First, let me say as a bassist, keyboardist and low brass player, I finally found a good use for cellos.  I leave them on my cigars.  They're also nice for certain instrumental phrases.

But as for aging of cigars, in my 10 years or so of true cigar aficionado-dom, I've made the the following observations:

1)  No amount of aging is going to turn a dog-turd into a better cigar.  So don't even try.

B) Milder smokes will get a nice grassy, wheaty flavor and lighten substantially in strength.  Have three or four in the morning with no worries about over-powering your palate.

And III, and the gist of my post)  A hefty full-bodied cigar that was great to begin with usually turns into a spectacular cigar.  I'm a "budget minded" cigar and have stashed away my share of Pepin 5 Vegas Miamis, Partagas Blacks and original non-Cuban Pinar Del Rio Oscuros. I think they are awesome cigars at the start, but today, I smoked a
5 Vegas Series A Artisan that had been in my humidor for just over four years.  It still retained all the flavors I remembered, but was exquisitely smooth.

Patience, Grasshopper.  Stash away a couple of what are now your faves, and revisit them in a year or three.  Trust me.

Thanks for sharing those insights from your experience David. That's definitely some great info. I recently purchased a few 5'ers to experiment with. I have some logs set up to record the changes starting at 30 days, then 90 days, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months.

What I hate is when I have cigars that I liked and smoked a lot of them, then got bored or did not like them anymore, then they would sit for years and I figured I would not ever smoke them so either sold them or gave them away. And then I started to keep one or two back and 4 or 5 years later they seemd like an awesome smoke and I kick myself in the ass for giving them away. The original Camacho Corojo comes to mind. Man they were a great smoke with 3 or 4 years on them.

Quotejunglepete - 8/6/2018  3:59 AM

What I hate is when I have cigars that I liked and smoked a lot of them, then got bored or did not like them anymore, then they would sit for years and I figured I would not ever smoke them so either sold them or gave them away. And then I started to keep one or two back and 4 or 5 years later they seemd like an awesome smoke and I kick myself in the ass for giving them away. The original Camacho Corojo comes to mind. Man they were a great smoke with 3 or 4 years on them.

 

I gave a friend about 60 cigars back in January because I was trying to stay within my 500 CT humidor (I now have a tower, so it wouldn't have been a problem)  He told me yesterday that the JDN Antano and Camacho Corojo's were wonderful.  He can buy his own cigars now........

When I started getting serious about cigars and found this group I would pull a couple smokes out from each box I purchased and tuck them away.I smoked a Padilla 1968 that had right at 7 years in the humidor and I really enjoyed how smooth and balanced it was. Always liked them but after 7 years they are really good.

There's no doubt that cigars become different over time. I also wonder how much of it is our tastes changing over 3, 4, 5, 10 years time? Maybe it's a little bit of both.

cigars on the lighter side get to be like smoking nothing and can be aged too long IMO. but the bold and strong cigars get fantastic. i agree the JDN Antaño age very well.

Count me in as far as resting/aging full bodied cigars.  These change in overall balance and tend to get better and better and if they were complex then it's an added bonus.  I tend to love Padron Cigars so I buy 2 boxes a year of the 2000 maddies and will smoke 1 box after it being rested for 6 months while I let the other box rest with all of the other ones from previous years.  I have a few that have from 1 to 5 years and they are really really good and when I got them on sale for around $100 they are easily worth 3 times that.  This is one of the best sticks to rest/age where you will get your moneys worth.