Cigar Aging Article

Originally Posted by d'am

I love me a good challenge...and damn this was hard! Turns out that yahoo search has the article cached. Here you go:

http://74.6.238.254/search/srpcache?...6I4NRhG4.bzw--

Excellent work. I did not try Yahoo. It appears Google does not have it cached. Thanks a million!

It appears Yahoo has removed the article from the cache. I have made the article available as a PDF here.

[sjnovakovich]

The article has now disappeared! I did a search and results come up BUT... all of the links result in a 404 Forbidden error.


That sucks!!

[joeobx]

Originally Posted by Nathan King

It appears Yahoo has removed the article from the cache. I have made the article available as a PDF here.

Originally Posted by sjnovakovich

The article has now disappeared! I did a search and results come up BUT... all of the links result in a 404 Forbidden error.


That sucks!!

try this link

Thanks alot NathanKing. Great article.

[sjnovakovich]

Excellent article, and very informative. While my many years of cigar smoking experience causes me some minor disagreement with the length of aging , I now understand aging to a greater degree as well as understanding better the process through which the cigars pass.

Thanks very much for providing this excellent and informative article!

Steve

How many of you are of the opinion that if you have a humidor that is 90% full, that all of the smokes in there are going to suffer as it applies to aging? I'm not refuting or confirming it, I just would like to hear the opinions on this.

Personally, I'm in the middle of building a custom cabinet humidor, have had a couple of my desktops packed with good smokes for a while. I throught I was doing the right thing there so that humidity stays pretty stable and ages the smokes better, but part of that article seems to say that leaving little or no space means that I get little to no aging. I would like to disagree with that, based on opening and closing the humidor to get more fresh air in every so often while checking humidity/recharging beads.

I'm going to leave any possible benefits from active humidification devices and the "ammonia scavenging" of Shilala beads out of this.

[sjnovakovich]

Originally Posted by bigdankcloud

How many of you are of the opinion that if you have a humidor that is 90% full, that all of the smokes in there are going to suffer as it applies to aging? I'm not refuting or confirming it, I just would like to hear the opinions on this.

Personally, I'm in the middle of building a custom cabinet humidor, have had a couple of my desktops packed with good smokes for a while. I throught I was doing the right thing there so that humidity stays pretty stable and ages the smokes better, but part of that article seems to say that leaving little or no space means that I get little to no aging. I would like to disagree with that, based on opening and closing the humidor to get more fresh air in every so often while checking humidity/recharging beads.

I'm going to leave any possible benefits from active humidification devices and the "ammonia scavenging" of Shilala beads out of this.

Although it's a good article, and an informative one, I would like to know something of the author's background and expertise. He sounds very knowledgable, but like you, I disagree with some of his assertions. Even though I have a Monte that currently has a good amount of empty space in it, I like to keep similar cigars packed together. It definitely aides in keeping the moistness of the cigars stable and I think they age fine. Again, I'm qualifying this by saying it is only MY experience and as they say on the web, ymmv.

Originally Posted by sjnovakovich

Although it's a good article, and an informative one, I would like to know something of the author's background and expertise. He sounds very knowledgable, but like you, I disagree with some of his assertions. Even though I have a Monte that currently has a good amount of empty space in it, I like to keep similar cigars packed together. It definitely aides in keeping the moistness of the cigars stable and I think they age fine. Again, I'm qualifying this by saying it is only MY experience and as they say on the web, ymmv.

His name is Willy Alvero. Mr. Alvero is one of the world's foremost experts on Cuban cigars; he was the Habanos S.A. general representative in Moscow, Russia. I would say he has more cigar experience than the vast majority of the members at CigarAsylum. I can't figure out what is so controversial about claiming that the environment a cigar is aged in can have a subtle impact on flavor? Seems reasonable to me.

[M1903A1]

Originally Posted by bigdankcloud

How many of you are of the opinion that if you have a humidor that is 90% full, that all of the smokes in there are going to suffer as it applies to aging? I'm not refuting or confirming it, I just would like to hear the opinions on this.

Personally, I'm in the middle of building a custom cabinet humidor, have had a couple of my desktops packed with good smokes for a while. I throught I was doing the right thing there so that humidity stays pretty stable and ages the smokes better, but part of that article seems to say that leaving little or no space means that I get little to no aging. I would like to disagree with that, based on opening and closing the humidor to get more fresh air in every so often while checking humidity/recharging beads.

I don't think "suffer" is the right word...they'll age, but at a different pace. If there's less room for air (and depending on just how airtight the container is), then the aging process would proceed much slower (and perhaps with different results) because of the lack of available oxygen inside the humi.

[sjnovakovich]

Originally Posted by Nathan King

His name is Willy Alvero. Mr. Alvero is one of the world's foremost experts on Cuban cigars; he was the Habanos S.A. general representative in Moscow, Russia. I would say he has more cigar experience than the vast majority of the members at CigarAsylum. I can't figure out what is so controversial about claiming that the environment a cigar is aged in can have a subtle impact on flavor? Seems reasonable to me.

Thank you, Nathan. Now I have a little background on Mr. Alvero and can put a little more stock in what he states in his article. I do have a number of cigars that are much older than 10 years. Most are Fuente's of one type or another, and I must say that they are continuing to age well and hold their flavor. I've smoked plenty of Cubans (Cohiba, Parties, R&J, and others), and I suppose I would be considered odd to most people on the forum, but I really don't like them much at all. I enjoy cigars that are very full bodied, and in my experience a full-bodied cigar takes some aging in order to remove the harshness. Again, all of this is just my two cents () base on my tastes and experience (about 40yrs.).

[Mirrorlure7m]

I just read the Volume 1 is there any other volumes available ?

Originally Posted by Mirrorlure7m

I just read the Volume 1 is there any other volumes available ?

The magazine is no longer in business; however, the following link includes some other articles:

http://www.en.cigarclan.com/

[kgoings]

Great Article, after reading some of the responses here I thought it would be full of a bunch of hooey.

He talks of two types of aging, not that one is better than then other, nor one is faster than then other. Just different. I've never tasted mushroom in a cigar, but I've never aged my cigars in that method (oxidation a couple cigars in a large box with lots of air) and I think 99% of the people on this board age the other way (reducing, humidor chocked full with less air) the reducing method he says creates the tertiary aromas we most often hear about, earthy nutty, and the marrying of the aroma's.

As far as the 10 year comment, he says FEW cigars can clear the 10 year hurdle and that the quality of the tobacco is the biggest factor on how long you can age a cigar. Not than NONE can be aged over 10 years.