Temp control - how important is it?

[Porch Dweller]

Originally Posted by nutcracker

So interestingly I had been worried about temp because I have some cigars in a wine cellar. I recently came across a comment from Edward Sahakian (the manager of the Davidoff store in London, England) on James Suckling's website. He suggests 13 degrees Celsius 65% humidity as perfect for aging cigars.

I am now officially confused, based on my understanding of RH, however this is a highly respected cigar retailer who probably has a lifetime of experience with sort of thing.

Cooler and drier than conventional wisdom.

I used to keep mine at 70% just because I'd read that that was the optimum for NCs. It wasn't until I came here to CA that I saw that many, many folks prefer their's lower. So I did some experimenting and realized that 63-65% is my preference; they just seem to burn and taste better.

As for temperature, I keep my wineador at 65* (18C). I could go lower but sometimes I'm taking a cigar out and heading straight outside to where it could be 98* (37C) and 85+% humidity and that big sudden change seems to affect the burn. I usually take about five to 10 out at a time and put them in a humidor to let them adjust to the temperature changes, and just pull sticks out of the humi to smoke. But sometimes there's something in the wineador I want to smoke NOW, so I don't keep it as low as it can go.