Cigar Aficionado

Cigar Aficionado is a magazine for the man who enjoys life’s great pleasures: fine dining and entertaining, the finest wines and spirits, world travel and the arts. At the heart of every issue is the cigar: what to smoke, where to smoke, and how to enjoy a great smoke.

highlights • Cuban cigars performed especially well in this issue, delivering the best Double Corona, Toro and Robusto—along with the top scores in this taste test, the Ramon Allones Gigantes and the Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial, which each scored 94 points. And don’t miss the 90 pointer retailing for less than $7.

Power Couples

I Owe Rush So Much

out of the humidor

Cigar Aficionado

good life guide • Living well demands that we indulge in things that are of superior quality and excellent origin. This guide aspires to find and recommend the best of everything to aficionados of the good life.

RabbitAir A3 Air Purifier

Ford Bronco

The Ooni Koda 16 Pizza Oven

The Old-Fashioned

Watches with Recycled Materials

Tempo Walk Hands-Free Caddy

Auberge du Père Bise

Stamp Collecting

The Natural • Masters Champion Dustin Johnson is the best golfer in the world, a role he’s been preparing for since he was a boy

Can Johnson Repeat at The Masters? • Only three pros have claimed the legendary green jacket in back-to-back years

Pot Luck of the Irish • Whiskeys distilled purely in copper pots are reclaiming their position at the end of the Irish whiskey rainbow

Tastes of the Old Country

THE SPORTS BETTING BOOM • Agile technology and increased opportunity have sparked a sports gambling renaissance

cigars

churchills • Nicaragua dominated the high scores of this section, including the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Maduro Churchill, which scored 91 points. Unlike most maduros, which rely on Mexican or broadleaf wrapper, this is covered in Nicaraguan tobacco that spent some time during its aging process in barrels that once held Bourbon. Two cigars scored 90 points, one from a relatively new company, the other from a famous one. The Black Label Trading Co. Lawless Churchill is made for the husband-and-wife brand owners at the Oveja Negra Factory, while the My Father Le Bijou 1922 Churchill comes from the tables of My Father Cigars, the highly acclaimed, family-owned company that’s produced two Cigars of the Year. A Cohiba Esplendido turned in a lower-than-expected score.

double coronas • There aren’t many cigars left in the Cuban Ramon Allones line, but the Gigantes is certainly a size worth seeking out. With an impressive score of 94 points, it can deliver hours of smoking pleasure that keeps the palate engaged with its multitude of flavors, elegant transitions and overall harmony. Three cigars scored 93 points, all of which came from different countries. A former Cigar of the Year, the Fuente Fuente OpusX Double Corona has a complexity that stems from its strong signature core of leather and spice. The Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona shows precision and polish as it exhibits uncanny coffee-like qualities, living up to its reputation as one of Cuba’s best. For the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series A Maduro, richness comes in sumptuous strata, regaling the palate in refined layers of cocoa and nuts.

figurados • It always seems a contradiction when a small cigar can deliver such big flavor, but this was the case with the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story, a petit perfecto that scored 92 points. With its blend of Cameroon wrapper and Dominican tobacco, the charmingly tapered Short Story is made in the Dominican Republic at the grand Fuente Factory and is as engaging as it is resonant. The Casa Turrent Serie 1942 Torpedo scored 91 points. The wrapper may not look as dark as traditional San Andrés cover leaf, but that’s...