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Make sure you try this place.
Estanco Cardenal Cisneros.
The owner Jesus Llano seems like an interesting guy.
I've always heard it's one of the better estancos in Madrid.
My wife's from Madrid and we visit there a few times a year. My brother-in-law introduced me to this shop and I always visit and pick up a few things when in town. Great guy and impressive stock. Will check out the other recommendations in April when I go again.
Just got back myself so here's some further useful info.
August appears to be when all Madrilenos go on holiday so a lot of stuff is closed for the entire month. This included the estancos so I had real trouble getting hold of any sticks. There was also a big festival this weekend which didn't help matters. The tourist information office suggested El Corte Ingles (didn't realise they had a walk-in?) so I picked up a couple there. Reasonable condition but try and take your own cutter as their shitty single blade guillotine on a bit of string almost butchered the sticks I had just paid for. Service wasn't great either.
The walk-in at Cardenal Cisneros was impressive but unfortunately they didn't have any Boli CJs that I was after. They couldn't work out what I was asking for at first. Turns out Spanish for cigars is 'puros'. Who knew??? One thing that put the wind up me was... I saw a tobacco beetle crawling on one of the sticks!
At the larger walk-in at the airport (after passport control), they also had MRN's book on sale for only 50 Euros. I was sorely tempted but it was in Spanish...
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