Cigar Aficionado November/December 2021

95 NICARAGUA TOP CHURCHILL OLIVA SERIE V MELANIO MADURO CHURCHILL The Oliva Cigar Co. just can’t go wrong with the Serie V. The core line consistently scores well, the Melanio has been named Cigar of the Year, and now the Melanio Maduro Churchill is an instant classic, leading the Churchill category. 95 NICARAGUA TOP GRANDE PADRÓN SERIE 1926 NO. 48 MADURO What was once a cigar made only for retail members of the Tobacconists’ Association of America is now a regular-production smoke. The No. 48 is also the biggest size in Padrón’s entire Serie 1926 brand, and it’s a blockbuster. 95 NICARAGUA TOP ROBUSTO PADRÓN FAMILY RESERVE NO. 50 Released to mark the 50th anniversary of Padrón’s time in the cigar business, the Family Reserve No. 50 keeps the celebration alive with this phenomenal high score. According to the company, the tobacco in this…

This issue begins with a story about one of our favorite actors, a man who stars in one of our favorite shows. Brian Cox can play just about any part: he’s the cool and calculating villain in the Bourne movies, the world’s most famous cigar smoker in Churchill, the learned uncle in Braveheart and the delightfully outmatched headmaster in Rushmore. Now he stars in “Succession,” the acclaimed HBO show about a business in which the family in charge plays for keeps. It returned for its third season on October 17. If you haven’t watched it yet, do it now. You won’t be disappointed. How one watches a show like “Succession” is far different than ever before, as the entertainment world has been utterly reshaped by the advent of digital streaming. When…

Dear Marvin, On behalf of the Cuban American Community of this country I want to congratulate you for the Editors’ Note of this edition [“Freedom of Speech,” September/October 2021]. As a Cuban immigrant with more than 20 years living in Kentucky I can say that freedom of speech was the most privileged gift I got/learned from this nation, something that I never had in my original country. Thank you for this blessing! We really appreciate your wishes for having a free and democratic Cuba soon. My best regards with a lot of gratitude, Luis David Fuentes Louisville, Kentucky Dear Marvin, I’ve been an avid reader of CIGAR AFICIONADO for 25 years and a subscriber for the past 20. I first heard of your magazine while listening to the late, great Rush Limbaugh those many years ago.…

When the American explorer and photographer Cory Richards made his third ascent of Mount Everest in 2019, he wore a special Overseas watch from Vacheron Constantin. The titanium-and-steel prototype, equipped with a dual-time function, served as the model for two new special “Everest” editions available to those with a taste for adventure—real or virtual. Both movements’ oscillating rotors stand out in high-contrast pink gold, engraved with a scene of Everest photographed by Richards during one of his expeditions. Overseas is Vacheron’s sportiest collection, easily identifiable by its notched six-sided bezel evoking the brand’s Maltese Cross emblem. The Everest pieces add a more casual and modern aesthetic to the line with the case, bezel, pushers and pusher guards in lightweight, robust titanium, bezel ring in steel, and a dark blue/gray matte dial…

The whisky arrives at the table in a velvet pouch with a woven ribbon. Inside is a small vial with half an ounce of the precious amber liquid, the most that can be spared to non-paying spirits mavens. Poured into a tulip glass, the bouquet of sweet sandalwood merely hints at what’s to come. On the lips, the flower blooms into a parade of fruit, comprising apple, cherry and sloe plums and mangos. Then comes cinnamon, tangerine, maple candy, toasted wood and marzipan. A half an hour later you are still sensing its vestiges and wondering if what you just drank could have been extremely old Cognac, or perhaps an ancient Armagnac? No, it was a single malt that managed all of that flavor. Namely, Yamazaki 55, a Japanese whisky…

In America, turkey may be the national holiday dish, but once you’re through stuffing your gullet with Thanksgiving fowl, it’s a welcome respite to look to that other feast meat—beef—come December’s holidays. And, whether you plan to feed an army with a standing rib roast or broil individual steaks for a smaller gathering, the way to take read meat to the concierge level is with Béarnaise sauce. It mightn’t be one of France’s five “mother sauces,” but this herb-laced take on Hollandaise is about the best favor you can do to a ribeye, or just about any, steak. Born in Paris (not the province of Béarn, as the name would suggest) in the 1830s, it’s a relative latecomer to the world of haute cuisine. It atones for being tardy with a…