Cigar Smoker of the Year 2018

Mon­day 3^rd Decem­ber saw Bois­dale of Canary Wharf hon­our both cig­ar afi­ciona­dos and celebri­ty cig­ar smok­ers from around the world at the high­ly esteemed Viña Car­men Cig­ar Smok­er of the Year Awards Din­ner 2018.

Hol­ly­wood and sil­ver screen star Chris Noth was award­ed the ulti­mate recog­ni­tion of the night and announced the Viña Car­men Cig­ar Smok­er Of The Year 2018, whilst leg­endary British actor and Acad­e­my Award win­ner Jere­my Irons scooped the Bois­dale Life­time Achieve­ment Award.

The glam­orous evening, host­ed by promi­nent food writer, crit­ic and three-time event host Tom Park­er Bowles and Ranald Mac­don­ald (see speech­es in appen­dix), saw the good and the great — from British act­ing roy­al­ty through to Hol­ly­wood stars — attend the cel­e­bra­tions, with guests includ­ing: 2016 Cig­ar Smok­er of the Year win­ner Kelsey Gram­mer and wife Kayte; singer song­writer Rebec­ca Fer­gu­son who per­formed on the evening; entre­pre­neur Nan­cy Del­l’Ol­lio; Cuban Ambas­sador, Her Excel­len­cy, Mrs Tere­si­ta de Jesús Vicente Soto­lon­go; Ricar­do Cori­ani, Deputy Head of Mis­sion for the Nicaraguan Embassy; George Her­bert, Earl of Carnar­von, own­er of High­clere Cas­tle, the set­ting for the tele­vi­sion dra­ma Down­ton Abbey; the Mad­ness of King George film pro­duc­er Stephen Evans as well as LoveIsland real­i­ty tele­vi­sion show stars Rosie Williams and Char­lie Brake.

As well as being crowned the The Viña Car­men Cig­ar Smok­er Of The Year 2018, Chris Noth also received a humi­dor of rare cig­ars and a num­ber of stun­ning gifts includ­ing a Mon­te­grap­pa foun­tain pen, Bois­dale cuf­flinks and The Glen­rothes 18 year old whisky.

On receiv­ing the award Chris Noth gra­cious­ly accept­ed his win, thanked Bois­dale founder

Ranald Mac­don­ald for his hos­pi­tal­i­ty and said that ​“a cig­ar on any occa­sion is a great occasion”.

Bois­dale Life­time Achieve­ment Award win­ner Jere­my Irons com­ment­ed on his expe­ri­ences vis­it­ing Bois­dale: ​“final­ly, a place where I’m allowed to drink, talk and smoke. You sit there and you think ​‘what is it about this place?’. I have gone back 30 years and I don’t want to leave. It’s full of like-mind­ed peo­ple who don’t give a shit”.

Host­ing this year’s event was promi­nent food writer, crit­ic and three-time event host Tom Park­er Bowles, whilst Ran­dolph Churchill, the wartime Prime Min­is­ter and avid cig­ar smoker’s great-grand­son host­ed the auc­tion in aid of Lennox Lewis’s char­i­ty — League of Cham­pi­ons Foun­da­tion – LOC — a box­ing acad­e­my for young peo­ple who are not in edu­ca­tion, employ­ment or train­ing and have an inter­est in boxing.

On the night Lennox Lewis deliv­ered a video mes­sage in which he said he was, ​“a great fan of Bois­dale”, thanked Bois­dale founder Ranald Mac­don­ald for his sup­port and urged the guests to bid and raise funds for this worth­while project. The one lot auc­tion of the David­off Churchill Humi­dor signed by Lennox Lewis and Ran­dolph Churchill raised £10,000 for the for­mer super heavy­weight cham­pi­on’s deserv­ing com­mu­ni­ty project.

The glob­al cig­ar com­mu­ni­ty was well rep­re­sent­ed by Jem­ma Free­man MD of Hunters & Frankau, the exclu­sive importers of Cuban cig­ars to the UK; Daniel Mar­shall of Daniel Mar­shall Cig­ars fame, the Earl of Carnar­von, who has just launched High­clere Cas­tle Cig­ars; Mitchel Orchant MD of the UK’s largest cig­ar dis­trib­u­tor C.Gars Ltd, and Scott Vines of Tor Cig­ar Imports. All in all, 240 cig­ar smok­ers gath­ered and approx­i­mate­ly 920 cig­ars were smoked on the Cig­ar Terrace.

The recep­tion fea­tured Scot­tish canapés, The Glen­rothes 10 year old cock­tails, Bois­dale Pre­mier Cru Cham­pagne and cig­ars (each guest received on arrival one of each of the four cig­ars that have been nom­i­nat­ed for Cig­ar of the Year 2018).

The sump­tu­ous din­ner com­prised of Bow­more whisky cured smoked salmon with Devon­shire crab, accom­pa­nied by the out­stand­ing Car­men Pre­mier Gran Reser­va Chardon­nay 2015, Casablan­ca, Chile; the main course of finest dry aged Buc­cleuch Estate fil­let of beef, braised oxtail, chervil root, Scot­tish chanterelles, Bois­dale claret sauce was per­fect­ly com­ple­ment­ed by Car­men Gran, Caber­net Sauvi­gnon 2014 Alto Maipo, Chile.

A selec­tion of British farm­house cheeses and Cig­ar Box Reser­va Mal­bec 2017, Men­doza Val­ley, Argenti­na fol­lowed and the event cul­mi­nat­ed with The Glen­rothes 12 year old Spey­side Sin­gle Malt Whisky and more cig­ars on the heat­ed Cig­ar Terrace.

Bois­dale of Canary Wharf is the per­fect venue in which to host the event as it offers the most com­pre­hen­sive choice of hand­made cig­ars of any restau­rant in Europe. Bois­dale has nur­tured close rela­tion­ships with sup­pli­ers over the years, enabling the oppor­tu­ni­ty for cus­tomers to sam­ple old and rare Havana cig­ars in this unique indoor des­ti­na­tion for cig­ar enthusiasts.