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RODMAN’S CIGAR BUDGET: $30,000 A YEAR!

New Smoke profiles the basketball bad boy

Los Angeles, May 9 – Dennis Rodman told Rick Shaw that he goes through six to seven boxes of top-quality cigars a month and spends up to $30,000 a year on cigars.

Shaw may not have believed it, but he printed it in the newest issue of Smoke.

Spinning his story between Beverly Hills’ Grand Havana Room and his new restaurant in Newport Beach, Rodman’s, the former NBA All-Star is looking to get back into the game, looking to be a successful restauranteur and just looking around.

The author asked Rodman if “he ever gets tired of being around wild parties. [Rodman] looks over at me with a wry smile and says ‘Around? Man, I’m usually in the middle of it.’”

It’s not a deep story, but it’s fun. So is the rest of the issue, which is a better and better read under the editorship of Ted Hoyt and Mark Bernardo:

• The perfect follow-up to Rodman, of course, is a cigar tour of Detroit, where he made his first mark in basketball with the Pistons. Compared to intolerant cities like Los Angeles or San Francisco, it’s a smoker’s haven. Imagine enjoying a Tigers game from the comfort of the Tiger Club, complete with leather chairs, full bar, a view of the field and your own cigars in one or more than 100 humidified cigar lockers!

• Then there’s the interview with Felipe Gregorio’s Phillip Wynne, complete with a photo of Philip and his beloved dog. Among the gems is Wynne’s recollection of how he came make “My Way” for Frank Sinatra:

“He’s read about me and knew I was new in the business, and an Italian-American, so he wanted to give me a shot. But he insisted that the cigar be made in the Dominican Republic. I told him I did not have a factory in the Dominican Republic, and Sinatra just smiled and said, ‘Now you do.’ We discussed various dollar figures, he asked me how much he needed to invest for me to make him a cigar, we agreed upon a figure, and before I left the table he said, ‘Would you like a check or would you like me to transfer it?’”

He also notes that his Condega, Nicaragua factory now makes about two million cigars annually, including his much-respected Felipe Gregorio line, Felipe II and Petrus. His Dominican factory – courtesy of Sinatra – now makes about four million cigars a year, including Felipe Dominicana and the limited-production Excellence.

• An excellent story on pairing cigars and beer by Julie Johnson Bradford and Daniel Bradford, noting the new variety of beers, “with alcohol strength that rivals wine, beers permeated with rich fruit, and vintage beers that age in the bottle. In this ne world, a cigar that would easily overwhelm a conventional brew is the ideal companion to these more assertive drinks.”

The story goes on to name nearly a dozen beers that make for excellent matches with specific brands of cigars, although I have some trouble with a recommendation that pairs a bottle of Aecht Schlenkerla Rauschbier Marzen with either a bitter-finish Montecristo (Havana) or a smooth, caramelized Fuente Hemingway Series!

• A clear and informative round-up on cutters by cigar expert Dale Scott, covering all of the angles, including this gem, “‘Self-sharpening’ double guillotines or scissors are a fiction. Blades sliding over each other may remove machining burrs initially, but it doesn’t keep household scissors from dulling, and it won’t work on cutters, either.”

• Then, of course, there is the cigar review, this time covering 28 cigars with a new, 10-point scale instead of the old, five-point scale. Continuing the usual preference for high scores in reviews, ratings range from 8.3 to 9.2. As always, Smoke works hard to find good cigars which are not well known and they found some doozies for this issue:

> 9.2 for the Cuban Classics Toro, distributed by Reel Smokers, a moderately-priced Honduran cigar which was cited by reviewers for its “slightly sweet taste,” or “sweet spiciness” or “with the bouquet reminiscent of a poppyseed bagel.” Were they folks smoking the same cigar? Were they even smoking a cigar . . . or something else?

> 9.0 for the Cosmo by Topper, a Honduran perfecto which received panel scores from 7.2 to 9.6! This is a highly underrated cigar which is worth trying if you can find it, featuring a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper – Topper’s signature – and Honduran-grown binder and filler.

These were the only cigars to receive scores of 9.0 or better. There were four which received scores of 8.9 and three which scored 8.8.

Other highlights include a look at the top cigar bands on the market today and the antics of cigar lover and sculptor Michael Grey. He created a futuristic alternative to the Cigar Store Indian with “Al the Alien.” It’s a greenish sort of fellow weighing 185 pounds with a stash of matches in one hand, cigars in the other and a belly full of cigars in a six-drawer humidor. All this for $23,000! Check out page 23 to see “Al” in full color.

Finally, editors Hoyt and Bernardo make a telling point in reviewing Cuba’s indoor smoking ban, the final turn in Cuban President Fidel Castro’s about-face on cigars, his island’s most famous export: One wonders whether other cigar-producing nations, like the Dominican Republic, Honduras or Nicaragua, will suddenly find opportunity in embracing the cigar culture that Cuba has suddenly demoted.”
~ Rich Perelman

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