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Your experiences with Aged, non-Cuban, Cigars

Anejos are one of the best aging NCs out there, same with VSG.  I have some old Pepins and Padrons I guess I should take a look at but I do think it is sometimes just luck of the draw.  I had a Millennium maduro a few years back that was absolute crap - tasted like air.  Then I had one last year from a different 'humidor' that was fantastic, despite same age and storage conditions.  YBDMV
 
There's also the variable of 'crop'. 
 
Some early Punch Corojo were great...then a couple years later the new stock seemed 'off'. 
 
Then there were dips in Anejo, VSG and Padron (anny stuff).
 
I can say, aged Fuente and Davidoff have seemed to hold up the best - mainly from having smoked gifted sticks! :D
 
Full-bodied, full-flavored cigars benefit most from aging, IMHO; many of them have strength to spare, and mellow out a bit with age.  
 
Milder cigars may benefit from a year or two of aging, but they may also become too mild.  When I was just starting out with fine cigars, I heard about something from Villazon that had been "forgotten" for several years and bought a couple of bundles.  Some of the people who had tried them guesstimated that they had been aging anywhere from 10 to over 15 years; I can tell you that they were so mild as to be almost flavorless, but the nicotine had out-migrated to the cello -- both around the individual sticks and the bundles themselves -- to the point that you could scrape the dark yellow coloring off with a fingernail.  (The cigars still had so much of their essential oils, though, that they could serve as lip balm.)
 
If you've ever bought Consuegras, you probably know that they are supposedly seconds of Hoyo de Monterey, Punch and other fairly powerful cigars; you probably also know that a bundle may contain "seconds" of more than just one brand.  I aged a couple of bundles (No. 9s, I think) for a few years, and not only did they mellow, but -- perhaps because I did not open the bundles more than necessary to try one from each ROTT -- they all tended to taste very much alike, mostly like well-aged Hoyos or strong-ish Excaliburs.
 
I'm in the group that likes Opus with at least two or three years on them. I consider myself a big Padron guy, but I've not had a ton of success aging them beyond the two or so years I've been smoking. I've heard a lot of ppl say that most Tatuaje are better with a couple years. a pattern with nc tobacco.. maybe? As someone said already, just so many variables at play.
 
So after seeing this thread I smoked a yellow cello old like 10+ years Griffin's Fuerte 4X43.  This one aged very well, smooth yet maintained the flavors.  Nice smooth burn and wrapper in good shape.  Obviously properly maintained.  lol.  :p Had enough balls to last and smoke like a good cigar.  Sadly it was a one-off in my humidor.  Last of the last.  I wanted to smoke another one but none left. 
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golfgar, what is your RH in the Humidor?
 
Thanks for posting this!
 
Normally
MadMonk said:
golfgar, what is your RH in the Humidor?
 
Thanks for posting this!
Normally around 68 I like to keep it a little below 70. I normally don't get concerned until it is close to 62. I ahve one of those old radio shack digital hygrometers.
 
a crappy cigar wont get better with age.  a good cigar will change.  sometimes for the better, sometimes not.  it just mellows out a good cigar with age.
 
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