The concept of aged cigars....

[Simon Bolivar]

SO Puff, did Grandfather leave you any interesting stock in his will or did he manage to enjoy it all, before he departed this mortal coil?

[Puff Scotty]

SO Puff, did Grandfather leave you any interesting stock in his will or did he manage to enjoy it all, before he departed this mortal coil?

Hi Simon - fortunately blessed with a father who inherited & who also loved a cigar so got a few from both, unfortunately divvied up with my philistine bro'
who would happily swap a couple of 60 yr old upmanns for a packet of Golden Virginia

[Lascaux]

The vast majority of cigars I've been blown away by have been between 7-11 years old. I so love my milder cigars though. The process helps mellowing out, and I guess some people like that and others find it lacking.

[monkey66]

There is a ethereal (to quote MRN) quality to some well aged cigars. If this is 'better' is subjective but it certainly is special. I smoked blind an '80's R and J recently and it screamed out its age and unique quality, nothing of the shelf can produce this experience.

There are some really good 3 year old cigars from current production and can be stonking but are IMHO all fairly upfront. For the more delicate, complex smoke a few years is needed. MRN wrote in death about the different stages of maturation and it corresponds on the whole to my experiences.

For me some cigars are simply nasty too young, for example IMHO the Cohiba Robusto is a nasty smoke for at least 4-5 years but then can come great once that particular blend has mellowed and matured a little.

I take no heed to what one particular shop worker said. I am sure back in the days when they aged all cigars prior to sale they would have said the opposite.

[JimJamYaHa]

swap a couple of 60 yr old upmanns for a packet of Golden Virginia

Laughed my arse off when I read that

[Bigboned]

who would happily swap a couple of 60 yr old upmanns for a packet of Golden Virginia

I read this all wrong, I got ' a couple of 60 year old virgins'!

[snooky]

So many factors come into this, so i guess you smoke good and bad aged as you would young cigars though most good 3 year olds will taste very good at 10.
Someone give me a bottle of vintage Lois Roederer champers i kept it for ever come home one night opened it , yuk down the sink !

[Puff Scotty]

So many factors come into this, so i guess you smoke good and bad aged as you would young cigars though most good 3 year olds will taste very good at 10.
Someone give me a bottle of vintage Lois Roederer champers i kept it for ever come home one night opened it , yuk down the sink !

Snooks...rare for any decent champagne to go off, store upright in a cool dark place - should last for years, especially a vintage...
a lot easier to keep than cigars

[snooky]

Snooks...rare for any decent champagne to go off, store upright in a cool dark place - should last for years, especially a vintage...
a lot easier to keep than cigars

Good tip the last year of its life was lying down !

[El Yanqui]

I think a lot also depends on the cigar. I like my most of my cigars with 5 or more years on them. However, I've smoked through several boxes of the 09 Mag 48 (the best LE, IMO) starting at the end of 09 and I love Partagas Shorts with only a couple of months. I smoked a JL2 last weekend from July 10, so only a year on it, and it had that lovely JL2 flavour but a very flat finish and the final third was dull. I will happily sit on the rest of the box for a couple more years. I have a box of 06 Sir Winstons that I've been smoking one a year from during January for the past five years. There is a very marked difference in each of their flavour. I have other Winstons with 13 years and the difference is night and day.

Diff'rent strokes, I suppose.

[Inst4nt]

I have a box of 06 Sir Winstons that I've been smoking one a year from during January for the past five years. There is a very marked difference in each of their flavour. I have other Winstons with 13 years and the difference is night and day.

How easy do you find it to make a comparison between a cigar that you've smoked today and the same cigar you smoked a year ago? Do you make a mental note of it?....

Just wondering, I tend to have to write a few notes down to keep on top of what I've smoked previously and what I thought of the smoke at the time.

[El Yanqui]

These were for a special occasion and bought to smoke one yearly so I tend to focus on it more. I have also commented on them after smoking on another cigar board so I have looked at what I wrote. Very subtle nuances would probably not be distinguished and remembered 365 days later, but that's partly my point: there is a pronounced noticeable difference with age.

[Fat1]

I have not smoked any 'vintage' sticks so really could not say that they are better or worse than younger sticks.

However I can see the wisdom of what some members say in that 3-5 years could be the 'peak' of a cigar???

Recently I have smoked a couple of cigars from mid / early 08 - a SLR Seri A, and a Monte 3, I also had a PSD4 from Oct 2007. In each case I have to say that they are amongst the best I have ever had. That being said the Monte 3 and PSD4 are already in my favourite list and the SLR serie A is creeping in there, so maybe I was biased??

Thats my two penneth anyway for what its worth.

[seanbeer]

each cigars are so different due how they are manufactured, its not like wine, from a single chateaux, from particualr vintage, they all made in one big tank althought mixed with many grapes. each cigar has its onw leafs ! and no other cigar has that same leaf, or only very few shares on big leaf. so even in on box, you get different cigars. its hard to compare.

and that's the magical thing about cigars, for me, its more about the right cigar in the right mood at the right time. basically you need a bit luck!

its the thrill of not knowing what you are going to get that's give you the enjoyment when it turns out great. who hasn't smoked a crappy cohiba and get annoyed for what it costed and who hasn't had a big smile on his/her face smoking a TPC.