Cigar Aficionado has consistently rated the Romeo y Julieta No.4 Exhibicion highly and scores in the nineties for this cigar are not uncommon. This hand-made hermoso no.4 is 127 mm long with a ring gauge of 48. This high selling vitola comes with a solid reputation as an aromatic, medium to strong smoke with excellent combustion. The drink partnering this cigar for the review is the new Platinum Blonde low-carb beer. Incidentally this beer has just been launched as a private label by the Woolworths supermarket chain in an effort to capture 10% of the $420 million low carb beer market by the end of the Australian summer. Anyway.. on with the review!

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Winston Churchill’s love of Cuban cigars has been well documented over the years and it has been said he typically smoked between eight and ten per day.

Churchill’s favourite brands included Romeo y Julieta and the now extinct La Aroma de Cuba. Churchill had many supply options and even during the prohibitive war years managed to keep stocks high. At Chartwell Manor, his home in the English countryside, Churchill stocked between three and four thousand cigars, most of which were Cuban, in a room adjoining his private study. In storage the cigars were kept in original boxes on the shelves, all of which were labelled. Churchill categorised his cigars in the following groups: large, small, wrapped and naked. The idea was to differentiate the cigar sizes and if in fact they were wrapped in cellophane. Over the years Churchill spent vast amounts of money on his cigar collection. Roy Howells, one of Churchill’s valets, wrote in his book, Simply Churchill, “It took me a little while to get used to the fact that in two days his cigar consumption was the equivalent of my weekly salary.”

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In the early 1920’s the Italian almanac, Il Tabacco, published an interesting article titled “Sigaromanzia”. The article considered the twelve most common ways of holding a cigar and correlated these to psychological characteristics of the smoker.

It appears the study by Italian psychologists was quite accurate. A similar experiment was conducted by a number of modern psychologists and surprisingly the results were comparable. Next time you’re sitting down, smoking a Cuban cigar with a colleague pay attention to the way they hold their cigar. You may learn a little about their character or psyche. What does the way you hold your Cuban cigar say about you?

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The Romeo y Julieta brand was established in 1875 by Inocencio Alvarez and Mannin Garcia. The brand is named after the famous Shakespeare tragedy which has undoubtedly contributed to its popularity. Between 1885 and 1900 Romeo y Julieta won several awards at different tasting events with the gold medals still displayed on the logo today. The brand really blossomed after it was acquired by Jose “Pepin” Rodriguez Fernandez in 1903. Rodriguez constantly travelled across Europe and the U.S. heavily marketing the brand, this included entering his horse, the suitably named Julieta, in races around the world. Sir Winston Churchill is known as the brand’s most famous aficionado with the flagship vitola of the brand named in his honour; the Churchill.

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Juan Cano Sainz and his wife lived above their warehouse on 39 Bernaza Street in Old Havana, Cuba. Their three children were all born in this house and after a while shifted to a town house on the corner of Teniente Rey and Bernaza Street; the birthplace of La Flor de Cano. In 1932 Juan hired a cigar maker to roll cigars on his kitchen table. Sales increased quickly and a second cigar maker was hired to keep up with growing demand. As his customer base continued to grow Juan established his own company and created a brand under his family’s name; La Flor de Cano. The brand gained its esteemed reputation in the 1980s by offering brilliantly crafted cigars made from the finest tobacco.

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Made exclusively by Habanos SA for the The Pacific Cigar Company, the Por Larranaga Robustos LE 2007 will be exclusive to the Asia Pacific region for the next two years. The robusto size was undoubtedly chosen as the 2007 regional edition due to the current trend of shorter, thicker gauge cigars. Por Larranaga has never released a robusto cigar in its portfolio making this regional release unique. The Por Larranaga Robusto has a length of 124mm with a 50 ring gauge size (19.8mm diameter) and looks majestic with its gold and silver double bands. The impeccable construction and appearance will also impress with its dark and oily wrapper.

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The Montecristo No.4 Reserva 2007 pays tribute to the Montecristo No. 4; the worlds most popular Havana cigar. Since its launch in 1935 the Cubans have produced the unfathomable amount of over one billion Montecristo No.4 cigars - more than 7500 tons of first class tobacco. Manufactured with tobacco leaves specially selected and carefully aged for three years gives the Montecristo No.4 Reserva 2007 a unique quality which sets them apart from other Montecristo releases. These cigars come packaged in luxury black lacquered cases and are a special release of only 5000 numbered boxes. The 20 double banded cigars look regal in both the Montecristo and Reserva specific ring bands. 

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The Punch Super Robustos is a regional edition originally released by Habanos in 2006. This new vitola from this prestigious brand is exclusively handmade for Habanos lovers in Asia Pacific markets only. The Punch Super Robustos are issued as a limited release of 2140 numbered cases of both 25 and 50 cabinet boxes. A beautiful hand rolled cigar with a rich, oily wrapper with the unique limited double band confirming; Exclusivo Asia Pacifico. The construction of this cigar is absolutely perfect and the drink accompanying this gorgeous vitola for the review was a Heineken Draught served from the 5 litre mini keg.

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We recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Chris Trotter from The Cigar Alliance. Our interview was included in Episode 19 which was published earlier this month. Check out our interview here: Cigar Alliance Podcast - Episode 19.

We wanted to pass on our thanks to Chris for inviting us on his show. We really enjoyed the experience.. thank you! The Cigar Alliance is a great source of cigar information and we love kicking back, relaxing and listening to Chris. We recommend subscribing to The Cigar Alliance Podcast and listening to past episodes.

Visit the homepage here: The Cigar Alliance; subscribe and enjoy!

The Hoyo de Monterrey Regalos Limited Edition was released by Habanos in 2007 and is presented in an unvarnished slide lid box of 25 cigars in two layers. The Regalos, as with all limited edition Habanos cigars, are not part of the usual range of the Hoyo de Monterrey brand. The careful selection of a two year aged wrapper from the upper level of the Cuban plant gives this release a darker colour which sets them apart from other HDM cigars. Binder and filler leaves used for the making of these limited edition cigars have also been aged for two years adding to its character. Having said that we had certainly looked forward to reviewing the HDM Regalos and partnering the Regalos for the review was ’The Yearling’ 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from Rymill. 

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