The Oldest

Hey all.

I have the strongest urge to buy my first humidor with the mindset of aging cigars that I will hopefully enjoy years to come. :smiley1: I currently am searching for the best investment, but I understand what I think I might need count-wise now will rise in future years, so I'm quite skeptical, but I'm still looking. Reading all the Humi-Know-How makes me confident that I can find, prep, handle, use a humidor correctly. Thanks!

I hope this post isn't a re-post from somewhere else, but I was just extremely curious.

How old was the oldest cigar that you personally aged and smoked? (I won't even ask about how the experience was, because I bet the aging of a fine cigar is worth the wait hence phenomenal.)

This post and survey isn't meant to shine anyone's skill/talent/passion/ego amongst others like... "I was able to age my fine Zino 23 years! Beat that!".

Aging is definitely not a competition, I understand everyone has their own taste, but surely some of us well-experienced smokers have aged what us noobie's have not...yet.

Use the search function and find the thread that was active a while back on aging cigars. There have been several of them in last few years. Lots of good knowledge in these. As for selection of a humidor there are a lot of good threads on that also.

As far as aging cigars in a humidor you might consider two humidors. One for smoking from and one to age in. I personally put the cigars I want to age for a long time in a glass tube with tape around the seam between the cap and the tube. This prevents any marrying of the various cigars or the sudden appearance of any devistating organisms. The tube keeps it well isolated from all the others.

Gene:smiley37:

I was always under the ASSumption that aging required exposure to the air inside the humidor. Your note about the glass tube counters that. So was I just wrong, or is this one of those areas where everyone has a different method?

The longest I've been able to keep a cigar would be around the 2-3 year mark. I also have a cigar from the 1920s in my humidor...who knows how many humidors that's seen, though.

I have a buddy who likes to age his cigars. He treated me to some Partagas cigars from 2000 and 1998 and they were very good. Getting back to the question, I have 2 cigars from each of the first boxes I purchased from August 17th 2007, almost 2 years. I haven't smoked any recently but I'll let you know when I do.

I don't have any self control. If a cigar ages in my humi, it's because other cigars in there have been more appealing to smoke.

I've smoked a Punch Gran Cru Vintage 2000 - that's about as old as I've gotten to go. James Suckling has a video of him smoking a really old cigar - I'll look for it and edit this post later if I can find it again.

A search should yield some great results for you. You don't need a fancy humidor to age cigars.

Do you guys mark or segregate sticks by purchase date?

Wouldn't there be a lot of variation in "aging" before you bought it? Or should we assume most cigars get sold before there is significant age?

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Originally Posted by Carlos

Do you guys mark or segregate sticks by purchase date?

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I mark my boxes with purchase date, not so much singles and 5 'ers unless they were gifts or trades which all get marked.

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Originally Posted by Carlos

Wouldn't there be a lot of variation in "aging" before you bought it? Or should we assume most cigars get sold before there is significant age?

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The short anwer is yes, there is significant variation. Some cigars are aged several months after they are rolled, some are shipped with little to no additional aging after rolling. Some retailers turn stock over pretty fast, some don't.

My approach has always been to let things sit until they are to my liking -- however, very little makes it past 2-3 years in my humi.

That being said, I have a box of Macanudo Jades that is about 15 years old -- they tasted like shit back then, they taste like shit now, and I'm fairly confident in predicting that they will taste like shit 20 years from now. Thankfully, they were included with a purchase (I wonder why...) -- but occassionally someone posts a candela wrapped anything on their wish list, so they have some marginal utility. Be careful what you wish for...

This wasn't intended as a Macadoodle bash -- I think most candela wrapped smokes taste like ass -- these just happen to be Macs.

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Originally Posted by EGQ

My approach has always been to let things sit until they are to my liking -- however, very little makes it past 2-3 years in my humi.

That being said, I have a box of Macanudo Jades that is about 15 years old -- they tasted like shit back then, they taste like shit now, and I'm fairly confident in predicting that they will taste like shit 20 years from now. Thankfully, they were included with a purchase (I wonder why...) -- but occassionally someone posts a candela wrapped anything on their wish list, so they have some marginal utility. Be careful what you wish for...

This wasn't intended as a Macadoodle bash -- I think most candela wrapped smokes taste like ass -- these just happen to be Macs.

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I've got some Olor Paco's that aren't too bad. Kind of strong actually but still have that grassy taste. I believe you said assy taste.

I have a Uppman from approx 1937. Came in a crystal jar and was in a basement out in the midwest in a basement of a friends grandfather who passed away

The Longest any have aged once they have arrived in my humidor is about 1 year. That happens to be a CAO America I was saving for the 4th this year. I may have ruined it though. My 4th plans fell through so I didnt smoke it. That night I was carrying stuff in from my car, ran out of hands, and put it in my pocket. Before I made it into the house, My brothers friend backed into our ditch and I had to go push him out. It got a little tore up in the process, We will have to see if it still smokes well.

If you age a group of different cigars together in a humidor for any lenght of time they will all begin to marry plus take on the subtle taste of the cedar inside the humidor. With prolonged aging you could end up with cigars that taste like every other cigar in the humidor with only minor flavor nuances due to the actual type of tobacco in the stick itself. By putting them in the tubes and sealing it, after it has rested in the humidor for a week or so to stablized, you prevent this from happening. Then the leaves in the stick marry only what it is rolled with. No crossing of cigar flavors. Sometimes this mellows the smoke, sometimes not.
I do age some of the harsher or too green cigars in their cello but that is because I want them to aquire the cedar nuance to perk them up, or I want them to lose some ammonia to take out some of the harshness.

Gene :smiley37: