What are your rules for determining if a young cigar is suitable for ageing?

[El Presidente]

What are your rules for determining if a young cigar is suitable for ageing? Perhaps we should define that as a cigar that has so much upside in 5+ years that it would be a waste to smoke now. 

Variations of this question come up regularly and I suspect many of us have our own intenal "radar" or set of rules that we have developed over the years.  Share them with us 

My general rule for a young box/cab where you sample one or two cigars after 30-90 days. 

If it is too strong, just go long 

Honey grass of cream to a slight degree, ....revisit in three. 

Nuts and coffee, devour the hottie. 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

If there's ammonia, bitterness or harshness obviously it would need time to settle. 

On the other side, if there's body and flavor but isn't distinct or flavors that are in there but barely (muted), or they're out of balance or scale then perhaps these will appear with age.

I think most CCs that need age fall into the second category. Time can bring flavors out and improve balance if that's lacking initially.

In my experience I find about 70% of fresh CCs perfectly ready to smoke. 20-25% have the muted flavor issue and maybe 5% or less have some harshness or bitterness that needs to be flushed out. The days of fresh CCs smoking roughly is largely over. 

[Chas.Alpha]

If I paid more than $20/stick, they are suitable for ageing... 🙂

[Corylax18]

Flavor and spice. Is there too much? Age. Is there not enough? Let rest for a few more months, then try again. 

I prefer most of my cigars with at least 3-5 years on them. I'm not a fan of "Mongrel" or Spiciness in a cigar, so if I detect any of that, its back in the Humi. 

I have some 2008 Monte 2's, from a couple cardboard petaca's (think I ordered 45 originally) that are a perfect barometer for me. They're also the first Cubans I ordered for mail delivery. They were wonderful, for the most part, in 2009 when I started smoking them. But most of them where just too much in the last third or so. Spicy, occasionally bitter, just too much. Fast forward to 2012, 2013. They still tasted the same (very chocolate heavy, some creamy coffee, cinnamon) but they still had some rough edges. I smoked a couple more in 2016 that didnt really knock my socks of, so the rest sat until mid last summer. (13 years box age) I grabbed a couple for my Dad and I to smoke after grilling one evening. They brought me right back to the patio across the street from the Beach where we smoked the first two. The flavors matched, but everything was amplified, clearer and easier to discern. Both Cigars got nubbed without a mention of harshness or spice. They where still the same cigars, but much better versions of the same cigar. 

Now is the hard part for me. Deciding how quickly to smoke the remaining half dozen. Logic says burn em all now!! But its harder than that. You start to look for the perfect situation, the right group of people to smoke them with. I need to stop thinking and start smoking!!

[Monterey]

For me it is more about how will they last before heading south vs how much better it would be at 5 years vs 1.  The idea is to build your stock, so that in years of bad production or low production, you are covered.  If a cigar is say 5% better at 8 years vs 1, then I want to build up my supply to get near that 8 year mark.  I've mostly done that

Everyone smoking ROTT or under a year are in for a world of hurt when a bad quality or production year comes.

[cigaraholic]

For me it’s impossible to make rules about something so incredibly inconsistent as today’s CC’s. For 30 years I smoked as fast as I bought, for 20+ I’ve been smoking well aged cigars almost exclusively, enjoyed them both tremendously!

If your not smoking a cigar tonight and you have cigars in a humidor that your “aging”, you’ve broken my one rule.

[BrightonCorgi]

Beyond what was said already...  If I don't get any discernible flavors, it's into its "sick phase" or generally just not digging the cigar as much as I thought.  5-10 years later can fix all of those.

Any Cuban cigar can age 10 years at minimum.  Don't get too concerned over what cigar to age.  Age the cigars you like to smoke.  Age the cigars you'd like to smoke in the future.

[PigFish]

... if I am not smoking it today, it will live to age another day!

Aging... bah! Smoke what is good when you want it. Anything left after bed time, gets to survive a day longer.

-the Pig

 

[Tstew75]

Same as a young wine...either it has the 'legs on the chair' or it doesn't.  It def takes a little time to discern whether a CC (or a btl of wine) can/will age....but it's all about using your imagination to envision what's possible with the young material in your hand.

In other words, its takes experience & lots of smoking to know.

[Tdm_86]

I’m not as much aging as I’m buying more than I can smoke 😄 Over the years I’ve gotten to know what I like and buy a lot of those. Consequently they get put away, thus aging.

What I’ve found benefits from age, are cigars where the nicotine strength overpowers the experience. And mongrel sticks where you can find good flavors that are strong but muttled. I’ve also had boxes I thought met these ‘criteria’, that never improved to my tastes. As @Tstew75 said, it takes lots of smoking. 
 

What I would say is, there has got to be something there that you really like. Age won’t improve a box of cigars that taste of wet cardboard and acrid leaves. 

[Huckleberry]

Presence of enjoyable flavors you would expect but schizo on the delivery.  If they are there and all jumbled but construction is solid, then sitting them down for 3-25 makes sense   Deeper and richer the flavors the longer to sit it down, but I don't go mad scientist on any particular cigar.

[B44]

This a great thread. Interesting to see how everyone makes the call. Price per stick definitely pushes me towards patience rather than burn now. 
 

I think the clearest picture I got of the benefits of aging were this past weekend. Smoked a 2020 Esplendido and a PCC 2016 RJC. Both were incredibly delicious, the RJC was just too flipping good. 

[westg]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:16 AM, PigFish said:

... if I am not smoking it today, it will live to age another day!

Aging... bah! Smoke what is good when you want it. Anything left after bed time, gets to survive a day longer.

-the Pig

 

Well said .🌴😎

[Edicion]

My rule is simple : if any cigar tastes like a Partagas but is not a Partagas... It needs to rest.