INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the March edition of UK Cigar
Scene Magazine.
We are delighted with this month’s
interview with Ranald Macdonald the
founder and Managing Director of
Boisdale. Ranald has a huge passion
for cigars and for enjoying life and I am
certain that you will understand this as
you watch our video interview with him.
Some of us have friends who have just arrived
back from Havana with tales of next year’s
special cigars celebrating the 80th anniversary of
Montecristo and a Gran Reserva Wide Churchill
which is a cigar I’m looking forward to trying. Our
good friend Stephan managed to join the Hunters
& Frankau party in Havana and we have a report
from him of the first tasting of the new hotly
anticipated Anniversario225 cigar.
We have introduced a new ‘memorable cigars’
feature this month in which we ask readers to
remember two cigars which were great not because
they cost hundreds of pounds but because of the
circumstances and the places in which they were
smoked, if you’ve had a great experience contact
me at [email protected] and you may
appear in a future issue.
We have travelled far and wide to bring you
great cigar stories this month, from Finca Vigia,
Hemmingway’s Cuban home to a great story from
an ex LA PD officer who came to London and fell
in love with a humidor. Finally we travelled to
the North West to try to discover how it is rapidly
becoming the second cigar centre of the UK.
Have you ever had a cigar that was plugged?
Which would not draw no matter how hard you
pulled on it? Or a cigar which started to burn at a
very odd angle about half way through? Most cigar
smokers have had this happen at some point in
their smoking career and it happened to one of our
reviewers in this month’s blind tasting.
W went back to our source. Cigars are a hand-made
product and because of this there can be issues,
despite the introduction of draw testers as part of
the process of making a cigar after major issues
around 1990. Think of a cigar as similar to a bottle
of wine we were told, if you get a corked bottle you
send it back and get a replacement, no questions.
So we got a replacement for our reviewer to smoke
and you should do the same. If you come across
an issue like this, save up the remains of your
cigar and take it back to your cigar specialist. You
will find he is sympathetic to your plight and just
wants you to have a great experience in enjoying
your cigar.
Nic Wing
Proprietor and Editor
2