I happened to pick up a copy of the current Cigar Aficionado magazine (Tiger Woods on the cover) at Barnes & Noble and scanned the ratings. Not suprisingly to my taste at least, Cuban cigars dominated the top ratings in all the sizes rated.

I wonder where all the cynics who claim that cA ratings are bought by the advertisers are for this issue.

you know what.. this has been the first issue in a long time in which the ratings actually made some sense...


I guess Mr. Mottola finally managed to find some good cigars

Yeah, but for every 92 point exceptional Cuban (ie. H. Upman Sir Winston) there was an average NC with 91 points. As if an Aug 06 RyJ Churchill ties at 89 points with a CAO Brazilia, and the Rock Patel Decade gets 95? Don't get me wrong I have heard that it's a great cigar and all, but when was the last time a Cuban scored 95?

comon Dusko.. that RP is definitely a 95+ cigars... after all, it has the word decade in it .... means it must be a decade old..


you know how I look at the CA ratings.. I just flip to the end of it, and look at all the cubans that were rated.. at least on that page, they got i right, and split the cigars by country..

so you can just skip over the other junk

The only ratings that make sense to me are the vintage ratings. Ever notice how they are all Cuban.

of course they're all cubans... would you smoke a 20 or 30 year old rocky patel ??

I think the biggest problem is smoking only about 1/3 of a Cuban cigar and giving it a rating based on that. For NC that’s fine because every single one I have ever tried was 100% one-dimensional. With NCs what you get in the first 2" is what you get for the whole 7". Habanos cigars just don't work like that. Most evolve from one puff to the next and there is no way in hell smoking 1/3 or less of the cigar is going to give you all the flavours present in a Habano.

very good point dusko

Do they really only rate them for the first 3rd???

I think you all have pretty much pointed out there are some pretty questionable ratings for NCs in CA let alone appearance of some NCs. Theyz gotta payz them bills.

Take it easy on the NC's folks, while the majority of my top 10 smokes are CC's, there are some decent NC's out there and some do have a good bit of complexity. Take the Padron 1926 #9, the 2007 cigar of the year, for example. I believe CA was dead on with this rateing, I actually questioned why this cigar only received a 92 rating in the issue it was profiled in. I also questioned why the Cohiba Esplindido was not in the top 25, after all, it received a 94 rating last year. If anything, I've leaned to the side that CA has always been biased on the ratings of CC's.

Because the date codes are listed on CC boxes and CA puts that in the reviews, you can pretty well know that you are smoking the same cigar as Mr. Suckling, Mr. Savona, or Mr. Shanken, but with the NC's there is no date code and without knowing how long ago the cigar was manufactured to allow for the blending of the oils, it may be a very different experience from one box to the next.

The 3rd point I would like to make, and then I'll get off my soap box, is that traditionally the ageing of NC's has not been done, so therefore, you don't see as many NC's in the connoisseur's corner, but we are beginning to see more. I have noticed a couple of La Flor Dominicana's in the past few issues. Remember too that a lot of the NC manufacturer's have not been in business that long, at least on the national or international level. I think it will become very interesting to see how some of the NC's of today develop with age.

Let's face it, just because it's a CC doesn't automatically mean that it's better than all NC's. If you were offered a choice between a Jose Piedra or an Opus X, which would be your choice?

quote:

Let's face it, just because it's a CC doesn't automatically mean that it's better than all NC's. If you were offered a choice between a Jose Piedra or an Opus X, which would be your choice?

You've put up one of the lowest quality, least expensive Cuban cigars versus one of the highest quality, most costly and coveted Non-Cuban cigars. Not to mention many would prefer the Piedra over the Opus every day and twice on Sunday, so with all do respect, I'm not sure how this statement helps your argument.

It's irrefutable; Cuba makes, by far, more of the world's best cigars than any other country or region on the face of the Earth. I don't think this is a debatable point.

GREAT points, young herfer. I agree on every count.

quote:

Not to mention many would prefer the Piedra over the Opus every day and twice on Sunday, so with all do respect, I'm not sure how this statement helps your argument.

I would personally perfer an Opus X over a Piedra Guantanermera. Quintero. Please excuse the spelling i do not smoke these and have no wish to learn their spelling.


It's irrefutable; Cuba makes, by far, more of the world's best cigars than any other country or region on the face of the Earth. I don't think this is a debatable point.

No Doubt Cuban cigars are second to none.
Its not even fair to the N.C cigars in a side by side comparison the Cuban wins every time hands down.

I'm not disputing the fact that the majority of CC's are second to none, but in my opinion, and this is my opinion only, and according to my dad, "Opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one and they all stink." All I'm trying to say is there are some NC's that I prefer over CC's. I don't come from the school that believes just because it's a CC that it's automatically better than all NC's.

"That's all I have to say about that." - Forrest Gump

Despite the bias toward paying CA for ads, I believe that the very method for rating cigars is flawed. Imagine tasting so many cigars at the same time. Taste buds become overwhelmed which leads to false ratings. Everyone who knows realize cigars are best rated when the palette is clean. The verdict is in so take these ratings with a grain of salt as the saying goes.

You also gotta think though, that they have to smoke something like a 75+ cigars a month for the review. So smoking just one a day, would not work for them. They have to smoke them in bunches, to squeeze all of them in, so that they can all be reviewed and placed in the issue.

I also must agree with Herfer, some NC's can be in one's own opinion, better than other CC's. Let us not forget guys, that cigar smoking is all about preference and the beauty of everyone's own opinion.

I just received the latest issue, with Kevin Costner and his uncut belicoso.

It seems like Greg went mad on the Cuban lanceros for the blind tasting section! Good job Mr. Mottola.

Just tossing in another opinion, with a nod to YoungHerfer's definition of the term...

If you compare the best of the best CCs to the best of the best NCs, the CC will come out ahead. No arguments there.

It gets a bit muddier, though, further down the chain. Padron 64 and 26, OpusX and Anejo, Ashton VSG, Aurora Cien Anos and 1903, AFH Maduros, Illusione, Tatuaje... There are some great NCs out there.

I think it's demonstrably untrue to categorically state that "all CCs are better than all NCs".

On the other hand, do I believe that an RP Decade (rated 95) is better than a Cohiba Esplendido (rated 94)? Not on your life...

Let's put it this way, if I had 200.00-500.00 to spend on a box of cigars. CCs for sure.

NCs are pricier and IMHO not box worthy. I would definitly buy 10 or so sticks at a time to have some on hand for a change but that would be on the best NCs not the 99.9% of the crap out there.

CM