Aging Cigars To Vintage Perfection
Every day, customers come to our retail locations asking to be let in to the prestigious “Vintage Room”. Every day, first time customers are shown the infamous “Vintage Room”. Every day, I personally walk in and I am like a kid in a candy store. For collectors, part of the mystique around our Vintage Rooms is finding a cigar that you may have thought to be unattainable. The most common things uttered in our vintage rooms is “You can’t find these anywhere!” or “I didn’t know these still existed.” I am not much of a collector however. I buy cigars to smoke them. And that’s where the true beauty of this vintage rooms exists.
Some people don’t believe in aging cigars, or at the least, believe it is just fluff. I will be the first to tell you not all, or most cigars need aging. Cigar makers all over the world use the best aging techniques themselves and make sure their tobacco is primed and ready before being used in production. That doesn’t mean the best can’t get better though. It is just simply a natural occurrence. Tobacco holds ammonia and other chemicals from the soil it is grown in, just like any other crop harvested by humans. Even the best techniques aren’t fail proof or automatic. Sometimes the greatest weapon is time.
That’s right, Time. It heals all wounds and smooths out a cigars flavor. But time, combined with proper conditions and techniques are the true key to properly aging a cigar….
But what are the effects? How exactly does it enhance your smoking experience? The ultimate goal of aging, is to allow time and storage conditions to remove ammonia and chemicals from your cigar. This leads to a smoother sensation on the palate, as well as a more abundant spectrum for you to pick up the different flavor nuances.
Have you ever lit up a cigar that had a dominant “spicy” profile? Sometimes that spice isn’t the tobacco flavor, but chemicals in the tobacco that are hiding its true identity. After a couple years in proper conditions, the “spicy” cigar is actually a very rich and robust smoke, with a ton of complex flavors. The Oliva Serie V Maduro Series, Tatuaje Black Label, and Aging Room M21 are prime examples of this.
It’s not just spicy cigars from benefit from aging either. Creamy Connecticuts are some of my personal favorites to age, because I have found that the creamy notes are intensified over time, while any “dry” notes tend to fade. The original Curivari Achilles line is a great example. Another one I am looking forward to smoking after a couple years of age on them are the Original Release Padron Damaso.
But can you age a cigar too long? The answer to this can be very different depending on who you ask. I think that it’s different for each cigar. Some cigars are at their peak after a year or so. Others can be great 3 or 4 years after it’s release. Each blend of tobacco is unique and has it’s own characteristics. I do believe there is a limit. After awhile a cigar is as good as it’s going to be. You can even argue that it will lose some characteristics over too much time. Finding the perfect balance is the trick.
I highly suggest trying it out. It doesn’t have to be a rare cigar or a sought after cigar. The best cigars to age are your favorite cigars and cigars that you frequently purchase. Set up the proper conditions and place some of your favorite cigars aside for awhile. Then when the time is right, light up one of the aged cigars with one that hasn’t been aged and taste the difference for yourself.
Back in 2010 Jonathan Drew was in town testing out a new Liga Privada blend at Casa. Below is the video by Cigar Explorer featuring Jonathan Drew as your tour guide on a walk through our Cigar Lounge. He was also getting people’s reaction to a new concoction he was working on for the Liga Privada line. It was called the JD-4 and people were impressed with what he had come up with. The blend had to still be perfected over the next year and eventually was released exclusively at 
Just over 20 years ago, a small tobacco shop opened in the Chicago suburbs. Shortly after, a small display humidor was brought in for one specific customer who asked if we could carry a certain product. That one customer changed the lives of many people that day, when he asked his local tobacco shop to carry a cigar he wanted. That simple question led to the first display humidor. The small humidor eventually turned into a cabinet full of cigars for sale. Then a second cabinet stocked with the most premium cigars available. Demand kept growing. This spawned a need for a new location to fit even more cabinets and a seating area for people to enjoy their fine smokes. This became our first cigar store, 
Then there are the events…The Father’s Day and Christmas Sales Events are two of the most attended cigar events in country featuring unbelievable deals from the top manufacturers in the industry. To this day, thousands of customer’s come to 8 to 8 during the weekend of these sales to take advantage of the best sales in the cigar industry.
So naturally, this paved the way for Casa de Montrecristo right? Well, sort of. The customer service and selection aspects, yes. But it was actually a gas station and new regulations that made way for one of the most luxurious cigar lounges in the world. The owners of 8 to 8 also owned a gas station about 20 minutes south of their cigar store. Customers wanted the same premium cigars in that area, but didn’t want to commute as much. Therefore, the gas station basically became their second cigar store, selling literally thousands of cigars each year. Then came the smoking ban in Illinois. No more smoking at the gas station. This did not sit well with our customers. We could have just opened a little cigar shop in the area. We could have just told them to drive further to our other location. We could have done many things. 
But what we did was lay out a plan to build the best cigar lounge in the world. This is how 
It has been an incredible journey that is not over yet. In the first quarter of 2015, we acquired