by Yannis Valavanis

Sometimes I get a consumption frenzy, I don’t know how else to explain it to you, something like I want to try something special, rare or unknown, something different. I usually work it out in my sleep the night before and organize the next taste test. These pleasures are of course very private, to the point of being alone. Due to the nature of the products and although you wouldn’t call me stingy or a very lonely guy, I would actually claim the opposite, the ones I want to try in specific cases are now unique, maybe even collectible, and I prefer more special situations.

Some friends have advised me to sell them, but the more I think about it, the more I move away from this idea – after all, money is not everything. The ball of the previous night’s meditation, between sleep and waking, sat in Glenfiddich Caoran.A not so well known malt from the deer valley, not so much as a name, but more as a type. As a malt of the Glenfiddich range, it is one of the most famous classic spirits of the house of William Grand from the sources of the Highlands with mild oak notes, but with intense fruity aromas and creamy sweet aftertaste – which is its characteristic.

This is a bottle that was introduced in 2003 and production stopped in 2009. It was something special 20 years ago as Extra Peated Malts were not as famous as they are nowadays. Its name refers to this very characteristic, Caoran in the traditional Scottish dialect of Gaelic means intensely peaty with the intensity of the coal and peat used in the distillation, “Peat Ember”. Like the name of the distillery, Glenfiddich, located in Dufftown, Speyside since 1886, means Valley of the Deer in Gaelic.

But let’s move on from the historic whiskeys to the anniversary cigars that Cohiba released in 2016 for its 50 years in just 1966 collectible humidors of twenty pieces each, a significant number for the equally significant year for the company. It is a unique cigar both in quality and dimensions with a Vitola that was in circulation before the revolution but then its production stopped. I don’t know from which factory it was released, but the name Majestuosos refers to a not so commercial size, 58mm ring and 150mm length, it is certainly not the easiest cigar and it is aimed at aficionados as well as smokers who want, I will not say can , to allocate a significant amount for this extraordinary pleasure experience.

Of course, I do not find it appropriate to comment or rate such a product, it would be rather arbitrary on my part to simply point out that this is a classic Cohiba with all its advantages to the maximum both in terms of quality of manufacture and aromas. As for the Caoran, this is an excellent example of early Heavy Peated, excellent for those who like the genre, and clearly an innovative move by Glenfiddich to attract, as well as satisfy, cigar smokers and beyond.