There is nothing like opening a box of, say, Cuban Punch Churchills from the 1940s, inhaling their thick, earthy, almost medicinal fragrance, and seeing the faint sheen and delicate touches of white bloom that tell of a decades-old, but still desirably oily, wrapper (not to be confused with blue-green splotches of mold, which does not a good smoke make).
For most Americans, cigars were meant to be smoked, not collected. That changed with the Cuban embargo of 1962. Even in the UK, where Cuban cigars once aged for decades in the humidors of storied London establishments such as Alfred Dunhill Ltd. and R.L. Lewis, the cigars were referred to as “vintage”—as in wines, where aging brings out deeper, more complex nuances of flavors.
For most Americans, cigars were meant to…
