The Zenith Watches Cigar Smoker of the Year 2017

Sponsored by Zenith Watches

December 3 2017

The Annu­al Cig­ar Smok­er of the Year Awards returned to the stage at Bois­dale of Canary Wharf, on Sun­day 3rd Decem­ber 2017. For the fifth time this illus­tri­ous event for cig­ar fans cel­e­brat­ed icon­ic cig­ars, pro­duc­ers, writ­ers, ter­races and smokers.

Hailed as one of the biggest exports to Hol­ly­wood from the East End of Lon­don, acclaimed actor Tamar Has­san was crowned the Zenith Watch­es Cig­ar Smok­er of the Year 2017.

The award was pre­sent­ed to Tamer by last year’s win­ner – US star of the screen and stage, Kelsey Gram­mer. The prizes were an engraved Rose Gold Zenith El Primero Cohi­ba Edi­tion Watch, a Mon­te­grap­pa Cig­ar Foun­tain Pen and David­off Rose­wood humi­dor. In his accep­tance speech Tamer Has­san spoke of his life­long fond­ness for the Cuban stick which he shared with ​“many smok­ers big and small with the biggest of them all, dear friend and men­tor the great Bob Hoskins”.

Amer­i­can actor and nom­i­nee of The Cig­ar Smok­er of the Year Award, Jim Belushi, sad­ly couldn’t make the awards but said ​“my cig­ars are the clos­est thing to me, they’re my friends, I love cig­ars. The first cig­ar I smoked was in a cop car when I was shoot­ing Red Heat in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzeneg­ger. I’ve been smok­ing ever since, and it’s been my friend and com­pan­ion, I love the organ­ic nature of the cig­ar”. Jim went on to say, ​“I’m sor­ry I can’t be there, because Kelsey Gram­mer is there and Kelsey is dear­est to me, there was a time many years ago he took me on a very emo­tion­al tour in New York that I will nev­er for­get my whole life and Kelsey, I still remem­ber your beau­ti­ful heart and gen­eros­i­ty and your insis­tence that I trav­el with you and I adore you for that!”

CSOTY17

220 guests of the evening includ­ing BBC pre­sen­ter Andrew Neil, James Cos­mo, Mark Hix, Nan­cy Dell’Olio, Nigel Farage and Made in Chelsea star Stephanie Pratt on arrival received one of each of the five cig­ars, nom­i­nat­ed for Cig­ar of the Year 2017 includ­ing the Romeo y Juli­eta Short Churchill which took the win. The British canapé recep­tion fea­tured the mul­ti award win­ning Eng­lish sparkling wine Jenkyn Place Vine­yard, Brut, 2013 from Hamp­shire. The sump­tu­ous din­ner com­prised of Hebridean shell­fish accom­pa­nied by the out­stand­ing Alpha Domus, The Wing­walk­er Viog­nier 2014, Hawkes Bay wine, New Zealand and the main course of grass fed dry aged Aberdeen­shire fil­let of beef ​“Welling­ton”, per­fect­ly com­ple­ment­ed by The Choco­late Block 2015, Boeken­hout­skloof, Swartland.

Bring­ing togeth­er cig­ar enthu­si­asts and celebri­ty cig­ar smok­ers, the esteemed evening har­nessed Boisdale’s unique­ly eclec­tic style, host­ed by Tom Park­er Bowles and Bois­dale founder Ranald Mac­don­ald with enter­tain­ment from Natasha Hamil­ton of Atom­ic Kitten.

The Gar­den Lounge at The Corinthia took the David­off Cig­ar Terrace/​Lounge of this year, Edward Sahakian was award­ed the Bois­dale Life­time Achieve­ment Award whilst James Cos­mo accept­ed the Zenith Cig­ar Smok­er Run­ner Up from Cuban Ambas­sador Her Excel­len­cy Mrs. Tere­si­ta de Jesús Vicente Soto­lon­go, before more cig­ars and Cour­voisi­er VSOP Cognac were enjoyed on the heat­ed cig­ar ter­race. James said, ​“I’m actu­al­ly hav­ing my 70th birth­day par­ty here, it’s real­ly won­der­ful to feel part of the Bois­dale fam­i­ly so thank you so much.”

Bois­dale of Canary Wharf couldn’t have been a bet­ter 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 des­ti­na­tion for cig­ar enthusiasts.