Comments on: Willy Alvero speaks at a cigar dinner in Korea.

By: Walt

Walt — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:15:59 +0000

Vince & Steve,
The video was very informative and I look forward to seeing the rest when it is available.

And thank you for passing the post on to Willy, it is greatly appreciated.

-Walt

By: Vince

Vince — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:18:36 +0000

We had a great time hosting Willy for the dinner. WIlly is an exceptionally talented cigar expert. We are looking forward to having him over for the full cigar course. Steve and I will work on getting the entire video posted online….one of these days. Thanks for all the great reviews of Willy’s performance. We’ve let Willy know about all the feedback.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:44:03 +0000

Correction, it was my business partner Steve that recorded the above videos, but he was having battery life issues so he couldn’t get the full seminar. I just remembered the details of it, sorry.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:39:19 +0000

I’m the original poster of the video on YouTube. I’ve posted all of the videos I was able to record on my small point and shoot digital camera. I’m still hoping to get the full video online, but that means coordinating with the owner of the camera (he said he’s up for it, but logistically it’s been pretty difficult for us to get together on it).

Anyway, I made a full write-up of the evening’s events on my blog here:

http://seoulsteves.com/2008/02/18/an-evening-with-an-expert-cigar-magnate-willy-alvero-comes-to-seoul/

Maska’s Cigars, based in Korea, is working to get him back to Seoul to run a week-long class.

I’ve gotta say that getting a chance to sit down one-on-one for a smoke with Alvero was amazing. Not only knowledgeable about cigars, he’s a fascinating man all around.

By: Islandak

Islandak — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:24:12 +0000

These videos are great. I posted a comment on youtube and the OP (of the video) stated he *might* get the whole seminar up on viddler. We’ll have to wait and see.

By: Jon W.

Jon W. — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:05:54 +0000

That was really cool. I liked hearing about all of that. Nice find Walt!

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:01:23 +0000

The California versus French wine analogy is spot on, the non-Cuban cigar industry just needs to study what the Californians did to succeed. The Californians banded up with the ag departments at their premier universities to study what factors impact grapes and ultimately the wine made from those grapes. It is sort of like tuning a rifle and only then sighting it in: you first have to be able to shoot a tight group before you can move the group to the bullseye. The California wineries were spotty before the growers became scientific, producing some great stuff and also some real crap, but very hard to know when or why (sounds sort of like Gurkha blends now, doesn’t it?). After years of study and science, the Californian wine industry’s top items are world class and additionally their cheap to moderate priced wines are consistently better than similarly priced wines from anywhere else (“consistent” is the key term here).