Cigar Aficionado March/April 2022

TOP “A” FUENTE FUENTE OPUSX PERFECXION A They are rare sightings in the market, but these extra-long “A” sizes can be fantastic, and nothing impressed us more than this OpusX, which is made entirely from Dominican tobacco, inside and out. DOM. REP. 94 TOP ROBUSTO PADRÓN 1964 ANNIVERSARY SERIES PRINCIPE Smoking this cigar is like sipping a cup of cappuccino, and that’s partly why this complex Padrón scored so high. It tied for top robusto with a Cuban Por Larrañaga and Cuban Bolivar Royal Corona, a former Cigar of the Year. NICARAGUA 94 TOP TORO CASA MAGNA COLORADO ROBUSTO Made by the Plasencias in Nicaragua for Quesada Cigars in the Dominican Republic, this hearty smoke took the spotlight in 2008 when it was named Cigar of the Year. In this tasting, its star still burns brightly. NICARAGUA 94 TOP CHURCHILL MY FATHER LE BIJOU 1922 CHURCHILL The…

Just the other day I picked up the phone and called the God-father’s father, Francis Ford Coppola. I had one important question for him. I wanted to know how he felt today looking back 50 years to when he directed The Godfather. His answer?“It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, and it changed my life.” What he said immediately reminds us of one of the movie’s famous lines (“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,”) spoken by the Godfather himself, Don Vito Corleone, played masterfully by Marlon Brando, who won an Oscar for his performance. And just as that film changed Coppola’s life, it made an indelible mark on the American cinema landscape. It’s a movie that remains just as enduring and entertaining today as it was when it…

Dear Marvin, I just got my January/February issue and the cover looks great. I start flipping pages and I see yours and David’s editorial on New Zealand’s future tobacco ban [“A Ban Too Far”]. I have a permanent disability and winter is a tough time for me smoking my cigars in a relaxing venue. I have to tell you about a small shop in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, Frank’s Cigars, that is a favorite place of mine to buy and smoke cigars. Well, for more than a year he has not been able to open up his lounge for his customers, although he can sell cigars. So on those occasions when I dropped by to buy some smokes, I would ask him if he can open his lounge yet. Being a small…

Historically, knife cigar cutters that fold have come with foibles for a number of reasons: The action is awkward, the cut, sloppy and the blade crushes the cigar head in the handle more often than not. French company Les Fines Lames has solved these persistent problems with its Le Petit series, a line of sleek knife cutters made with a blade so sharp, you’ll think you’ve used a guillotine. Each blade is manufactured from 14C28N stainless steel, which is an anticorrosive metal particularly well-suited for cutlery. Its contoured shape optimizes leverage to make surprisingly swift, clean cuts on each cigar without cracking the wrapper or fraying the edges around the head. Simply raise the blade, place the cigar in the handle’s groove and close the knife with your thumb. Produced in Thiers,…

Even before Steve McQueen made TAG Heuer’s square Monaco famous in the 1971 racing film Le Mans, the brand’s Autavia had become a go-to watch for some of that period’s most illustrious drivers, including Jochen Rindt, Derek Bell and Jo Siffert, who acted as an ambassador encouraging fellow drivers to wear Heuers. Launched in 1962, Autavia (a name coined from the words “auto” and “aviation”) traces its roots to the watch company’s dashboard timers built for automobile and aircraft instrument panels going back to 1933. For the brand’s first wristwatch, the then-new CEO Jack Heuer reinterpreted those early clocks as chronographs for the wrist with maximum legibility. A rotating bezel assisted with precision time measurement. This year, TAG Heuer marks Autavia’s 60th anniversary milestone with a trio of 42 mm stainless steel…

Once upon a late St. Patrick’s Day evening, two companions and I changed our orders from pints of Smithwick’s ale to mugs of Irish Coffee, and an argument ensued. I posited that the point of mixing coffee and whiskey was to stay up later and drink more spirit. On my left came the opinion that whiskey was meant to reduce the jangled nerves from the caffeine. The third view was that the coffee was meant to warm you on the walk home. As is often the case, we got to the bottom of more glasses than we got closer to the bottom of the conundrum. Each position has its merits, but the third has an anecdotal backing. The story goes that passengers on airboats to Europe in the 1940s were given…