Habanos Vintage Chart (James Suckling, updated)


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 65
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Forget you even saw the effing list okay... Who died and made JS king of ratings??? Forget the friggin' age argument as well. Smoke Habanos long enough and you too will be able to brag about smoking

Well, looking at that article, this caught my eye: "A word of caution. Don’t touch any cigars from the end of 1998 to 2001. Many of these cigars had construction problems as well as bad tobacco blend

Not necessarily. A Lagavulin 16 or cask 12 are much better for me than a Mac 18, or Aberlour A'bunadh and Highland Park 18 are preferable to Mac 30. For me, age is so completely arbitrary. It's like a

I've had a lot of success from 2005-2007 personally.

2005 old band Mag 46's
2006 Diplo #4's
2006 Party SDC #3's
2007 Party SDC #1's & #2's

All boxes were/are exceptional and smoking beautifully today.
I read a above statement from a member that that is still smoking only vintage stick and hasn't dabbled into stock from the last say 4-5 yrs. My advice is to buy it up, cause I honestly believe some of the best and most consistent cigars we've seen in decades is being produced right now. Time will tell how they hold up over the test of time, but my experience with aging is when you start with great tobacco only greater things can come from it.


Eric



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, El Presidente said:

2006 Cab RASS (and others) are a standout. 2006 in general was a benchmark year as it was a turning point to my mind. 

if I remember correctly '06 was when all of the chatter about cooked tobacco started.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd have to vehemently disagree with Suckling's ranking of 05 and 04 ahead of 06. IMO they should be ranked 11)(or higher) 2006; 12) 2004; 13) 2005. 

I recall some real turds floating through around 06 in general, but I do agree that there were some standouts in 06 unlike 2004 and 2005 which IMO was just turd city with very little to be happy about. As Rob mentioned, 2006 RASS and RASCC were indeed smoking quite well. I also recall some Partagas and Cohiba being pretty solid around that time as well. But 04-05 was pretty much a total disappointment for all marcas in my book. 2003 was the lone good year in that period of 2000-2005, so Suckling got that very right.

I think Suckling is ranking 06 so low on the list due to consistency. I'd have to say that on the whole, 06 has more in common with the 99-02 dark ages than the 07-08 renaissance. To my mind, 07-08 was the big rebirth of Cuban cigars. I agree with Rob that it really probably began to emerge in 06 production. But 07 was a banner year, with so many marcas just finally showing up, and 08 and 09 just continued that trend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

I know this is an old thread, but I’m interested to know how the connoisseurs would rate and rank the most recent years against this list.  How’s the trend of the improving quality in the newest vintages continued?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Nekhyludov
11 minutes ago, Chef said:

I know this is an old thread, but I’m interested to know how the connoisseurs would rate and rank the most recent years against this list.  How’s the trend of the improving quality in the newest vintages continued?

I would put 2016 in the middle of the pack and 2017 near the bottom. I haven't smoked enough 2018s to have a feel for those yet, but I expect that it'll be above average.

Just my two cents.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, RDB said:

Presumably we are talking box code dates, rather than harvest dates? I’d be interested to see people’s ratings too - a rising tide lifts all boats.

The source article refers to the "best" box code dates, not harvests.  :thumbsup:

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I thought I posted a thread about this on the main page but either it wasn't approved (do posts on "the water hole" have to be approved by admin?) or it didn't save. Either way, I was wondering what people think of 2015-2020. I haven't seen anyone talk about anything past 2017 in context to the other vintages of the past 10-20 years. 

(looks like someone posted about this last year too. lol)

On 5/9/2019 at 5:26 PM, RDB said:

Presumably we are talking box code dates, rather than harvest dates? I’d be interested to see people’s ratings too - a rising tide lifts all boats.

Yeah, I'm talking box codes. It would be annoying to try and remember (or find out) the age of the tobacco in all of the cigars you smoke and then compare them to the box codes to try and pinpoint the actual grow vintage. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/9/2019 at 12:26 AM, RDB said:

Presumably we are talking box code dates, rather than harvest dates? I’d be interested to see people’s ratings too - a rising tide lifts all boats.

Impossible. Multiple years' harvests are in a single cigar and not necessarily the three prior to the box code.

On 5/9/2019 at 4:29 AM, miamipadronsmoker said:

Funny, I would put his top two years dead last. 

14 was a pretty good year. Not sure if I'd call it the best but it's top 5 by any objective measure. 15 however, I don't recall a lot of great production.

On 5/8/2019 at 9:51 PM, Destro said:

I would put 2016 in the middle of the pack and 2017 near the bottom. I haven't smoked enough 2018s to have a feel for those yet, but I expect that it'll be above average.

I'd put 16 just above the middle but 17 wasn't that bad. Certainly would never put it down with 02 or 05. I'd put it dead middle.

18-19 has certainly been a big step up and top third of the list for sure. And I've been a bit happier with 19 than 18 overall. 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, brutusthebuckeye said:

Whatever happened to Suckling? ...and his phoney bologna accent   Got to be one of the more cheesiest characters in the cigar biz. 

He's still got his web presence. Posted this week...

https://www.jamessuckling.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/6/2020 at 5:15 PM, brutusthebuckeye said:

Whatever happened to Suckling? ...and his phoney bologna accent   Got to be one of the more cheesiest characters in the cigar biz. 

Ha. I think his hairdo might be as bad as that accent.

He seems to be about 99% wine the last few years. And every cigar he does comment on scores 98 points. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Community Software by Invision Power Services, Inc.