Mayhem at joed's!

[carbonbased_al]

Yesterday joed was gracious enough to invite a few of us over to his place to watch the Giants/Cowboys game. And let me tell you, the herf that insued was [SIZE="5"]EPIC[/SIZE], even by Jersey standards. Even Trooper was super excited! Here is a pic of just one of our passes:



A Dunhill Estupendo, Dunhill Cabinetta (a tasty reddish one!), 70's Monte Dunhill #4, a Cohiba Sublime, and a pre 76 Paratagas Lusi. It was an amazing pass, made better by the company and the Giants win

Thanks raisin, germantownrob, and pnutbutrsangwich for coming. And thanks joed for being such a gracious host (and getting me that excellent pizza). There's none better than you joe, one of the best times i've ever had!

[Mr.Maduro]

Wow!! That's some line-up of cigars!! Looks like one for the ages!!

[RPB67]

Epic.

Looks like you guys definately came out winners in that herf....

Excellent, excellent, excellent !!

[Old Sailor]

Oh mylooks like a great herf by all

[Moglman]

What a line up! It's good to know that both Joes, Mike, Rob and Tom all have dry lips.

[bonggoy]

Originally Posted by carbonbased_al

A Dunhill Estupendo, Dunhill Cabinetta (a tasty reddish one!), 70's Monte Dunhill #4

Dunhill overload!!! Dunhill Overload!!!

Originally Posted by carbonbased_al

Thanks raisin, germantownrob, and pnutbutrsangwich for coming. And thanks joed for being such a gracious host (and getting me that excellent pizza). There's none better than you joe, one of the best times i've ever had!

[68TriShield]

Excellent

[PaulMac]

looks like a great time!

[TMoneYNYY]

Wow... that's just insane... I could only dream!

[Sean9689]

Very nice! Even you East Coasters do it right every once in a while.

[RedBaron]

Damn! Nice job fellas!

[bonggoy]

Originally Posted by Sean9689

Very nice! You East Coasters do it right all the time.

Fixed!!!

[Puffy69]

Very Nice looks like a great time..That MC4 makes me

[hamncheese]

Truly an epic pass it was. I arrived late into the first quarter of the game and no sooner did I sit down than did Joe appear from around the corner with a plain wooden box. He said "You must each take one cigar out of this box". Truly an offer that couldn't be refused! Raisin was up first and after some deliberation, took the smallest cigar in the box. Not knowing what it was or what remained, I was up next. I clicked open the box and my eyes nearly fell out of my sockets! In the box was a Dunhill Estupendo, a Dunhill Cabinetta, "Old-Band" Cohiba Esplendido, a Cohiba Corona, a Partagas 155 109, an "Old-Band" Cohiba Lancero, an 82 Davidoff Chateau Haut-Brion, a Davidoff Dom Perignon, a very early run Cohiba Sublime, an I'm pretty sure at least one other true classic that I am ashamed to admit I cannot remember.

Turned out that raisin had picked a Montecristo Dunhill Seleccion #4. I picked through the box and couldn't really take my eyes off of the beautiful, understated, white tubo at the bottom of the box. carbonbased_al leaned over and said "You'll want to take that one." So, what else could I do? VS proceeded to take the Cabinetta, germantownrob took the Sublime, and JoeD went into his closet to pull out his smoke, a pre-76 Partagas Lusitania that was a genuine 109 vitola (conical head).

5 snips and a few torch blazes later and we were all in Nirvana. It's hard to post tasting notes on all of the cigars, so I'll just post some general conclusions, followed by my impressions of "my" cigar, the Estupendo.

1) For all the talk of vintage cigars being spent, etc... the 25-35 year old cigars that we smoked in this pass were stronger than most regular production cigars (especially that Lusi!)

2) Its unfortunate that in a group of 5 cigars, you can't help but rank them. The Sublime was the "worst" of the group... but it was fantastic! It really spoke to how excellent the other cigars were that this excellent cigar finished at the bottom of the heap.

3) Differing draws can make a churchill smoke faster than a robusto! Smitty's Cabinetta was lit just before my very light drawing Estupendo, but remarkably they reach the 1.5" mark at the same time!

4) Alfred Dunhill was the man.

5) JoeD is the best host that I have ever had the privilege of receiving hospitality from.

Now, onto my cigar...

As mentioned before, the draw was very light on this Estupendo. If you're going to have a deviation from the "perfect draw", you would definitely want it on the light side as opposed to the alternative! Started out with a richness and strength that I have not felt in the immediate light of a churchill... ever. I was in awe at how a 25 year old churchill could be so much stronger than a recent production churchill, even from a traditionally strong marque. The flavor was almost exhaustingly complex. There were such strange notes to be detected, and so many of them that it was hard to put them into words. At times, there was a richness of milk chocolate, mixed with cashews and hazelnuts, but at other times, the sweetness had a distinctly more herbal character... strange that I can't identify a specific herb to express it. Smoking it very slowly and with ever so light draws brought out some amazing complexities when exhaled through the nose. Each draw was a short journey through 3-5 different flavors. As my friends can attest, I smoked this down to a nub that was no bigger than a 1/2 inch... probably smaller. If I took two more draws, the cherry would have been in my mouth Truly a blockbuster of a cigar. It was fantastic.

Many thanks to JoeD for providing the goods for this pass, along with an excellent spread for the game, and a nice, comfortable environment to share a few hours with some good friends.

[PaulMac]

Once again JoeD shows why he is considered one of the most generous folks on CS, always love when I have a chance to get together with him