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I don’t know what more one can say. Go to any cigar store in town and ask for anything made by Arturo Fuente, and they will practically laugh at you. I had been trying to find a box of Arturo Fuente Hemingway cigars for almost a full year, when I walked into my favorite cigar store. As I walked through the giant humidor, I spotted a half full box of the precious Dominican tobacco. Ten cigars, I thought! I can’t believe they actually have them.

Before I could grab the remaining cigars, Dan (whom I’ve known for years, and who now works for Highland’s Cigar Manufacturer’s Outlet in Scottsdale) approached me. He handed me a copy of the then current Cigar Aficionado with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover. "This is from Tracy," he says.

Tracy, my then fiance, had already gone up to the Rocky Mountains, where we were married less than a week later. Wow, I thought, that’s a pretty cool gift. As I started to look through the pages, Dan said, "and here’s the rest of it." To my complete and utter amazement, he handed me a brand new box of Arturo Fuente Hemingway Gran Reserva Classics. My jaw just about hit the humidor floor. Not only had I been trying to get a hold of a box (or even just a few cigars, for that matter), but my fiance - who absolutely hates cigars - had just given me an entire box!

The Cigar Aficionado magazine rated the Hemingway Classic a mere 86 out of 100. Granted, the publishers of the worlds most renowned cigar publication consider anything between the ranges of 80 to 89 to be "very good to excellent." However, one can routinely find cigars that have been rated 89 and 90 in stock, yet to find absolutely anything manufactured by Arturo Fuente is nothing short of miraculous.

Personally, I would rate this cigar somewhere in the mid-90s (outstanding to classic, as the Cigar Aficionado would classify them). From beginning to end, this spicy, woody flavored cigar has an excellent draw and consistently even burn.

This is the perfect cigar for a relaxing evening. It goes equally well with a variety of imported beers, or while sipping scotch after a heavy meal.

The Hemingway Classic I measures exactly seven inches from tip to tip with a ring gauge of 48. If you are lucky enough to find them, they sell from about $8.00 each, or about $154 for a box of twenty five.

(C) C.J. McCall 1996

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