RDB

Yowza! And you puts yer money where yer mouth is. Nice.

The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore... RIP Scott Walker. A beautiful mongrel seems the appropriate smoke. This is LGR MAR 18. Not a hint of caramel, but instead a delicious spicy, sappy woodsmoke aroma. A touch of animal fat perhaps. Full flavoured but mid bodied and not overwhelming, it kept calling me back in the way all really good smokes do. I had better buy another cab if I’m going to age some for the long term...

RyJ Petit Royale SMA JUN 18. These are a great short smoke. Fuller bodied and stronger flavours than the Churchill family, in a darker register.

What a disgusting human being. How disappointing that someone agreed to make special cigars for him.

Gahh, I remember hesitating and missing these. Go on, how are they?

Upmann Regalia, MEG MAR 17. After yesterday’s QdO Corona, this was a bit rough, with raw wood and pepper alongside the nuttiness amd coffee ground base. But it also feels like time will help, as there’s a lot of oil in these little sticks.

All the procedural arguments about respecting the vote are just weak proxies for the real underlying issue. The reason the Brexiteers will die in a ditch to prevent another public vote is because they think they would lose it. Not certainly lose it, but probably. The stars aligned for them in 2016: a crap remain campaign, a well-run leave campaign, a low level of understanding about the negative consequences of leaving, and a lot of people who didn't vote because they thought remain would win. The UK is still horribly divided on the issue, but the numbers have fundamentally shifted in favour of remaining in the EU. Government by opinion poll is of course barmy. But so is the idea that a single vote must never ever be reconsidered. It's like promising to burn your house down, on the basis that someone (such as a team of unicorns) will build you a lovely new one to replace it. Right now the UK has the matches in hand, but the unicorns are nowhere to be seen, and neither is any kind of a new home. The really tragic development of the last few days is the feeling that the EU has finally had enough, and wants the UK out so everyone can get on with their lives. Any single EU state can blow the whole thing up beyond repair. It's an amazing act of collective self restraint that they have not done so already. Meanwhile, our hapless Prime Minister thinks the best way to bring round her rebel MPs is to tell them they are not representing the people. She is just unbelievably politically clumsy.

People say to age them, but they smoke well young too...

Now that is my kind of watch. I had a similar steel Seamaster from the late 50s that belonged to my grandpa... until some b*****d stole it in the mail. Anyway, nothing looks better with smart evening dress than a watch like that. But it can also be worn with jeans. Classy, beautiful! Maybe Di should wear it?

Tasty treats:

Lovely clean layout, attractive even to a total non-speaker! Well done! R

Well, given that 50 Cabs have been showing up all over the place, and 25 dress boxes are apparently due to appear here soon, this seems like wrong information!

I'm going to build a man shed and smoking cave at the bottom of that garden...

This is a fine looking, firmly packed and box-pressed, colorado wrapper Monte 4. From an oily, strongly aromatic PSP box. Toasting the foot makes it look like the tobacco is melting! Right from the off this is a powerful little smoke. Firm draw. Dark coffee and burnt cake edges, lots of peppery spice, woodsmoke, touch of cured animal fat. Good even burn. I keep looking for cocoa, and there’s a definite sweetness, but not really chocolate for me. Instead this is quite similar in nature to a recent (also young and high quality) Trinidad Coloniales: similar intensity and complexity, similar dark spicy nature. Not as exotic, but still very good, with lots of changing flavours and an underlying richness. Then goddamnit it starts to rain! I stick it out for another ten minutes, but it’s not letting up, so after half an hour I have to pitch the cigar and retreat inside (no smoke allowed indoors). Well, half an hour of pleasure is a lot better than nothing.

Great review, thanks.