bravery, the aurora of intelligence, and danger that cigar smokers in the media always seem to have. With so many great cigar moments, we had to whittle things down to perhaps the four best known in the entirety of media, then find out what particular stogies were used.
Independence Day
No one was prepared for the juggernaut of culture that Independence Day would become, or how disappointing its sequel would be twenty years later. But let’s forget about the underwhelming Independence Day: Resurgence, and focus on one of the most iconic scenes in all of history. Captain Steven Hiller takes down an alien ship, goes to investigate the crash, and when the Alien jumps out Smith land a powerful punch while shouting “Welcome to Earth!”. Doing what any red-blooded American does after punching an Alien, he lights up a cigar. Not just any cigar, a Bering Imperial. A creamy, mellow perfect for relaxing after beating up an extra-terrestrial.
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Scarface
The Quintessential crime movie, and one of Al Pacino’s best performances to date, Scarface has stood the test of time. In no small part to its fascinating and well-written protagonist, Tony Montana. Montana’s rise and fall are played with empathy and fire, to the point, we can’t help but admire his chutzpah. We had to do some digging for this one since no cigar Tony smokes has a label on it. The popular fan theory is that Montana, being a former Cuban soldier, exclusively smoked Cohiba brand cigars as they were often given out to soldiers by the Cuban government.
The Sopranos
What list of famous cigar smokers would be complete without Tony Soprano? The boss who defined premium drama for the new millennium, and won over audiences with his ruthless ambition and surprising vulnerability. It was the complex characterization that truly made The Sopranos a hit, and Tony was often seen smoking a premium Churchill cigar, a trait he shared with the actor who portrayed him, the late, great James Gandolfini. Gandolfini has gone on record saying Tony Sopranos enjoyed all manner of CAO cigars. Clearly a man of taste!
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James Bond
As we’ve written before, James Bond is easily the greatest cigar smoker in cinematic history. The first iteration to spark up a stogie was Roger Moore’s Bond, who actually smoked because the actor demanded it. On film, he was often seen with a fine Montecristo. The trend continued with Pierce Brosnan, perhaps keeping in style for the cigar boom of the time. Brosnan’s Bond was seen smoking a crisp Romeo Y Julieta in what was easily one of his most iconic scenes in Die Another Day.
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Do you have any brands in common with a famous tv/movie smoker? Let us know in the comments!
Looking where to buy cigars? Mike’s delivers near and far!
September will soon be upon us, officially ending the summer of 2021. What a summer it has been! After the unending torrent of suffering that was 2020, 2021 finally offered the opportunity to go outside and enjoy the sunshine without fear of disease, murder hornets, or being bombarded with political ads.
As any aficionado knows, summer offers the perfect opportunity to take in the majesty of nature while also taking in the debatably greater majesty of a prime stogie. But which will you smoke? That’s the type of dilemma you want to have. Everyone has their own preferences, but we believe we’ve simplified the process. After sampling a bevy of premium smoke (God I love this job!) were proud to declare the Alec Bradley Gatekeeper as our Cigar of the Summer.
Fans of premium smokes will no doubt remember that the Alec Bradley Gatekeeper was rated #7 on Cigar Aficionado’s top 25 of the year, with the respected publication writing “When Rubin brothers Alec and Bradley decided to follow in their father’s footsteps and start making cigars of their own, we were admittedly a little skeptical. But here we are with the Alec & Bradley Gatekeeper Robusto making an auspicious appearance on our list at No. 7—not too bad for a couple of blending rookies. Then again, they did get a little help from industry veteran Ernesto Perez-Carrillo who makes the cigar in the Dominican Republic. Ultimately, the Gatekeeper is a collaboration between Perez-Carrillo and the young Rubins.
The project gave Alec and Bradley the opportunity to not only learn from Perez-Carrillo but to gain some experience with Dominican tobacco. “We are a part of the next generation of the premium cigar business,” says Bradley, “and Ernesto is a legend.”
The Gatekeeper finds synergy and balance with its backbone of pepper (both red and black), nougat, and caramel that’s spicy in the right places, sweet in the right places, and pops with savory snaps of leather.
The band depicts the mythical head of Medusa, which is part of the famous bronze statue Perseus With the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini. We’re not exactly sure how that ties into the cigar or the story behind it, but we know that this collaboration points to an encouraging future in the business for the brothers Rubin.”
What more can be said about this exemplary cigar? The only thing left is to spark it up, take a draw, and let its flavors take you away.
Looking where to buy cigars? Mike’s delivers near and far!
Steak and cigars? Sure. Cigars and whiskey? Yes, please! But cigars and fish? Don’t knock it till you try it! In our continuing effort to find the best possible cigar combos, we did a little experimentation over the past weekend. The results will absolutely surprise you.
Now everyone has their own personal tastes, but for similar results, we do recommend trying to do something similar to our process. First things first, I prefer a salmon fillet. Much easier to cook and find than a whole fish. When picking one at a supermarket, try to give it a small poke to see how the flesh reacts. It should spring back and not leave an indentation, this indicates it’s still fresh. It should have a vibrant orange or reddish hue, with no strong odors.
Image Source: Cooking Illustrated
Once you have your fish, using a chopping block, season with kosher salt, ground pepper, minced garlic, with slight amounts of soy sauce and honey. Pan fry with butter until it reaches your desired level of doneness, careful not to undercook! Enjoy!
Now that you had your savory, sweet and salty salmon. It’s time to light up. But what will complement the unique properties of fish? We thought long and hard on this one but eventually settled on the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Signature. The Signature was the right size to keep the flavors afloat for its duration without overwhelming them. Its medium strength gives it a fighting chance against the honey and garlic from the salmon, which is synergized with the notes of brown sugar and spices from the Signature. The whole experience leaves you full and incredibly content.
image source: Stogie Guys
Do you have a favorite cigar pairing? Let us know in the comments!
Looking where to buy cigars? Mike’s delivers near and far!
