2011/03 – Cuba 2011 – Private Dinner and Tasting 1974 Vintage

15 Mar

Tasting 1974 RG Coronas Extra & 1974 Macallan
Picture by Cesar Adames

Dinner Prado 309

Private Dinner and 1974 Vintage Tasting

Back in Havana from our trip through Cuba, no official events of the XIII Festival del Habano were waiting for us as we didn’t attend it.

But of course we had some interesting private events scheduled that had been planned in advance.

Having attended all three previous tastings organized by Alex Iapichino Jimmy wanted to give back something and promised last year to provide cigars and single malt for this year’s tasting.

For this purpose he brought 1974 Rafael Gonzalez Coronas Extra and 2 bottles of 1974 Macallan single malt from Singapore.
A funny anecdote happened in Frankfurt as one of the airport security staff, himself an Aficionado jokingly wanted to “prevent” the box from travelling back to its origins in Havana – he would have loved to have it smoked in Germany, but let it pass.

The tasting was conducted at one of the large and beautiful meeting rooms of the Hostal Conde de Villanueva. A perfect venue as it was sheltered, aired and large enough.

Simon Chase, along with Alex and Jimmy chaired the tasting and welcomed the invited guests.

These included, among many others, Deborah Zulueta, Max Gutmann, Dr Luis Sorinas, Nabuhiro Nakamura, Ian Pepper, Colin Ganley, Jose Ilario, Cesar Adames, James Suckling, Jose from Chile.

All in all some 30 serious Aficionados plus a New York Times journalist assisted.

James Orr, the very professional and friendly video producer for James Suckling made a video of the event that would be posted on /www.jamessuckling.com/

My simple conclusion : The cigar was a dream and paired brilliantly with the single malt – it “talked” to me, ‘nuff said, was confirmed by all the serious experts who, of course, put it in many more and much better words.

A very relaxed dinner was celebrated the previous night.

Our small group of friends, Alex, Naka-san, Ian, Colin and me had invited James Suckling and Jimmy Ng as our guests to a private dinner at Centro Asturiano rooftop restaurant on Prado 309.

Here we had the chance to shoot the crap and hear the latest gossip on the cigar world while having good fun, good food and great wines – tradition is that each attendee brings a bottle or two along.

These events were the highlights of the XIII Festival for us.

Nino