Barcelona

[SokaKiel]

The new prices have hit us here in Spain early this month! Standard range went up a few Euro while premium cigars doubled or tripled in price.

I feel sorry for all the little Estancos, for most of them it won’t be worth it anymore to stock Cuban cigars and barely ever sell any. Coupled with low availability most will probably swing to non Cubans for the future.

 

[cookj1]

I just got home late last night from Barcelona and I can confirm, after a lot of searching, that Barcelona is hurting for Cuban cigars.  Cathedral definitely had the best selection.  I took four boxes of the Diplomaticos Spanish regional, but there were still two boxes left (perhaps more hidden/in the back?).  There’s nothing else of note in Barcelona.  I did grab a box of HU Epicures at Gimeno (whatever the name is now).  Everyone was complaining about supply.

There was a box of the Spanish regional in Ibiza but when I went back in the afternoon it was gone. I suspect they are out there in the market but quickly being gobbled up when retailers put them out.

Perpignan had nothing.

Andorra was the highlight, and it’s not because they have a tonne of stock; it’s because they actually have some stock.  There are a few cabs left of the Qd’O Ambassadeur Andorra regional.  It’s a tasty little half corona that somes in a cab of 50. €7.70/cigar is rich for a half corona, no doubt. There were some slick Cohiba Robusto humidors at exactly the same price €1600 as the non-Cohiba humidor. (Why wouldn’t you buy the beautiful humidor at the same price!?!) 

In short, the three hour drive to Andorra is worth the trip if you’re in Barcelona and shopping for cigars.  There’s enough there to satisfy you but the pickings are definitely slim.  It’s much better than the frustration of hunting all over Barcelona for nothing other than Quints, JLP’s, Monte 4 and 5’s.  The sight of empty humidors in Barcelona was very sad (looking at you El Corte Inglés).

[yadegari6]

Quick update on Madrid: I spent the morning visiting 8 cigar shops. Five shops had absolutely nothing other than quinteros, monte 4/5, and ryj tubos. One shop had the entire Trinidad line, most of the cohibas, limited editions, and the Monte 1935 line but nothing else. I spoke with the owner and he said the only cigars he is receiving right now are Trinidad and cohiba, he converted a portion of the humidor for liquor.  Another shop I went to had a very small selection but I was able to get one box of the Diplomaticos regional. The shop owner here expressed how disappointed his clients have been lately by the supply and prices. 
 

Lastly I went to a shop that had a very large selection in stock, even some larger format cigars like lusitanias and hoyo dc. Plenty of cohiba, trini, Monte 1935, the new ryj oro line, most limited editions over the last 4 years. The catch here was that they sold only singles. The only boxes on offer were the abundant small format cigars nobody wants. 
 

I didn’t come across a single Ramon allones, h upmann, or por larranaga at any shop but there are plenty of Trinidad and cohiba laying around. 
 

Will be traveling to logrono, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Barcelona, and Bordeaux over the next couple weeks so I will make sure to provide a supply update once I return home. 
 

Cheers

Alex 

[yadegari6]

Wanted to summarize how the supply situation is across Spain after I was able to visit about 20 shops over the course of two weeks. What a dramatic difference from 2019 when I last visited being able to find all kinds of discontinued and aged stock. Barcelona had the worst supply out of any city, but that is really not saying much. I only encountered two shops across 5 cities with good supply and they happened to be the two shops that were only selling singles. About half the shops had nothing other than cheap ryj/monte nobody wants and quinteros. The other half of the shops had plenty of trinidad, cohiba, ryj linea oro, monte linea 1935 but very few cigars outside of that. Came across some random boxes of upmann mag 54, JL 1, punch punch, punch sdp, qdo 50, monte 2/4, hdm rio seco/san juan. Trini reyes/vigia are everywhere as are cohiba robustos and sig 1/2. I ended up buying 5 boxes of the diplomatico regional, but these are certainly dwindling down as I only left 3 or so boxes on the shelves that I came across. Not a single ramon allones, bolivar, por larranaga to be found. Also other than plenty of Cohiba robustos, I did not see a single robusto available. In Logrono one of the shop owners told me that the Chinese cleaned his entire supply out and that they show up at his shop and the other shops in the city every week on delivery day and buy the majority of the new supply he gets. I wasn't expecting much in terms of supply going into this trip but the situation is much worse than I could have envisioned. Below in the picture is the typical supply I came across, this at a shop in San Sebastián. 

[PuroDiario]

Plenty of inventory at Domingo’s cava yesterday evening. FYI

[BrightonCorgi]

I am in Barcelona for a last minute trip and there's nothing to be had for cigars from brief looking around.  More likely to find weed at Tabac store than Partagas.  Luckily I brought my own cigars.

[Midas]

I am in Barcelona for a last minute trip and there's nothing to be had for cigars from brief looking around.  More likely to find weed at Tabac store than Partagas.  Luckily I brought my own cigars.

I’m there in May, hopefully I get lucky and there’s deliveries that week. I can dream at least!


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[dangolf18]

7 hours ago, Midas said:

I’m there in May, hopefully I get lucky and there’s deliveries that week. I can dream at least!


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Even if there are....prices are eye-watering

[BrightonCorgi]

No Habanos at the airport except for a couple of boxes Upmann Half Coronas.  Did not look at the price.  Zurich Airport had zero Habanos beyond clubs or mini's. 

Actually, it slim pickings for cigars in general. 

How much longer before duty free's rip out the humidor forgo cigars altogether?

[bates40]

On 5/25/2022 at 10:51 PM, Akela3rd said:

Gimeno Tabac (as was, now Domingo apparently) on La Rambla was great a few years ago. I picked up two boxes of Hoyo du Prince two years after they were discontinued. Say you want to buy a box, rather than singles, and you're escorted down to the cellar...

Double check storage conditions at Gimeno. Looked at some jars that had mold and ended getting the last jar I needed up the street. Also, just walking around the Cathedral I was able to find some regionals (Spain) at various cigarette shops - again, just need to double check storage conditions. 

 

On 9/19/2022 at 8:55 AM, yadegari6 said:

Wanted to summarize how the supply situation is across Spain after I was able to visit about 20 shops over the course of two weeks. What a dramatic difference from 2019 when I last visited being able to find all kinds of discontinued and aged stock. Barcelona had the worst supply out of any city, but that is really not saying much. I only encountered two shops across 5 cities with good supply and they happened to be the two shops that were only selling singles. About half the shops had nothing other than cheap ryj/monte nobody wants and quinteros. The other half of the shops had plenty of trinidad, cohiba, ryj linea oro, monte linea 1935 but very few cigars outside of that. Came across some random boxes of upmann mag 54, JL 1, punch punch, punch sdp, qdo 50, monte 2/4, hdm rio seco/san juan. Trini reyes/vigia are everywhere as are cohiba robustos and sig 1/2. I ended up buying 5 boxes of the diplomatico regional, but these are certainly dwindling down as I only left 3 or so boxes on the shelves that I came across. Not a single ramon allones, bolivar, por larranaga to be found. Also other than plenty of Cohiba robustos, I did not see a single robusto available. In Logrono one of the shop owners told me that the Chinese cleaned his entire supply out and that they show up at his shop and the other shops in the city every week on delivery day and buy the majority of the new supply he gets. I wasn't expecting much in terms of supply going into this trip but the situation is much worse than I could have envisioned. Below in the picture is the typical supply I came across, this at a shop in San Sebastián.

Did you buy that Sevilla Monte humi?