Your logic is really lost here because how likely is it that Jerry, Brian, or Walt have smoked cigars that are THAT rare. They are not smoking “connoisseur corner” type cigars. But they did smoke the Boris and Drac. Neither are available anymore so should that be kept off the list? Many have not smoked or can’t get the Padron 45th, should that be kept off? What about the ECCJ. It’s not made anymore so should that be kept off? Should Cubans be kept off because we cannot get them? What about the Flying Pig, it’s hard to find? So I guess the question is what determines if a cigar is too rare to be on the list? There are too many variables in that so just eliminate it as a factor. The end result is that the lists may contain cigars that YOU cannot buy, but who cares? Maybe you can create your own list of top ten cigars. The list will only contain cigars that you can currently buy, but only if they are not too expensive. WOW, that would be some kind of list (that’s sarcasm BTW) but it certainly is not a TRUE top 10 which reflects the BEST cigars.

Like I said before, I don’t care what YOU have smoked, or what cigars are available to YOU, or if a cigar is too expensive for YOU. It’s not YOUR list. What I care about is out of all the cigars that the guys have smoked this year, whether they be hard/impossible to find, or expensive, or illegal to buy cigars, which ones were the best. PERIOD. As a TRUE cigar fan I care to hear about the best cigars smoked this year, regardless of whether I have smoked it or can buy it. The whole point of coming to a site like SR is that these guys smoke a lot of cigars. Some of which I will never smoke, but that’s the point. I want to hear about the great cigars THEY smoke. So I did not smoke the ECCJ, or Boris, or Drac, or Flying Pig, or too many Cubans but if they are the guys lists, I get it, it’s about they cigars they smoked and I want to see how they stacked up to other cigars this year. It’s really that simple. What you’re proposing is a shopping list not a Top 10.

I’d like to clarify, my motivational statement is “Factors to weigh in on a cigar for public viewing of a list which your trying to recommend to others to buy”

Not the Top 10 cigars you’ve smoked but Top 10 your recommending others to buy. Ergo, if they can’t buy it, it’s not to be on the list.

Plus, it’s all about me. That goes without saying

My point is you could construct a top 10 list made up entirely of smokes that are unattainable thru normal retail channels. That list may be neat, cool, hip and in your face. But what purpose does it serve?

I am certain that Gordon Mott, David Savona & James Suckling could get together and make a top 10 cigars list that was the best 10 cigars they ever smoked. I doubt it would do many of us any good as most of them would be vintage cubans or ultra rare domestics that have not been available for many years. Even these snobby elite cigar smokers realize that and if you look at their annual top 25 lists it does not contain many if any of these type of cigars. They provide a small section called Connoisseur’s Corner if my memory serves me right where they go over their prized collection of rare exotic vintage smokes.

A Stogie Review Top 10 list for 2009 should be a list for the members. Something that they could say hey I think I will attempt to smoke every cigar on Brian, Jerry & Walt’s list. Having one maybe two very hard to get cigars would be ok. But populating the list with hard to find rare unattainable cigars seems to me like a bad idea that would diminish the major benefit that list could provide.

If you want to include a bunch of unattainable cigars the list should be expanded to Top 25 so that the list contains more cigars we could find today in the retail channel to smoke and enjoy. I know thats a lot of work but maybe we can add one a year and this year we have a Top 11… next year a Top 12… and add one every year til we get to 25.

Further, is the list supposed to be a list of cigars below a certain price point? By who’s wallet do we judge if a cigar is too expensive to be on the list. Should the Padron 45th which is both limited and pricey be excluded from the lists even though it may be hands down one of the best cigars the guys smoked this year? It’s a shame that a Top 10 list, which is supposed to name the best cigars, may not contain one of the best cigars of the year if we use your standards.

This topic brings me back the best meal I ever had. It was at this restaurant that is no longer around and the meal was rather pricey. If you were to ask me today what the best meal I ever had was, I would tell you it was that meal. Now I can’t go eat that meal ever again because the place is closed and even if it were open it’s pricey. But these two factors don’t lessen the fact that the meal was the best I’ve ever eaten. Further, the fact that you never ate that same meal, and you can’t go get it even if you wanted to, or that you may have found the meal to be pricey is irrelevant to MY list of best meals I’ve ever eaten. These lists should be personal and if THEY smoked a cigar and felt it was good enough then it should be in the running, irrespective of YOUR view on price and availability.

Factors to weigh in on a cigar for public viewing of a list which your trying to recommend to others to buy from are:

1. Taste – has to be a top 10 cigar after all
2. Price – ehhh, not too much of a concern here. Low weight
3. Availability – far more important then price. If I can’t get the cigar, what’s the point of you telling me about it? It’s like women trying to convince me that giving birth is painful. Ya, I see you complaining a lot and sweating, but you could say that about exercising and sex as well. One I will support you that it sucks but the other your flat out wrong. If I can’t experience it, you could tell me anything and how am I to know? Cigar’s have to be available. Limited and exclusive unobtainium cigars are nice but you might as well say they all taste like crap. It’s just as believable to me as you saying they are great.
4. Quality of construction – a great tasting cigar that has soft soft and explodes on me loses appeal. And if it does it consistently, hmmm

As far as available at one shop, internet or widely available, well, that is part of the weight. In this case, it’s not too hard to get the Mx3 and you put up a phone number. I picked up two so there you go. Ruinations are easy to get as well. But finding the monster cigars or the Anejo Sharks, bleh. They cross the line in my opinion.