2013 Habanos Festival – The Inside Track

With Magali currently in Havana for the 15th Habanos festival and Johnny in the air on his way to Havana , Sautter has a wealth of experience on the ground to feed back the very latest information on the Festival and the new cigars which are being launched.

Christmas is the ideal time to relax and enjoy a fine cigar, whether you are you have just finished your Christmas lunch or are out for a long Boxing day walk, a fine Cuban cigar is the perfect way to enjoy the holidays.

There are a range of Christmas gifts available in the store and here are six of the finest:

For those of you who love great Montecristo Cigars the release in 2008 of the amazing Montecristo Sublime was a landmark and in November  2012 just four years on comes what we seriously hope will become a new classic the Montecristo 520 Edición Limitada 2012

Well we’ve got a stormer of a Newsletter this time, two amazing new cigars and they are available in the store and online now. We have teamed up with the beautiful Yacht London to bring you another great London venue where Sautter cigars are now available.

Some of you may have heard some nasty rumours, emanating from Europe,that have been circulating about the Trinidad brand and we have the real story. Periodically we like to bring you details of some of the ‘backroom’ jobs from the cigar factories of Havana, this month the blender. To top it all we have five suggestions for you for Father’s day and a key date for your diaries for July when the cigar roller will be with us again.

Happy reading.

We have been a little quiet recently mainly because we have been out in Havana for the Habanos Festival. Once again we had a great time, smoked some amazing new cigars, met lots of friends old and new and generally had a fantastic trip.
 
If you read the write up and look at the pictures of Cuba and think that you would like a trip to see Havana and how cigars are made we will be running two trips in this coming year, one in November for the smaller Partagas Festival and then again in February next year for the Habanos festival so let us know if you would like to be kept up to date with developments.
 
Over the years we have had some amazing cigars pass through the wide door of Sautter and this month we have a story of something truly remarkable that we have just acquired. The ‘Archduke Humidor’ has an amazing and poignant history and the humidor itself is currently on display in our window.
 
We continue to add to the range of video reviews on our cigars ad this month Laurence sat down for a marathon session in which he talked about, and smoked, eight cigars in one sitting. A task that would defeat a normal person but Laurence if very diligent and will introduce you to his favourite five aged cigars and his top three from this years releases.
 
We have once again added to our growing list of samplers and this month we announce two ‘training samplers’ designed to complement the Sautter Cigar training day and send everyone off with a little light ‘homework’
 
So enjoy the newsletter and don’t forget the delights of Havana are only a few hours away in the delightful company of a Virgin hostess, what could be better?

In Mayfair and London’s West End nothing stops for very long even at Christmas and New Year. The stores close; briefly, and then it’s all a mad rush for the sales. We are not much different at Sautter and we have some great offers in our sale which starts tomorrow morning 10.00am, 3rd of January bright and early. It’s a great time to get yourself a new humidor as we clear out some of our ex-display stock to make room for all of the new stock we have on the way.

The New Year marks the formal opening of the first new Sautter Cigar locations, we are now supplying our fabulous quality Cuban cigars to the first two select partner bars. The first two, in Fulham and Canary wharf. Make sure you follow us on Twitter to get regular updates on events during 2012 and to hear about the new London venues where you will be able to enjoy Sautter Cuban cigars.

The fact that the problem of forged Cuban cigars has recently featured in a story by Reuters confirms that the problem has now become widespread. We have all been offered a box of cigars by a friend who has returned from Cuba or Mexico that turn out to be made of Banana leaves, at best. Luckily in the UK we have the EMS stamp which guarantees not just that the cigars are genuine but also that they have been looked after from manufacture to the store.  

We have exciting news of a link up with the Monaco Cigar Club and details of Cigar Training for 2012. Finally if the grey London weather is getting you down, maybe it is time you planned a trip to the sun in Havana for the 2012 Habanos Festival.

So Happy New Year from all of us at Sautter may we all be prosperous, successful and smoke many great Cuban cigars.

So the Christmas lights in Mount street have been switched on; in some style as you can read later in this newsletter, and the store is filled with amazing cigars and Christmas cheer.

November was a busy month, it is important to ensure we have all the right cigars in stock so that you can enjoy something special over the festive season and we are delighted with some of the marvellous
Christmas gift packs this year, not least the fantastic recreation of the Cohiba Behike launch pack which features one of each of the Behikes in a beautiful polished wooden box. One of these in your stocking on Christmas morning and you have Christmas day, Boxing Day and New Year covered.

We have also just received the first stocks of the new H Upmann Half Corona and we are in a state of high excitement because the initial limited stock of the 2011 Montecristo No2 Gran Reserva is on its way from Havana as I type.

We were delighted to welcome a famous cigar smoker to Sautter over the last couple of weeks and our cameraman has been busy so there will be some great new cigar reviews early in the New Year to look forward to.

While everyone was busy drinking champagne and enjoying a good cigar Sautter was also all the way down in Canary Wharf with our new friends Chartwell and we feature in their latest magazine.

Finally, if you are being dragged about the West End Christmas shopping don’t forget that there is always a comfortable seat at Sautter to rest your weary legs and to relax with a cigar and a coffee. We are open until 7.00pm on weekdays so if you find yourself at a loose end waiting for your evening Christmas festivities to kick off pop in and take the weight off.

So best wishes for the festive season from all at Sautter.

It feels a little like Christmas has arrived  early at Sautter with the first shipments of this years  three new Edicion Limitada (or Limited Edition) cigars now being in stock and ready to sample.
This is always an exciting time of year as these are truly cigars produced in very limited quantities  and made with leaves that have been aged for two years. In previous years they have proved exceptionally popular. With new unique cigars from Cohiba, Ramon Allones and Hoyo de Monterrey 2011 is sure to go down as a great year and the cigars are all sampling very well.

The Evening Standard has recently highlighted that Mount Street is out to take Bond Street’s crown as London’s premier shopping street and this month in the first of an irregular feature we will be highlighting the story of one of Mount Street’s famous residents during the swinging sixties.We have also been alerted to an amazing new cigar photography project which we thought some of our readers may like to get involved with.  

We wanted to give you advanced notice of a new service from Sautter which is due to launch very soon. And finally, on a recent trip to Havana we took some wonderful video which we wanted to share with you via the ever popular Sautter You Tube channel.
So all in all a really exciting month for Sautters, now read on...

As this Newsletter lands in your in tray summer, such as it was, is drawing to a close. We were delighted to welcome Berta from the Cohiba Factory in Havana who was in the store rolling some amazing cigars and we are delighted to announce that she will be back, all too briefly for two more days with us in September.

Sautter has always been know for selling the very finest vintage and aged Cuban cigars but every now and then something incredible comes through the door and this month we are featuring a truly amazing cabinet of H.Upmann cigars that we are still researching but which we believe dates from the last years of the 18th century.

We have some more remarkable cigars in the humidor to tell you about in the coming weeks and as a way to introduce you to one specific box we have an overview of the warranty seals that appear on the outside of Cuban cigar boxes.

We all enjoyed the Hunters and Frankau summer party and the official launch of the wonderful new Flor de Cano short Robusto. Read more about the cigar and the party but be quick, they are selling fast!.

If you can think ahead to the chilly months of next winter from the heat of a British summer we have now finalised the program for two trips to Cuba during the tobacco harvest and the Habanos festival. Discovering the process of growing and maturing the tobacco through to making the cigars is a trip every true cigar lover should take and we have some great trips planned.

Finally we have the winner of our Duke competition and a new competition to win a fabulous new Sautter boardroom ash tray which is big enough for almost two days worth of Laurence’s cigars so it should last any normal smoker weeks. it’s simple to enter so get stuck in.

It was great to see so many of you at the recent Mayfair celebrations in Mount Street. The place is looking extremely smart now that all the work has been completed and it is incredible the reflect on the 325th anniversary of the original ‘May Fayre’ that gave Mayfair its name.

With summer almost on us there are a number of special dates for your diary. We will have a Cuban cigar roller in the store for a week in July and that is a delight not to be missed. We also have a limited number of tickets for the Hunters and Frankau summer party which will be the first opportunity to sample two of the new cigars heading to the UK this summer.

So whether you are popping in for some freshly rolled cigars, a box of Behike’s or to pick up a fathers day gift we look forward to seeing you in Mount Street very soon.

It hardly seems like a week since we were heading off from Heathrow and now I am writing this introduction as I wait for my taxi to sweep me off to Havana Airport and the flight back to London.

The annual Habanos cigar festival is a great opportunity to learn more about how cigars are made, from the fields where the tobacco is being harvested at this time of year, to the drying and curing barns right through to the famous old Havana Cigar Factories. It’s a great place to meet Cigar friends old and new and to soak up the incredible vibe of Cuba and Havana.

As I write this I also have the packing for Cuba in the back of my mind. By the time you read it I will be sitting on the terrace of the Nacional Hotel in Havana with a freshly rolled cigar and a large mojito surrounded by the great and the good of the cigar world and cigar enthusiasts from all over the world.

Well we are finally through it! No I don’t mean Christmas, I mean the annual January stock take.
Have you any idea how challenging it is to stock take a Cigar store?

We don’t have a high tech bar code scanning system, we just have boxes and boxes of aged Cuban cigars with slightly faded print some of which are tens of years old.

Warm Regards

It’s already December and if you are anything like me, where you should have a long list of gifts you just have a blank sheet of paper. We’re all good helpful chaps at Sautter and we always have lots of ideas for the festive season. Here we present a small selection of gifts with many more in the shop and on the web site.

We know it’s chilly outside and you are always assured of a warm welcome at Sautter so why not pop in this week and sample a cigar while your nearest and dearest runs around Bond Street.

Our latest updated Aged Stock List has just been completed, call us and we will email you a copy. See you soon, Johnny Sautter - johnny@sauttercigars.com

Come and see what’s in store this Christmas at Sautter..

This third edition of our newsletter comes with details of warm places to smoke (in London and Havana), Sautter Trips to Havana, new Regional Editions and the new Sautter Humidor to mark our 50th anniversary. As you can see we have been busy so please read on.

Johnny Sautter- johnny@sauttercigars.com

Sautter Newsletter #2

We have four reasons for you to beat a path to Mount Street in the near future. For one week in October Hamlet, one of Cuba’s finest cigar rollers will be with us, so be sure to come in to get yourself a fresh taste of Cuba. We will also be taking delivery of the first of this years Regional Edition Cigars the wonderful Por Larrañaga Regalias de Londres. Our October special deal cigar will be a Hoyo de Monterray - Epicure Especial and our stylish new Crate Style ash tray has just arrived and we have a special  introductory offer for our customers. So be sure to pop in to see us and grab a great deal.

Johnny Sautter - johnny@sauttercigars.com

9. Places to Smoke

New Smoking terraces at the Langham and Dukes Hotels

When two great London Hotels open Cigar Terraces within weeks of each other it is a sign that things are on the up for London cigar smokers and the many visitors who flock to London in search of the very finest Cuban cigars.

Welcome to the very first quarterly Sautter Newsletter and the very latest news of fine Cuban cigars. In this edition we are have focused on the Cohiba brand to mark the launch of the three new Behike cigars. For those of you who have experienced these amazing new cigars you will understand that all the excitement was not hype. The newsletter will have a number of regular features including interviews with the key people in the Cigar industry and a regular interview with Desmond Sautter who founded the store and who has a wealth of great cigar stories.. We will also focus on Cuba and the cigar industry and you will hear first about the many exciting new projects that Sautter will be launching over the coming months. This issue also includes details of the three new 2010 Edicion Limitada (Limited Edition) cigars which are in store now. I look forward to meeting you in Mount Street for a cigar very soon.

Johnny Sautter - johnny@sauttercigars.com