january-2012

the United States – the largest cigar market in the world – rose
fi ve-fold in four years as smoking cigars became fashionable
with a younger, moneyed set. Seeing the demand, in 1999
Christie’s in London started holding exclusive cigar auctions
twice a year. Many records were broken at these sales, including
the sale in October 2000 of three Partagas Lusitania cigars
made before the Cuban revolution. Th ey went for £3,000,
and were the most expensive cigars in the world at the time.
Th ough the Christie’s auctions stopped around four years ago,
many others have since fi lled the vacuum.
One organiser is Mitchell Orchant who, as well
as hosting vintage cigar auctions, also owns C.Gars
(www.cgarsltd.co.uk). He says that cigar sales are still high,
even in the current tough economic climate. ‘Sales have
been growing annually, as have prices for good-quality
vintage cigars, particularly with clients from China,
Hong Kong and Japan,’ he says. ‘I’m not sure quite how
to quantify the market as a whole, but we sell around
£2m-worth of vintage cigars a year.’
Th e most prized collectors’ items have always been Cuban
cigars. Th e island’s temperate climate, the skill of its cigar
makers and the low acidity of its soil make Cubans stand
out against cigars from anywhere else in the world. And
of course, the 1960 American embargo adds an element of
mystique and exclusivity. Before Castro’s revolution in 1959
there were more than 1,000 diff erent brands and sizes of
Havana cigars. When the industry was nationalised, many
factory owners fl ed and many of the country’s fi nest cigar
brands ceased to exist. Today there are only 27 handmade
types of Cuban cigars.
Other paraphernalia, such as humidors, that are either
rare or have historical associations are also highly desirable
for cigar devotees. In 1998 a nine-carat gold cigar case given
to Sir Winston Churchill by Aristotle Onassis as a birthday
present in 1960 – estimated at £15,000 – was sold to a
private collector for £43,300 at Sotheby’s. Th e inscription
read: ‘Happy Birthday from Ari.’ And a mundane typed
letter inviting an MP for lunch sold for £3,000 because
it was framed with one of Churchill’s cigars. In an earlier
PRIVATCOLLECTOR
sale, a battered single-cigar case used by Churchill when he
was a soldier on the Western Front in World War I fetched
£4,830. Fidel Castro’s signature on cigar boxes and humidors
also attracts high prices, and if ever a cigar or smoking
artefact linked to Che Guevara came on the market, you can
bet it would snapped up for a ridiculous price.
‘People buy rare cigars for several reasons,’ says Mitchell
Orchant. ‘Many connoisseurs will typically buy one box
to smoke and one box to stash away to age and sell at a
later date. Usually they end up having smoked the fi rst box
for free with the proceeds of the second box.’ Others buy
them as curiosities to be kept, maybe sold again, but never
smoked. Many cigars, maybe the majority, will improve with
a few years’ ageing, but unless they’re maintained in suitably
humidifi ed conditions, they can only deteriorate – losing
their bouquet and drying out. Th e best bets are fuller-bodied
and fatter cigars, such as the stubby robusto size. As with
fi ne wine, even very old cigars can sometimes be surprisingly
good to smoke. ‘It’s all down to the way they’ve been kept,’
‘Connoisseurs will buy one box to smoke, one to sell at
a later date. Th ey usually end up smoking the first box
for free with the proceeds of the second’
Twenty-Four
says Orchant. ‘I’ve just received some from the 1930s which
are very good.’ Of course, very wealthy cigar lovers can
aff ord to buy rare cigars to smoke, not keep. One such fan is
Sir Terence Conran: ‘I bought two or three hundred Monte
Cristos at an auction in Havana a couple of years ago, and
now there are only around 50 left,’ he says.
Whether a collector chooses to smoke or save his
handmade bounty, there’s a topic that causes plenty of
debate between cigar connoisseurs: what will happen when
the American embargo on Cuba is fi nally lifted? Whenever
this might be (possibly in the next few years), there will be
a huge new demand for Havana cigars from the United
States. Of course, one can only speculate, but the consensus
is that annual sales in America could well exceed 40 million.
Cuba currently exports around 150 million cigars each
year. For some, this is a cloud on the horizon – the worry
is that the increase in demand could aff ect quality – but for
those canny investors with large, well-kept collections, it is
almost certainly a cause for celebration, as they will see their
carefully stored-away cigars start to rocket in value.