Romeo y Julieta-when is their sweet spot

[FatPete]

I just ordered a box of RyJ Belicoso last week, to try for the first time. It dawned on me today that I've no idea when they will be ready to smoke, and more importantly when they will be at their best. This got me thinking about when RyJ generally would be at their best, and I don't have an answer.

So learned FOH, I would love to hear your opinions on when the Churchill, Petit Corona, Belicoso and Short Churchill are at their best, as these are what I have.

Thanks 

 

[stunod]

I am a big fan of the R&J Churchill’s. I like to let them sit a year then dip into a box.

i have the advantage of having a few boxes from 2014-2018 so if the one year old box is not great, I can forget about them for another year.

i find that 3 years is the sweet spot, but again I have a shit load of cigars to choose from so I can be patient.

The Wide Churchill’s tend to be similar.

[CaptainQuintero]

  They are all good to go from when you have given then a rest from traveling in all honestly.

  Some people won't touch RyJ Churchills until a decade has passed, some love them fresh.

  Personally I'd smoke your way through half the box of each over the course of  the next 3 years or so just to see how they progress. It's probably fair to say that after around 3 years you've got a pretty good sweet spot with RyJ...and with any Cuban. You've probably reached where it's going to go and from then on you're only going to see nuanced changes.

  But the thing is that not all cigars are equal. Say you buy 10 cigars, you smoke 5 and they are horrible so throw the rest into the bottom of your humidor for 5 years. One day you remember about them, try them and they are amazing. People will say it's because you aged them. But each cigar was potentially rolled by a different roller, from different plants etc. Those first 5 could always have been bad cigars, and the last 5 always we're going to be great no matter when you smoked them. If you'd smoked the good ones first, you'd be saying what did I do to ruin the rest of this box? Or you could have alternated good then bad etc and decided you had a problem with your humidor.

  At the end of the day, just get stuck in, if you like what you are smoking then keep reaching into that box! If you get a bad one it doesn't mean the rest will be bad, it could just be a cigar that was always destined to be bad.

  There's a lot of mystique around ageing which can be took with a grain of salt until you've figured out over the years what you find to work for you.

[peteando]

Agree with the above that you want to have some left at three years as I've found that larger RyJ especially tend to round out and the signature black cherry note becomes brighter in that time.  No reason not to follow the progression by sampling one every few months after initial acclimatization.

[anjimj]

My 2014 Ryj Churchills are smoking great right now.

[El Presidente]

three to five for me = beli, churchill, cazadores, petit corona

2-3 = Exhibicion 4, Short Churchill, Wide Churchill, Petit churchills. 

1-2 = Petit Royales, 

The burst of R&J berry intensity is predominantly found in those cigars listed in the 1-3 year range. I don't want to lose it. 

[Ritch]

The recent short Churchills have been smoking great with 30 days rest. Cant see them making it to 3 years old at this rate...

[Edward7]

Never had a bad ryj starting from 6 months from boxing. I also have never had an aged ryj but I kind of don’t have the patience for it haha

[rcarlson]

Smoking some 2017 Cazzies and they are great.  No more down time for me.  

[FatPete]

Thanks everyone for their golden nuggets. ?

I really like Stunod's example of how to get the perfect smoke-so I'll try and buy a box of Churchill's every year so I can dip into them and smoke what's best at the time. 

[Piligrim]

smoked a couple of RyJ Churchills from 2014 box and those were delicious!

[golf4less]

I’ve got a few boxes of Wide Churchill’s from 2016 and they are really hitting their  stride. To bad my taste have changed since I bought them, seem to really like the smaller RG sticks now.