Non Cuban Cigars don't age? Agree, disagree...your thoughts.

[El Presidente]

Non Cuban Cigars don't age? Agree, disagree...your thoughts. 

Listening to the lads on Lounge Lizards Cigar Podcast (great episode!) and this subject was kicked around. 

I have heard the theory of the lack of ageing ability on NC cigars for years. 

My thoughts are that lumping all NC's into this "non ageing" category is a fallacy. Blend is essential. 

Still, I would love your thoughts as to THE NC CIGARS THAT AGE BRILLIANTLY. 

Is there a NC cigar that transforms over 5-7 years like a Por Larranaga Petit Corona or Hoyo des Dieux? 

[Lucas Buck]

Near 25 years aging cigars and though I rarely smoke NC these days there is no doubt in my mind that they age just as well as Cuban cigars generally speaking. A bad cigar won’t improve but a good one almost always gets better at least for my taste. I usually get raves when I gift aged NC as well. 

[mikejh]

2 minutes ago, Lucas Buck said:

Near 25 years aging cigars and though I rarely smoke NC these days there is no doubt in my mind that they age just as well as Cuban cigars generally speaking. A bad cigar won’t improve but a good one almost always gets better at least for my taste. I usually get raves when I gift aged NC as well. 

I would agree, good NCs get better with age, but I've never experienced or heard of NCs that develop flavors as they age.

[riderpride]

Honestly, I don't intentionally age NCs. The only one I've tried was Oliva V Churchills- they didn't mellow out much, but the edges softened and allowed me to pick up more of a graham cracker-like flavour. Typically it was limited to coffee, wood, nuts, chocolate, and pepper.

I definitely agree that blend is essential. As most premium blends already used aged tobacco, I don't see too much room for growth unless there's benefit to allowing the blend to age to enable a marriage of flavours as opposed to just being aged in the bale. 

I'm sure there are greater minds than mine working on the subject though, so I'll gladly sit back and learn from those who've tried more aging and found success.

Cheers!

[loose_axle]

I’m still currently conducting a few experiments on this one. Waiting/ time being the primary factor.

Foundation Tabernacle Broadleaf Havana Seed - went from dark chocolate and pepper to a no pepper - caramel, dark chocolate, slight chili and baking spices delight.

Liga Privada T52 - went from a sheer pepper bomb to a chocolate Tim tam smash, some vanilla and spice.

Both of the above first cigars in initial 6 months. Then I waited 3 years to try again. 

Winston Churchill Late Hour - great in the first year. By two years were bland with almost no flavour.

Winston Churchill White Band - same flavours but two years got rid of the that must/ mushroom flavour that some Davidoffs have and really harmonised the blend. Found the same with no 2s. This ages well so far (4 years and counting). 

Currently waiting on AF Anejo’s, LFD, Casdagli and Padrón cigars to move along in their boxes for comparison.

[WestCoastSmokin]

I don't know how much growth/change they can go through in a few years since a majority have been aged 5 years minimum. I would however like to see how they age with 15 or 20+ years of age on them that came from the consumer aging them in their own humidor. However it seems like that’s not what a majority of NC smokers do, they buy one and smoke it or “age” for 6 months and then smoke em lol. There's also just soooo many NC cigars it’s like where do you start on aging a box of something? Hopefully someone is starting that or has started that experiment! 

Also it’s why I love CC, buying them and aging them for an x amount of years to see how they taste is (to me) a huge part of the fun and reason why I purchase them in the first place. 

[nKostyan]

High quality NCs have already aged tobaccos in a blend, so it smoke well without aging. Cubans use minimum-aged tobaccos for regular series. Yes, you can smoke fresh Cuban, but most of us prefer to aging. High strength brands, Partagas for example, require 5-7 years of aging for my taste.

For NC, this aging has already occurred, so you get an already aged finished product. If Cubans had aged before the sale, we would have received already exhausted blends, remember the Anejados series. Such cigars no longer have the aging potential. As for the examples, for me it's Oliva: Serie V, Cain. The aging makes the Serie V gives a great taste of cedar and nuts, spices. The Cain aging transforms a rough high strength cigar into an excellent complex rounded blend.

[Duxnutz]

Many go bland after a few years. The broadleaf cigars are the worst offenders of this. 

[vinnyvega]

Fuente and Davidoff. Don Carlos, Hemingway, and Opus X all shine with 20+ years on them. VSG rolled prior to 2006 are extraordinary. I have Don Carlos robustos from the late 90s that are fantastic. Same to be said about the old Davidoff Millennium blends.

[El Presidente]

3 hours ago, nKostyan said:

High quality NCs have already aged tobaccos in a blend, so it smoke well without aging.

So true. 

However even aged tobacco in a blend needs time to make their aquaintence with each other. Putting together 5 year old Viso, Ligero, Capa is different to aging a cigar 5 years. 

[teamrandr]

Really depends on the person.

[MrBirdman]

Most in my experience don’t age especially well past 1 year. But many do (even the lighter Davidoff, like the GC #2, get better after 3+ years). And of course most Opus actually need 5+ years to really shine.

[Deeg]

IMO the stronger LFD blends get much better with age. Ashton VSGs as well. And standard issue Padrons.

[djrey]

I have yet to find a NC that I would say aged well and I have smoked a decent number. 2010-2020 most everything I bought was NC. Padrons, (1000 series, 1926, 1964), Fuentes (Opus X, Anejo Sharks), plenty of My Father, Pete Johnson cigars, etc. These are high quality cigars some of them said to be excellent for aging. Most of these I bought more than I could smoke so they all aged. Started smoking a lot of them around the COVID days and I found nearly every one had lost the majority of its flavor and body. Very one dimensional and boring. Now, my oldest Cubans from my first trip in 2013 are still full of flavor and complex to this day. I don't think I will ever store a NC more than a year or 2 from here out. 

[Ruggerpgh99]

For me, a lot of my NC aging is unintentional, too many sticks, not enough time. I will say, a Padron x000 series does age nicely, I feel that it gets more complex and smooth over time, while still being a solid smoke immediately. Aladino Corojo Reserva is another that I think does well with some age. I have some AF RP that I am going to try one young and one old in 2 different vitolas to see if there is any change. 

The difference is less pronounced than a young CC to an aged one, in my small amount of experience. 

[Namisgr11]

11 hours ago, vinnyvega said:

Fuente and Davidoff. Don Carlos, Hemingway, and Opus X all shine with 20+ years on them. VSG rolled prior to 2006 are extraordinary. I have Don Carlos robustos from the late 90s that are fantastic. Same to be said about the old Davidoff Millennium blends.

Seconded for my admittedly limited experience and after fewer years of aging with multiple Fuente lines. I've also really enjoyed Padron 1964 Anniversary with several years on them. Persisting rich and complex flavors.

[zeedubbya]

I think (not through any scientific studies, but personal experience) they most assuredly age well. Some turn to cardboard tasting, but some Habanos do as well. The one thing which doesn’t seem to happen is a vast change. I have some old Padrón’s and they are still Choco, dark espresso, dark earth just some of the pepper is gone, but rich dark flavors remain. Maybe with the strength of some New World cigars like Padrón, LFD, Opus they may need 50 plus years to change like a PLPC would in 3-5?  Just a hunch.

Some Pipe tobaccos age wondefully (Virgina in particular), and some lose character (Latakia in particular).    

Bundle of dead/rotting leaves—bound to taste different when rotted even more— my first principles thinking at work 😊 

[JD_Stogies]

I've had some really good experiences with aged Illusione Epernay and Tatuaje 7th Habano and Broadleaf.

[Islandboy]

I agree the blend is critical, but there’s just something about Cuban tobacco that facilitates a transformation in taste with age better than most of the non-Cuban tobacco I’ve had. This is a general statement, of course, with some exceptions on both sides of the equation.

[Çnote]

Do NCs mellow and show more nuance with age? Yes, absolutely!

Do NCs pick up sweetness and richness like PLPC and Dieux?  Few and far between. Many (but not all) lines of Tatuaje and Warped, a couple of Viaje bands, maybe Don Carlos. I don't think this is the goal of 95% of NC, they're often ready to go.

To compare cigars and wine, great Burgundy, Barolo and Bordeaux are made to age like CC. Most wine doesn't need to age, but can benefit from some age, if it's to your taste. Another great example would be NV Champagne. It's ready to go upon release, but a vocal minority will cellar it for a couple of years. Cru Beaujolais would be another similar category; can age, maybe should age, often doesn't need age. Weird whites like Grillet, Serrant, Hune, Beaucastel VV blanc. Bricks in the cellar, delicious today, maybe a decanter required.

I wish you could decant cigars...

[Çnote]

11 hours ago, JD_Stogies said:

Illusione

My apologies for missing this great brand. I don't see it much locally...

[mohammed.s.almutlaq11]

My Padron 1926 Natural went bland after 3 years. Same as the Davidoff late hour. I tasted only spice, the complexity and flavor were gone.

[Çnote]

18 hours ago, mohammed.s.almutlaq11 said:

Padron 1926 Natural

@Capn_Jackson these!

[eaglebear29]

Many of my NW that I've smoked since I got into this 2 years ago that were more pepper bombs or just typical flavors have seemed to really shine in different ways. Some are okay, most have been phenomenal so far. But my palate has changed as well so sometimes I think part of it could be flavors I wasn't able to pick up on before. The things I have noticed are the harsh flavors have mellowed out and allowed more sweet notes and I don't get as much of ammonia hits, and I've always smoked slowly. It seems to me that even though NW have more aged tobaccos even after resting for 90-180 days I can still get a lot of ammonia. Whose to say they won't hit another fermentation or benefit more having the flavors blend together, bringing out more hidden notes? It is all subjective and dependent on the individual but in my short experience they have benefited greatly. All things come into play as well since we all have different tastes and storage conditions and weather outside. 

I usually picked stronger cigars when starting all of this, and a majority that I had trouble with have gotten a lot better. Some have gotten rid of the pepper to be bland as well. Even if the cigar has 3-10 years tobacco, some still could benefit with some age. Though yes, I do believe a bad cigar is also just a bad cigar and age won't do it justice. A lot of people say DT&T are pepper bombs but all my aged ones have been fantastic and nothing of the sort. So my thing has been when I pick up a cigar that has a lot more pepper, is to give it a lot of time down if I have a box and buy a 5er and check them out after a rest and revisit like my CCs, every 6-12 months. Then again I am very new to this so what do I know, this is just my short experience so far and what I've been doing. 

[Wlu1988]

I have always found Paul Garmirian cigars to age well. You can buy the bulk of his cigars with quite a bit of age on them. 20 year plus cigars are readily available. I have had some with dates back to the early 1990s and have had more hit for me than miss.