montecristo

Ten Champagne and Cigar Pairings for the Holiday Season

Filed under: Cigars, Wine

Nothing compares to the perfect pairing of champagne and a cigar. Too often, cigars wind up with dark liquors, their natural partners. Rum, port, scotch and cognac are the norm for an after-dinner smoke -- not champagne. With the holiday season coming, of course, the preferred beverage will likely bubble, so finding the right cigars for the top libation will be crucial.

Fortunately, Vin Lee, CEO of the Beverly Hills Cigar Club, has agreed to help us out. As you prepare for the new year, take a look at the cigar and champagne pairings that he recommends, with both ubiquitous and rare products on the list. Lee says, "In this day and age, not everyone can afford a $50 cigar and a $300 bottle of champagne," said Lee. "Complementing a wonderful glass of champagne with a great cigar for the holidays is something everyone should be able to enjoy."

BHCC's 2010 Top 10 Champagne and Cigar Pairings are:

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What Happens to Cuban Brands Post-Embargo?

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

The biggest problem with access to Cuba may not be production capacity, as many suspect. Trademark and copyright issues have the potential to be a greater problem, and there is no easy solution.

You've probably noticed that brands such as Partagas, Montecristo and Cohiba occupy your local tobacconist's humidor. A saunter through a duty free store at any airport outside the United States will put the same names under your nose. Of course, these cigars have nothing to do with each other. The latter are Cuban, the former are not and the companies have no relationships. Cohibas in the United States are not the "non-Cuban" or "legal" versions of a single company's product.

General Cigar Co. Inc., for example, sells Cohiba cigars in the United States. Cohiba is also a prominent Cuban brand. Unfortunately, Habanos S.A. never registered the name up here. Habanos sued General Cigar, and a nine-year battle followed. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Habanos (shocking, right?), reasoning that the embargo barred a challenge to General Cigar's claim.

When the embargo is lifted, there will be more legal challenges, and several companies will have to change their names and labels – ultimately requiring the reconstruction of brand identities from scratch. Winning the brand battles will have profound consequences. For this reason, General Cigar has "invested" close to $3.5 million on lobbyists over the past 10 years.

As with all other Cuba-related speculation, there is no way to forecast where this issue will go in a post-embargo market. Even if we assume that the Cuban brands will lose their claims, the impact on the market would be nearly impossible to predict. What we do know, however, is that the transition will be far from easy.

Source

Tags: cigar, cigars, cohiba, cuba, cuban, cuban cigar, cuban cigars, cuban embargo, CubanCigar, CubanCigars, CubanEmbargo, duty free, DutyFree, embargo, humidor, humidors, montecristo, tobacco, tobacco industry, TobaccoIndustry

Cuban Cigar Sales Down, Bad Decisions Averted

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

Why are sales of Cuban cigars down? The minute the subprime mortgage crisis turned global, of course, demand had no place to go but down. And, there's always the quality issue that has plagued manufacturers in recent years. So far, the damage hasn't been bad.

Habanos S.A., which makes the storied Montecristo, Cohiba and Partagas brands, moved $390 million in 2008. That's a drop of 3 percent from 2007. The company, a joint venture involving the Cuban government and Altadis, says that this hasn't affected profits significantly.

Unsurprisingly, Habanos blames smoking bans in France, Germany and the United Emirates (among others) in addition to the financial crisis. If you can't find a place to smoke, you aren't likely to do it as much (a trial I endured in Scotland last year).

But, economic conditions are still the main event, particularly when you consider the secondary effects.

International travel took a dive last year ... to the tune of 11 percent. What's that mean? American cigar dilettantes weren't able to piss away as much on Cuban sticks as they may have in the past. Duty free shops thus moved fewer cigars than usual, with total sales in these venues down 24 percent from 2007 to 2008.

Despite the slip in sales and claims that profitability isn't seriously impaired, Habanos isn't optimistic about the future. On the subject of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, typically a favorite topic of speculation, the company would only say that it has "much worse problems to deal with in the world."

[Via Latin American Herald Tribune, photo by Steve Zak]

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Carnegie Club Selects "Cigars of Summer"

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars, Spirits

The Carnegie Club, one of Manhattan's only cigar/cocktail lounges to survive the draconian smoking ban in style, is celebrating the onset of warmer weather with a "Cigars of Summer" selection specifically tailored to New York fat cats who head out of town on the weekends. The club's "Summer Beach Pack," for $45, includes three light, creamy robusto cigars, an Avo Classic Robusto, Fonseca Vintage Robusto, and Romeo y Julieta Exhibition #3, all of which are specially chosen to suit strolling the sands. The "Hamptons Weekend Pack," for $125, consists of a Montecristo #2, Greycliff Château Grand Cru Pirate, and a Davidoff Anniversario #3, all high-end smokes suited to the pricey vacation spot. The Carnegie Club is part of Mark Grossich's sophisticated cocktail lounge empire, which includes the amazing Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Station, one of our favorite spaces in all of New York.

Gallery: Carnegie Club & Summer Smokes