Bags are packed and within short I will be on my way to the biggest cigar party. I remember the first such party I attended back in 1995 celebrating the Partagas 150^th Anniversary. Some freaks, a bunch of nutcases including myself and the Importers of Cuban cigars had a dinner in the famous Cohiba Hotel besides the Malecon. That was when I first saw guys like Hunters and Frankau’s Simon Chase and  Nicolas Freeman, the legendary Raphael Levy, Cubatabacco president Dr. Daniel Solana, Habanos S.A. president Francisco Linares and all these – most of them are not with us anymore.

Now, this year the Festival (now it is in fact called Habanos Festival) will be nothing like that. You can hardly manage to get into one of the cigar stores and if you make it you will have to fight your way through the smoke and loads of attending cigar lovers from all over the world. The former family-like dinner has mutated into a glamorous Gala – with all the pro and contra that goes along with such kind of events. Lets see…

Yesterday we fixed this years top event in Havana for Thursday night, the evening before the big Gala. That night the most exclusive Havana Cigar Club gathers at a hidden place. Over a decade ago some cigar enthusiasts settled such a dinner for the first time – and since then it became a tradition I would not like to miss. The circle of members hasn’t changed a lot – just very few of them don’t make it into Havana anymore. Many years ago Cuba’s legendary  musician Francisco Repilado, aka Compay Segundo paid us a visit and played his famous Chan Chan for us – of course he was a fellow smoker and joined us for the odd Montecristo No.4. Anyhow, this year the Club dinner is scheduled and I will report about the cigars and the high end wines…so stay tuned….

Tomorrow I shall be flying into Varadero which takes about 11hrs from Germany. During our then necessary 2hours drive over to Havana we will of course stop at the first booth to get some of the really good Cuban beer and some Rum to sip. With some of them the drive is more easy to survive anyways.

However, once back into town I shall report from the first smokes, and of course from the pre-opening smoke at Hotel Nacional on Sunday night.

As promised LCDH Hamburg will have its very own Habanos Festival. A small amount of selected boxes Diplomaticos No.2 is on the offer – at 25% OFF when leaving order code Festival22 – valid on Sat 22^nd ONLY.

Happy smoking

Christopher Wolters

LCDH Hamburg