BAD NEWS!!!!! Lexington County enacts smoking ban!

The great minds of Lexington County Council have passed a smoking ban. This will directly affect our SC Sit Down's at the Wild Hare Sports Bar since they are located in Lexington County. At this point I have no idea what we will, or can do to keep the event going but it doesn't look good right now. The ban will take effect on January 1st, 2010, so if you're here for the October event you very well may attend the last one ever.

Complete story: http://www.thestate.com/local/story/881033.html

Weekend review; July 26, 2009

Busy weekend! Lake party on Saturday and helped my son move a couple things. Nothing major but no way he could do it without a truck.

Since I was so busy I'm reviewing only one cigar this week. It was given to me by Matthew Elrod about a month ago. I decided to review it today. It is:

• Cubita Special Market Selection Gran Cubita

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Cubita Special Market Selection Gran Cubita (5x50)

After helping Ty move a couple things I settled down in the leather recliner to have the cigar. This is my first try with these cigars. It's always interesting when you get to try a new cigar.

The cigar was very spicy immediately. Rather heavy citrus notes in the spice. Subtle pepper but it was nice. I was told this cigar starts out slowly but I really liked the tangy spice. I'm curious to see how it develops as I smoke it. The finish was not terribly long bu it had some peppery vanilla notes. At the midpoint the cigar developed vanilla notes. The spice stayed intense and the pepper notes were still very nice. This cigar is medium bodied. It stayed consistent from this point on. Very nice spice with vanilla notes and plenty of pepper. Thanks for a nice cigar Matt!

I'm not sure where Matt got this cigar but you can find them online by doing a search.

Score: 91

Weekend review; July 18, 2009

Nice weekend, but we can use some rain! It's been pretty dry lately. Hopefully we'll get some significant rain soon.

This week I'm reviewing:

• 5 Vegas Relic
  
  

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

5 Vegas Relic (5 5/8 x 50)

http://www.cigars5vegas.com/relic.asp

Wrapper: Dominican Corojo

Binder: Dominican Piloto

Filler: Dominican Piloto ('96), Dominican Corojo, Dominican Criollo

Origin: Dominican Republic

Perfecto shaped cigar. Really nice looking shape. Interesting construction in this cigar as both ends of the cigar are closed! You have to clip the cap and the foot in order to light it.

Very spicy cigar with tones ranging from vanilla to cinnamon. There is a decent amount of pepper in the spice. The finish is very long with notes of vanilla. There are hints of caramel in the aftertaste. As the cigar burns the cinnamon notes become predominent. The pepper increases also. All this combined with the intense spice makes this a pretty good cigar but not a great cigar. I found it enjoyable but it lacked "pop". Would I buy more? Yes, at the right price. It is well worth trying. These are available at Cigars International only.

Score: 88

No weekend review this week?

(Weekend of July 11th and 12th, 2009)
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Yep, it's true. I'm taking this weekend off from my usual cigar reviews. The reason? I had 2 wisdom teeth taken out on Wednesday of this week! Now, the Doc said I could still have cigars but I should put a piece of gauze over the lower extraction. Now, I've tried this already and it's not easy to do! All you wind up with is a soaked piece of gauze! But, I still manage to have a cigar or 2 a day using this method. I think this would take away from the review of a cigar because you can't help but have the lingering taste of gauze! And as we all know, that's not a great taste!
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It's been exactly 48 hours since I had the 2 teeth removed; one on the upper left and one on the lower right! Yeah, weird locations. I had my upper right wisdom tooth removed several years ago by my dentist. It was protruding far enough for him to grab it and yank it out, after deadening it of course! I still have one left, on the lower left side. This one appears to be just sitting there and not hurting anything. As long as it sits and behaves it can stay in there!
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As the Doc warned me, the lower right area is beginning to swell. He said it would reach it's peak after 3 or 4 days. Here I am after 48 hours. Both sides are a little puffy but see the swelling on my right side? .

Oh well, I'm on the mend now so I'll be back to "normal" soon. Well, as normal as I can be anyway!

July 4th weekend review/Maduro Room visit

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

After the usual yard work (that is usually done on Saturday, but it got done today so as to free up Saturday!) I took a quick nap, then headed over to the Maduro Room for some cigar bonding!

Twig and I had a little business to do. He's buying one of my watches, which enabled me to purchase another one for myself. Upon arriving at the Maduro Room I noticed Twig had some company. I settled in with an Oliva V.

Twig with the watch; a Swiss Legend Commander diamond dial:

Greg

Mike, Store Manager

As far as reviews this weekend, I have 2;

• Rocky Patel 10th Anniversary robusto
• Vega Fina torpedo

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Saturday, July 4th, 2009

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Rocky Patel 10th Anniversary robusto (5x50)

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This is my first try with these cigars. It is a medium brown in color. After the cap was cut I tested the draw. It was effortless. Upon lighting the cigar had a nice, intense cinnamon spice with balanced black pepper notes. The balance is fantastic! The finish is long with light vanilla notes. Pepper is felt on the rear of the throat that tends to linger. This is a very flavorful Rocky Patel cigar. This may be the best RP cigar that I've had! At the midpoint the flavors and notes are still consistent. To me, a good cigar has ample spice with lots of pepper. This cigar delivers. The cinnamon flavor makes this cigar almost like candy! If you're iffy on RP cigars you might want to give this one a try. It's great! Medium bodied. Very good cigar!

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Score: 94

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Vega Fina torpedo (6x50)

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This is a cigar that was sent to me by the Altadis cigar group. These are sent as test cigars and I am to give the other 2 to my cigar buddies. Since the Wild Hare is closed for this week I won't be able to give the others away until later, but I am reviewing this one now.

It is a very long, pointy capped cigar. I had to cut quite a bit off the cap to get the cigar to draw. It was still a firm draw but I went with it. After lighting the cigar had a nice spice with almond notes. There were very light pepper notes. This is a mild cigar. It would be a good beginner cigar. You might consider this a "morning cigar". Some people like to start the day with a milder cigar and build up as the day wears on. You could definitely do that with this cigar. The cigar itself was tasty but a little too mild for me. It stayed consistent and the spice was quite nice but it lacked "oomph".

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Score: 87

Pictoral update on The Tobacco Merchant

We made a visit to the NEW Tobacco Merchant last night. (Our favorite Tuesday night eating establishment is closed this week for a face lift. The Wild Hare is scheduled to re-open next Monday, July 6th.) So, tonight we grabbed something to eat then went to the Tobacco Merchant to get an update on the changes. When you first walk in the front door you'll see the temporary bar:

Here is a shot from the far side of the bar looking toward the front window:

The counter area where you pay for your cigars and drinks (at this time.) The new counter area will be relocated to where the temporary bar is now! (confused yet)

One of the first things, if NOT the first thing that Bill Slicer decided to do was to stock the humidor. He says it's "getting there" and plans on stocking it fuller. But, as you can see he's made some improvements:

While in there I noticed some of these rare gems in stock:

Looking from the center table toward the front window of the humidor:

Bill actually took 10 feet off the total length of the humidor but you can hardly notice it. He did a great job matching up the cedar and construction.

Here is the current sitting area. You can see some repair work on the wall:

I caught Phil enjoying a cigar:

Bill decided to transform the former office into a cigars only sitting area. To do this meant he would have to increase it's size. Remember when I said the humidor was shortened by 10 feet? Here's where it went! And, here is Bill taking up the old floor:

Once the new sitting area is completed the leather furniture will be moved in. Then the construction of the new bar will begin. It will be in the area where the old sitting area was located. The new cigar sitting area will have a 52" flat screen tv and the bar area will have 3 flat screens (not sure of their size).

Here's Paul searching for a beer for Connie:

Of course, what would Tuesday night be without our good friends:

Here's Connie at the other end of the bar:

Since these are the first pictures with my new Kodak Z712 IS camera I felt it was mandatory that I take the infamous Self Portrait, so here goes:

I decided to try the new Siglo cigar. I have seen them but never tried them. I have heard very mixed ratings on them. Some people love them, some say they're just so-so. Well, the only thing I can do is try them myself. So, here goes...

Siglo VIII (7x50)

Initially there was a lot of spice with nice pepper notes. After an inch or a little less the spice developed a very cinnamon-like flavor. The finish is long and sweet with vanilla notes. The burn was very even throughout the course of this cigar. I'd say it's medium bodied, but it tends to move in the direction of full bodied at the 2/3 point. The cinnamon notes really increased after the 1/3 point, much to my liking! The cigar stayed fairly consistent throughout. I found the cigar to be very enjoyable. I will buy more of these.

Score: 90