Cigar aficionado cigar of the year

[Danimalia]

17 hours ago, Danimalia said:

My guess is that it will be the My Father La Opulencia or a Cuban. I also strongly suspect that Drew Estate Undercrown Sungrown is on that list somewhere, but as much as I dig the cigar, #1 seems high.

Damn. I was way off. It was box-pressed, but medium-strength, and Cameroon wrapped. They have always rated the various Don Carlos cigars very well, but I didn't expect one to win COTY. I actually haven't had this variation. Wonder if the local B&M has any left. When they had their event last week, I grabbed a Don Carlos Personal Reserve instead.

[SCgarman]

3 hours ago, Danimalia said:

Damn. I was way off. It was box-pressed, but medium-strength, and Cameroon wrapped. They have always rated the various Don Carlos cigars very well, but I didn't expect one to win COTY. I actually haven't had this variation. Wonder if the local B&M has any left. When they had their event last week, I grabbed a Don Carlos Personal Reserve instead.

Nobody will have them now! In the video Savona states it is already a difficult to find cigar. Good luck finding them now.

[Mattb82]

21 hours ago, Danimalia said:

You can also sort of guess their ratings too, as there are certain cigars they gravitate towards with their ratings. Cuban cigars tend to be rated highly. Dark, full-strength, box-pressed cigars also tend to get rated highly. Speaking of which, there's no CT Broadleaf or San Andres wrapped, maduro or oscuro, box-pressed hellion in the top 10 yet.... One cigar left.

My guess is that it will be the My Father La Opulencia or a Cuban. I also strongly suspect that Drew Estate Undercrown Sungrown is on that list somewhere, but as much as I dig the cigar, #1 seems high.

I think it comes down to who spends the most advertising dollars. They make it look good mixing in a few Cubans. But it’s definitely a dollars game. 

[SCgarman]

1 minute ago, Mattb82 said:

I think it comes down to who spends the most advertising dollars. They make it look good mixing in a few Cubans. But it’s definitely a dollars game. 

Yeah, and CA owner and publisher Marvin Shanken apparently smokes Cubans exclusively and supposedly has a huge collection.

[dgixxer252525]

Number one is Fuente "Eye ofbthe Shark."  Anyone have any experience with this stick?? 

[grizzlee]

On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 5:08 PM, stinkhead said:

They also typically only smoke about an inch of the cigar for reviews. So scores are based almost solely around how a cigar starts and not the entire experience beginning to end.

Seems a lot like rating a restaurant as one of the best based solely upon a pre-dinner cocktail or appetizer.

[Doctorossi]

10 minutes ago, grizzlee said:

Seems a lot like rating a restaurant as one of the best based solely upon a pre-dinner cocktail or appetizer.

Indeed. Every time I look at that magazine, I'm stunned all over again at how little actual cigar-related content is in it... and yet for the handful of reviews they bother to publish, they still can't even manage to smoke the whole thing.  

[Lotusguy]

Same discussion every year...

For the person that asked about experiences with this cigar, I had one recently and could barely finish it, it was that nasty. While I like quite a few AF cigars, this isn't one of them.

[zeedubbya]

Had a hunch it would be a Fuente. None on top 5 (discounting Ashton). If I recall I believe the “Shark” is Marvin Shanken’s favorite size, once made exclusively for him by the Fuentes. 1,2,3 were all industry giants who passed away in last year and a half. Fuente, Padrón, Oliva.


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[NSXCIGAR]

I may be mistaken, but I honestly cannot recall a CC ever taking the top spot. Certainly not in the last 10+ years. A couple of runner ups and a few top 5s but not the crown. 

Seeing as how there's been some terrific CCs made over a significant period of time I find this fact quite remarkable. Quite remarkable. 

You have Suckling giving the Mag 50 98 points (not going into that one here but...yowza, James) and not even it can crack the top? 

Not that anyone in the know doesn't know, but something is certainly rotten in the state of Denmark (or NYC in this case).

[awkwardPause]

1 hour ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I may be mistaken, but I honestly cannot recall a CC ever taking the top spot. Certainly not in the last 10+ years. A couple of runner ups and a few top 5s but not the crown. 

Seeing as how there's been some terrific CCs made over a significant period of time I find this fact quite remarkable. Quite remarkable. 

You have Suckling giving the Mag 50 98 points (not going into that one here but...yowza, James) and not even it can crack the top? 

Not that anyone in the know doesn't know, but something is certainly rotten in the state of Denmark (or NYC in this case).

Surprisingly, they've previously awarded top spots to the Boli RC, BHK 52, and Monte #2 (2006, 2010, 2013, respectively). Always a good peppering of other widely popular CC's in the top ten, often overshadowed by a Fuente or Padron at the one and/or two spots though, it seems. 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

8 minutes ago, awkwardPause said:

Surprisingly, they've previously awarded top spots to the Boli RC, BHK 52, and Monte #2 (2006, 2010, 2013, respectively). Always a good peppering of other widely popular CC's in the top ten, often overshadowed by a Fuente or Padron at the one and/or two spots though, it seems. 

 

Yes, the Monte 2 came in second recently and I forgot it was No. 1 in 2013. So two CCs in 11 years got the top spot with one being a super premium.

2016 had 3 on the list, 2 in the top 10. 2015 same. 2014, 3 on the list, 1 top 10. 2013 3 on the list, 2 top 10. 2012 4 on the list, 2 top 10. 2011 4 on the list, 2 top 10. 2010 3 on the list, 2 top 10. I detect a distinct pattern...

So it seems very predictable. 3, sometimes 4 on the list and 2 in the top 10. No number one since 2013. So this means that only 12-16% of the top 25 cigars are CCs year in and year out. It's just a bit too low a batting average to believe, especially since some years have been much better than others for CCs across the board for CCs in the last 10 years with no variation in representation on the list. How 2016 and 2017, arguably the worst in terms of quality in the last 5 years, still put up the same number of entries as 2012 and 2013 makes no sense. 

[awkwardPause]

Yes, the Monte 2 came in second recently and I forgot it was No. 1 in 2013. So two CCs in 11 years got the top spot with one being a super premium.
2016 had 3 on the list, 2 in the top 10. 2015 same. 2014, 3 on the list, 1 top 10. 2013 3 on the list, 2 top 10. 2012 4 on the list, 2 top 10. 2011 4 on the list, 2 top 10. 2010 3 on the list, 2 top 10. I detect a distinct pattern...
So it seems very predictable. 3, sometimes 4 on the list and 2 in the top 10. No number one since 2013. So this means that only 12-16% of the top 25 cigars are CCs year in and year out. It's just a bit too low a batting average to believe, especially since some years have been much better than others for CCs across the board for CCs in the last 10 years with no variation in representation on the list. How 2016 and 2017, arguably the worst in terms of quality in the last 5 years, still put up the same number of entries as 2012 and 2013 makes no sense. 

Very interesting pattern you identified there. I don’t think I would ever have realized just how consistent that has been without counting like you did.

Good point with there only being ONE non-super premium CC taking the crown in the last 10 years, and that (Monte 2) has historically suffered from consistency issues, so people’s experiences may have been all over the board after that posted.

At any rate, the annual list is always interesting (more entertaining...), although for quite different reasons to me now than it was when I first got into this hobby!

[NSXCIGAR]

21 minutes ago, awkwardPause said:

At any rate, the annual list is always interesting (more entertaining...), although for quite different reasons to me now than it was when I first got into this hobby!

 

I consider it for amusement purposes only. And I always am amazed at how so few of the cigars we have deemed best of the year make it on the list. I mean, Connie A, Punch Punch, CoRo, QdOC, Fonseca No.1--where are they? No one's been talking about the BBF here lately, yet that of all cigars makes the top 10? By all accounts BBF has had a tough 2016-17. I mean, they don't even pretend to have their finger on the pulse of what's smoking well. 

Even worse, Cigar Journal put the Party Anejados as the highest scoring CC in 2016 at #7! The Medio Siglo was next closest at #19! Is there any human being on planet Earth that can truthfully say they like the Anejados over the Medio Siglo? And I mean objectively, not some Cohiba hater. I personally who am not a Cohiba lover can honestly say that the MS (or CoRo or Siglo VI) is simply a superior cigar in every way except maybe construction as the Party Anejados I had the other day did have perfect construction...but really now. 

[Danimalia]

I'll be curious to see how many Cubans end up in the 11-25 spots,  because they only had 1 in the top 10.

One thing I will mention is that in early issues,  Cuban cigars dominated the ratings. Like back before they even did the top 25 lists. There does seem to be a correlation between higher ratings for non- Cubans and the general increase in quality of non-Cubans. Which makes sense to me. 

 

[godpheonix]

12 hours ago, Lotusguy said:

Same discussion every year...

For the person that asked about experiences with this cigar, I had one recently and could barely finish it, it was that nasty. While I like quite a few AF cigars, this isn't one of them.

i had the same experience with the other AF special cigar that came out at the same time as the shark, the don carlos special reserve i believe its called? had 2 samples of those and the second was ok but that's about it. the first one had me questioning what the hell i was smoking, they were very similar in profile but the first was more acrid all the way through. i believe the second one is actually close to what most will get out of that cigar, and it ain't much really. so i'l be passing on the shark.

[Stump89]

5 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

consider it for amusement purposes only. And I always am amazed at how so few of the cigars we have deemed best of the year make it on the list. I mean, Connie A, Punch Punch, CoRo, QdOC, Fonseca No.1--where are they? No one's been talking about the BBF here lately, yet that of all cigars makes the top 10? By all accounts BBF has had a tough 2016-17. I mean, they don't even pretend to have their finger on the pulse of what's smoking well. 

I was especially curious about the Fonseca no.1 also. It has a great reputation here.  I took a look around CAs rating and the last time this cigar was rated was 2014.  QdOC had not been reviewed since 2009.  At least that's what their online database shows. Makes me really think they are not getting a wide enough sample of the CC market just because of some of the smaller brands.  

[earthson]

23 hours ago, dgixxer252525 said:

Number one is Fuente "Eye ofbthe Shark."  Anyone have any experience with this stick?? 

Gross garbage, and I'm a big fan of both Fuente and the Don Carlos line. Lots of construction issues (wonky rolls, stems, etc) and the flavor was sorely lacking.

For what it's worth, the Don Carlos Personal Reserve is a much better cigar.

[David88]

So the full top 25 for CA has now been released. At number 11 is the Lusitania (can’t argue with that) and at number 19 its the Short Churchill. I know that recent 24:24 short Churchill’s have gone in a blink of an eye but there has previously been quality issues. 

I don’t have any issue with the CA top 25 lists, any top cigar list is going to be subjective on personal tastes and a highly variable product. I do find it strange though that the Andalusian bull thing doesn’t make the top 25 after being number 1 last year. I haven’t smoked one myself, and have no desire to, but you would think that something so (apparently) good could maintain that level for a year. 

[JamesKPolkEsq]

When the top lists for movies are posted, I used to get peeved when my list was poorly represented.

Recently, though, I have just taken it as an opportunity to find good new flicks to watch.

FoH denizens are familiar with the best Cuba has to offer (if you're not, just start a new thread ) - just use CA top 25 as an opportunity to brush up on some quality NCs...

[Fugu]

Been waiting with bated breath...

[PigFish]

While I am waiting for the eloquent words to come. I will just say "Fart."

-Piggy

[Islandboy]

13 hours ago, David88 said:

So the full top 25 for CA has now been released. At number 11 is the Lusitania (can’t argue with that) and at number 19 its the Short Churchill. I know that recent 24:24 short Churchill’s have gone in a blink of an eye but there has previously been quality issues. 

I don’t have any issue with the CA top 25 lists, any top cigar list is going to be subjective on personal tastes and a highly variable product. I do find it strange though that the Andalusian bull thing doesn’t make the top 25 after being number 1 last year. I haven’t smoked one myself, and have no desire to, but you would think that something so (apparently) good could maintain that level for a year. 

Good point. Come to think of it, I don’t recall seeing the No. 1 make the list at all the following year for a while. Quite telling.

[SMQQKIN]

On 12/21/2017 at 6:07 PM, zeedubbya said:

1,2,3 were all industry giants who passed away in last year and a half. Fuente, Padrón, Oliva.


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& there you have it...

RIP

[zeedubbya]

I wonder if there’s a running inside joke about boxed pressed torpedos around the CA offices. Last 5 years have all been torpedos which have to be box pressed in some form..so strange.


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