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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo, and tonight I'm joined by Roosters, Senator Anne. Bam. Bam.
And our plan is to smoker cigar, drink some wine, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 68th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard Plan, meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke a Cupid cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discuss the complete Boulevard line, the guys challenge my dinner well driving habit. We answer our listener email, and we share a tribute after the loss of our lizard friend John, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar. Enjoy as we pair.
John's favorite wine I terror Napa Valley Cabernet with the Bolívar Royal Corona.
A beautiful age re robusto [00:01:00] tonight from Bolívar, surprisingly, for some reason called the Royal Corona. It's a 50 ring gauge by four and seven eighth inch cigar. Uh, very lucky tonight, boys to be smoking 2015 Boulevard, Royal Coronas. Beautiful little cigar. Yeah, these are great. Yeah, so we came into these, uh, age boxes quite some time ago through an old retailer we worked with.
And, um, I was fortunate to get a couple boxes of these and I've just held them. But yeah. Um, I'm glad we're doing this on the pot. I know that we've been talking about this for a while. This is
**Bam Bam:** for me, a staple in my rotation. Not for all of you, but I really love the cigar. It's a classic for me. Yeah. Do you
**Rooster:** smoke this more than the bbf?
Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Oh yeah. I think it's because the bbs are a bit more valuable. I try not to smoke them through the whole box. These are more, seem to be more
**Gizmo:** available. Yeah, I agree with you on that. And I think, you know, talk, you know, we've kind of been on a run of accessible cigars, but that
**Bam Bam:** doesn't diminish the [00:02:00] quality and the experience of this beautiful little royal.
Uh,
**Gizmo:** what I, what I like about this is I think any listener can, can Corona pretty easily find these things. That's awesome. Is there a difference between
**Rooster:** the Royal Corona and the robo?
**Gizmo:** It is a robusto, yeah. It's, it's, it's effectively, it's effectively Boar's, Ribo. Mm-hmm. . Um, but it's called the Royal Corona.
It's been around a very, very long time, um, I believe since 1969. Wow. Um, so it's, uh, yeah, very pot. But let's cut this thing boys. Let's do it. Um, very excited to smoke this tonight. See, we're getting on the cold draw on the wrapper. So these come in, um, 25 count dress boxes, and they come in, uh, aluminum tubes of, uh, dress box of 10 cigars, which is a nice presentation with the tubes.
Beautiful red tubes. Not always with the tube though. No, it's, well there's only two options. Dress box of 25. Mm-hmm. and the dress box of 10. Right. That's it. Dress box of 10 with two boths.
**Bam Bam:** Right. Which is the preferred
**Gizmo:** way of getting 'em. I think I like 'em in the dress box. Has a little bit of a [00:03:00] bro. These work in a dress box.
You like the slight box brush? Yeah. On these. It works.
Cold draws great.
**Bam Bam:** A slight hint of banana. It's weird. Dry fruit type of thing. Mm-hmm. very slight.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. little seay of course. Which is surprising cuz they weren't in a, a cedar box. I
**Senator:** get a faint bit of cocoa even. Mm-hmm. on the cold draw. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yep. All right boys, let's light this thing. I'm very happy we're doing this.
Me too. The Boulevard Royal Corona, again, it is a rib robusto 50 ring gauge by four and seven eights, a little under five inches. Classic Cuban ribo. Uh, as far as certainly our group is concerned, I think this gets a lot of, uh, as band mentioned, it gets a lot of play. in the lizards, but it's certainly not as, um, famous or popular as, you know, other Cuban were robusto like, you know, epi two?
Mm-hmm. D four. Mm-hmm. , even the rass, I would say this Oh, is a little bit more [00:04:00] well known than the RAs, but mm-hmm. . Um, it's a great little stick. Yeah.
I got a dimple. So do I baby? Oh yeah. Oh, it's amazing. On the light. It's that aged like musty. Chocolatey. I
**Bam Bam:** have a smile from ear to ear. This is really good. Yeah. Really good.
**Senator:** The thing that's, I, I, I've only had a few of these, uh, from Gizmo in the past. The thing that stands out the most is this ages, the flavor profile gets so much richer.
It does. And deeper than the younger, fresher ones of these. To me, they're like night and day. They're almost like two different cigars.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. They turn into, I think as far as age cigars go at this price, even now, 2023 pricing for these cigars. Mm-hmm. , I still think if you're able to get a box or two of these and put one away for quite some time, I mean, I, we, I got this, this is a u l a April 15 box.
Um, I got these, what, [00:05:00] two years ago? Mm-hmm. , I think it was during Covid. Uh, I got these and even at the five year mark. , they're great. So now at the seven, eight year mark, I mean, they're really hitting their stride right now.
**Bam Bam:** It's a little home run right now.
**Gizmo:** This guy. Yeah. So how does it, so as for someone that smokes a lot of young ones,
**Bam Bam:** this is much richer, as Senator said, he's spot on.
I think they get richer as, as they get older, which is unusual, right? Most cigars mellow out. Not
**Gizmo:** most, but a lot. Would you say that they're stronger, fresh?
**Bam Bam:** No, I just think they're a bit more, they're, I'm not gonna use the word muddled, but there's mu much slider in, in profile. It's a slider profile than this.
This is really getting right to
**Senator:** it. Yeah. So one facet of it is, I think this gets richer, like I mentioned. But the other thing that's really pronounced to me, the flavor profile is even. When this is young to when this has age on it. I think when this is young, it leads with like earthy [00:06:00] cedar notes, a little leather too for me.
A little leather. I agree with that a hundred percent. And I think as this ages, it like leads with more like cocoa and some slightly sweeter notes. There's not like the same bitter mm-hmm. , um, bitter in a good way. Um, kind of earthy notes that you get in the younger ones of these. So I, I just, I don't know, it's just very bizarre.
I mean, we smoke so many, you know, we compare younger and, and, and with a lot of age and I think usually, The flavor profile is somewhat consistent. As it ages, it just gets more pronounced. Yep. Any of the rough edges mellow out. But for me, this stick, they're completely different flavor profiles from when this is young to when this has age, it's a hundred percent
**Bam Bam:** accurate.
And I think as it ages, it starts to punch above its weight class. I agree with you. No doubt
**Gizmo:** about it. I think so. I think there's value is crazy. I think there's more value as it ages than when it's young. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You know? And so what, what, so how
**Gizmo:** much were these about? So I bought them two years ago when?
When Before the pricing insanity and really before it got crazy, like scarce. Like they was, these weren't very [00:07:00] scarce, nothing really was at that time. Mm-hmm. aside from maybe Cohiba signals or, or or something like that. But um, I got these for like 400 bucks a box that's
**Bam Bam:** like 15
**Gizmo:** bucks a stick. Yeah. 12, $13 a stick.
Now, again, with age, I mean, I don't know, what does a box of these go for now? I think
**Bam Bam:** a ground 20 bucks a stick maybe. Yeah. 18 to 22, is that average? I don't know. Yeah. Honestly, I think that sounds about right to me
**Gizmo:** and I don't know if it's worth that at. . I don't know. I don't know if it's worth that fresh.
It is for me.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You just buy 'em and hold them. Yeah. Well, sure,
**Gizmo:** sure. Yeah. I think, you know, I think too, I think what I remember, and I haven't smoked a ton of these young, I think I remember like almost like, um, you know, like the chocolate that you bake with. Yeah. It's semi, it's, it's kind of like semi sweet.
Mm-hmm. . And I think it evolves like what we're experiencing now into like a rich, like dark chocolate type flavor. Kind of getting it kind
**Rooster:** of. Yeah. I think, I think the flavors, like when you smoke a fresh bowl compared to this, [00:08:00] this has like similar, similar flavors, but they're deeper, they're more enhanced.
Mm-hmm. , you know, like you don't get a lot of espresso notes on the fresh Yeah. Boulevard. But on this, they're just more
**Bam Bam:** announced. They are. And I happen to think the finish on this is nice and long. Yeah. There's
**Gizmo:** a good finish on it. And I love that you can taste the aged tobacco. It has that kind of mustiness to it.
**Bam Bam:** The finish is minerally to me. There's a bit of earthy mineral to me on the finish. I, I, I, we're on the front. I'm getting cocoa, earthy,
**Gizmo:** leather. I'm definitely gonna, I was gonna say weather.
**Bam Bam:** That's where, that's where I was going. Yeah. I get all that upfront, but on the finish I get minerally and I love it.
It's just for me, great experience
**Gizmo:** all the way through. So how would you guys compare these? And certainly Senator, I know you smoke a lot of bbs. Bbf for me, has kind of fallen outta my rotation. I just, it's not, it's not hitting me like it does for you, Senator. I know you love those two. I do. I think Rooster, you're kind of in the middle or you love bf.
**Rooster:** uh, only the 20 elevens. , [00:09:00]
**Gizmo:** of course,
**Bam Bam:** rooster. Pinky out when you say it. Yeah. Yeah. .
**Gizmo:** Exactly. .
**Rooster:** That was, I mean, somebody, somebody gave me a 2011 B F and I was blown away. Yeah. And I have a cab that's like, I don't know, 2018. 2019. I think you guys got it and we split it. Yeah. It just, it doesn't do it when you smoke that like that here.
I mean, it just, so that just means that Boulevard
**Senator:** needs some age. That's the thing. So hold onto that younger cap. Oh, yeah,
**Gizmo:** yeah, yeah. So what do these compare back to you, Senator? What, what does this, uh, what does this compare like a, like a fresh bbf versus an aged one? Yeah. So for
**Senator:** you, I, I, two thoughts come to mind.
The first. . I personally think that fresher bbs smoke much better than fresher Royal Coronas. Um, I love these with age. I don't love them fresh. Um, where bbs with just a couple years age, they'll make my regular rotation. I enjoy them. The other thing I'll say, I think there's this big misconception that bbs are these really strong [00:10:00] cigars.
I completely disagree. I totally disagree with that. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think they're firmly medium smokes at best. They get medium full. The Royal Corona Young or with age, I think is fuller than the BBB F. Mm-hmm. I agree. So it kind of depends on what you're looking for in terms of flavor profile, where you wanna slot it.
I think you'll notice since I probably smoke. More bbf than any of us. I think you do. Um, I usually start with a bbf. Mm-hmm. , for me, it's like a good medium. Mm-hmm. , I'm just kind of getting my, my, you know, my day or my evening started. Um, it's never a closer for me where if I was gonna smoke two boars, I might smoke A B B F and then I move to the
**Bam Bam:** Royal Corona.
Mm-hmm. . I do think the bbb F is an, is an eleg elegant cigar. I agree. The shape of it, it l it's a little bigger than the Royal Corona to me. It's, I mean, I'm not sure is it, it's much, it's expensive, but not much more expensive than this. But it really, to me signifies a very high level smoke.
**Senator:** Yeah. Well, when you say elegant, the thing that comes to mind for me is in the flavor profile and a bbb F there's a bit of a creaminess that I really like in that cigar [00:11:00] mm-hmm.
that I think gives it kind of that elegant finish. Absolutely. I wouldn't say anything about the Royal Corona's creamy. I like it for different reasons. I like the richer, deeper. Yeah. Um, almost honestly with age, almost new world esque flavors in some ways that I get out of this cigar. , uh, that would slot in later in my evening, which is nice.
Now,
**Bam Bam:** honestly, right now, aren't you getting hints of potential patron drone notes right now? I'm getting some new world here in this guy for me.
**Senator:** Patron natural
**Gizmo:** notes. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, like the earthiness of a patron natural. Yeah. Even the coco
**Senator:** that like little like kind of bittersweet or dark chocolate, but it's not super aggressive in the Petro Maduros.
That cocoa flavor light really hits
**Rooster:** It hits you, hits you. Padron has a lot more cocoa. That's true. More's
**Senator:** the chocolate cocoa notes. But that's why I'm saying that Pedro Natural, I think the cocoa notes are much lighter, which to me is more similar to this stick. Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** I'm loving this thing. Oh, it's great.
I'm loving. You know what's funny? I have, like I said, I have a couple of boxes of these and I just, I don't reach for them a lot because when I'm thinking like [00:12:00] robo I'm, I'm first going RAs or D four like all the time and. I'm usually able when I sit down to have a little bit of a longer smoke. So I'm often going for the Lonsdale, the Lances.
We, we've talked about ad nauseum and will continue to in the next few weeks with, with, with more LANs. But I'm kind of reaching for those six, seven inch cigars at a smaller ring gauge. Mm-hmm. than I am for Rub Robusto. So these really have just been sitting Yeah. You know, for, for like two years. I don't know the last
**Senator:** time I've smoked one of these.
I mean, it's funny you say that because I haven't bought a ton of Royal Coronas, but maybe in my life I've bought three or two or three boxes. And the funny thing is I remember a few years ago, , I just forgot. Very similar to what you're describing. I just forgot they were in my tower. And I had some loose ones that were probably sitting on top for a couple years, and they weren't really exciting me at the time.
I got them and I picked one up and I had such an amazing experience with that cigar. Yeah. And it just really reminded me, B of [00:13:00] ours, as they age longer, they improve, just
**Gizmo:** transform. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was fortunate. Our friend in Denver, um, mile High Cigar guy, sent me a 1997 Oliva Immense us, which is, uh, it's, it's like a lawnsdale, I think.
And, um, that's the one they custom made for Rooster, right? Yes, . Yes. And, uh, you know, it, it, it was really incredible even with that kind of age on it. How old was it? It was 97. Oh, brother. Yeah. It was discontinued quite some time. Unattainable. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, one of my favorite Bolívar ,
**Rooster:** as you guys know, is the, the, uh, Bolívar, Corona's
**Gizmo:** Extra.
Yeah. That's hard to get too. Has so much flavor. Yeah. Yeah. That's your favorite one. That's your favorite body. Right? That's, I love that. But the petite Corona's awesome. Yeah. Now the petite Corona, we would be remiss to not talk about the petite Corona. That is awesome. Now that's
**Bam Bam:** a powerhouse little stick.
It is. And I kind of, when I go for that shape, that viola, I like to also bring a few of the other markers in that same viola. Mm-hmm. , the poor Laga. Yeah. And I like to have a part of the short, [00:14:00] kind of all in the same rotation when if I'm going for that
**Gizmo:** size cigar. And I like the, the, the Ramone in that size too.
Oh yeah. Small club Corona. We did on the, uh, short smoke special. How could I forget? Incredible. How could I forget? That's
**Bam Bam:** awesome. That's the box you shared. Go down
**Gizmo:** We're not gonna do it. Bam. Don't worry. Let's
**Bam Bam:** move away. .
**Senator:** Uh, but, but quick note on the, the Boulevard. Petite Corona. I'm not a big fan of that cigar. Why? Um, I find them young to be. Very aggressive and Oh yeah. Harsh and unrefined and not at all enjoyable, but as I've shit on that cigar for so long, I forget who had given me a pretty heavily
**Bam Bam:** aged, uh, Hoba did because he gave us all old ones up at the North Lounge.
**Senator:** Could be, yeah. I feel like I very well could have been him. He might have given me one and someone else. Yeah. And just like we're talking about how these boulevards t. , all those rough edges. Completely gone. Yeah. And I grew to com. Totally appreciate that [00:15:00] cigar. Now the thing for me is, do I have the patience to age petite Coronas?
I'm just gonna be perfectly honest. Like, no, I'm no way. It's a short smoke. Yeah. I, I'm not gonna wait years for that. So I pursue any petite corona that can smoke decently with just a few years of age on it. But for the more patient folks out there, I mean, it, it does have a ton of merit. I really did enjoy it.
I don't even
**Gizmo:** pursue petite Coronas.
**Bam Bam:** I bought two boxes and I left them in there and I'm not gonna look at 'em for a while. And I have one once in a while. Mm-hmm. , when the, the first time I had that cigar, it wasn't epiphany for me. It was a fruit dried fruit bomb. And I, I fell in love immediately with that little guy.
Awesome, awesome Ci. and I'll always, I'll always go for a box.
**Rooster:** Yeah. There's, there's a time and a place for a Yeah. You know, a small
**Gizmo:** stick like
**Bam Bam:** that, like the up and half,
**Gizmo:** like the up and half Corona. That's a difference. Cigar to me. I know like the commitment on that and where it fits in the rotation, it's always mm-hmm.
that's always like my last stick of the night. Mm-hmm. I'm always reaching for the U up and half Corona there. I do not smoke. I can't tell you the last time I actively packed a petite corona in my case. [00:16:00] Well,
**Senator:** my, my big mistake with all of our petite Corona was the first one I. . I wanted something short, but not too short.
So I had it in the morning with coffee. Mm-hmm. , that thing kicked me around in the morning. I was like, this is not the nicotine bus I needed to start the day. So I, I learned my lesson the hard way
**Bam Bam:** that that's, I think everyone needs a box of that petite Corona in their, in their humid arm. I'd love, love the boulevard.
Petite Corona. Yeah. I mean, nothing
**Rooster:** like that. You know, it's, I like it in the morning. Not, yeah,
**Bam Bam:** the double. Well,
**Rooster:** you're right. After double espresso
**Gizmo:** and, uh, ,
**Senator:** Corona right after your patron 90th,
**Gizmo:** yeah. Couple kicks in the ass in the morning. Get you going.
**Bam Bam:** You know, also the earthiness of this guy pairs well with what we're drinking tonight.
Yeah. Really
**Gizmo:** Well. Yeah. It's really nice wine. It is. So before we get to that, I wanted to run down, uh, what boulevard's making in these days, their current production list, which actually I think there's a couple cigars in here. I haven't even had, I don't know if you guys have had 'em. First is the Boulevard Tubo number two, which is a petite Corona.
It only [00:17:00] comes Intuos, uh, the Coronas Jr. Which is a petite Corona. The be coast was pheno, obviously we mentioned, uh, the Petite Corona, the Boulevard, petite Corona Roosters had all these cigars, by the way. Yeah. The Royal Corona we're smoking tonight. And the, uh, Libera door, how do you pronounce that? Libera door.
Liberta Door, yes. That is a, uh, L C D H exclusive double rib Robusto, uh, 54 by six and a half. Gigante, uh, Gigante. That's a And not make that
**Bam Bam:** anymore. Ramona alone
**Gizmo:** stick, isn't it? Yeah. No, it's a Oh, you're right. Yeah. That's, that's Rat. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. They don't, they they do. Uh, they had a Coronas Gigas, which was a Churchill discontinued, uh, six years ago.
Uh, the B Boulevard, Coronas Extra. The, uh, rooster mentioned was discontinued in 2012. And the one I want to talk. I haven't had it. It's a very special cigar. It's a, is it a regional? No, it was an L C D H exclusive. Released in 2007. Discontinued 11 the Boulevard Gold Medal. Oh, yeah. Oh [00:18:00] boy. Which is really a nice presentation.
I encourage the listener to look it up. I'm sure you've had it. He's had it . He's definitely had it. He probably has a box. I've never had it. But what's cool about that guys is the, the top, the head of the cigar. two, about three quarters of the cigar is covered in a gold foil. Wow. And then it has the Boulevard Band on it and the Lcd h big fucking deal.
And why I mentioned that rooster, why I mentioned that is a, there is a re-release coming in 2023 of the gold medal from Boulevard. So that'll be a nice, uh, we'll try it. Nice cigar to look for. The reason why I like that guys, it's a grand Corona 48 ring gauge by six
**Rooster:** and a half. They'll put it in a fancy box and charge you $1,200.
Oh for
**Gizmo:** it. ? Yeah. What about put like gold foil on it? Like come on. There was a
**Bam Bam:** regional that you introduced this to Silver or something? Jubilee. Is that a stick? Oh,
**Rooster:** the B bva, silver
**Gizmo:** Jubilee. Great Stick. Oh, I gave you that. No. . Where'd, how'd you
**Bam Bam:** have it? You showed it off at, uh, senator's Lounge. , but didn't distribute it.[00:19:00]
**Gizmo:** yeah.
**Rooster:** Obviously didn't have enough
**Gizmo:** Uhhuh. , I'm sorry. Boulevard. Unfortunately, you know
**Bam Bam:** what? I stopped him in his tracks. ,
**Senator:** you, you've had that. It's rare. That Bab. That's Rooster. Rooster.
**Gizmo:** That was impressive. ,
**Bam Bam:** ladies and gentlemen. That will never happen. I will never
**Gizmo:** outdo Rooster. So Boulevard, uh, we talked about this several times on the pod, the kind of, uh, the, the great massacre of, uh, some of these portfolio brands, um, in the mid 2000 tens.
Um, I mean, you can't, Ima like, how many cigars were discontinued from Bolívar is, it's crazy. They had a lot of cigars and now they only have a handful, so. Hmm. Um, that's ho Bonos being hobans, I guess. Still a great marker though. Yeah. So what are you guys getting on the cigar right now? Heaven. Yeah. I, you, we didn't talk about the burn line.
I think that the burn line on this is especially
**Senator:** interesting. The drama is awesome from the
**Gizmo:** smoke of this. Yeah. It's different. Have you [00:20:00] noticed how the ash is
**Rooster:** like a darker
**Gizmo:** gray a bit? Yeah. Right? Yeah, it always is
**Senator:** on these, yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Wonderful cigar.
**Gizmo:** So we had a bit of a, uh, unfortunate situation happen, guys that I want to talk about with you and share with our listeners. Um, so at our lounge here, 10 86 in Hawthorne, New Jersey, I mean it opened what, a little over a year ago, early 22. And uh, we've really met some incredible people here.
We're very fortunate, very to be members here, to have a lot of friends here. We're fortunate to record here. Um, we talk about the place a lot. We love it. And, um, Unfortunately, uh, we lost one of the members, um, to an illness earlier this week, which came as a total shock to all of us, um, as we just thought he'd get better and, uh, very, very bummed out to lose, uh, John Lizard.
John. Oh yeah. Basketball John, basketball John, John Gibbs. Um, [00:21:00] a plus human being. And the reason why I think it's important to talk about on the podcast is first we love the guy. And second, I think even for the listeners out there, you know, when you have a lounge community like this that we're so fortunate to have, you have friends that do this.
I mean, we, we obviously spend a lot of time together with the podcast and outside of that, um, it really quickly when you find people who are like-minded and mm-hmm have this interest and, and enjoy what we do this life. I mean, you really make deep, impactful friendships very quickly.
**Bam Bam:** This thing of ours that we're doing.
Yeah. It matters. Yeah. And we meet people that we bond with and, and they, they become lifelong friends. Yeah. And it enriches our lives.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I actually met him the very first day that I joined the Lounge. I think band came mm-hmm.
**Senator:** that morning. And we were written that night and
**Rooster:** then we, me and Senator came
**Gizmo:** that night and John
**Bam Bam:** joined.
John was here the whole day and Night . Yeah. . .
**Rooster:** Yeah. And [00:22:00] I walk in and it's. It was just John sitting at the, you know, they have like a, it's like a, it's like an island. Mm-hmm. . And he was sitting there as having his, I think it was, this was the wine that he was drinking. Yeah. And I walked in and introduced myself and, uh, I mean, right away I just kind of felt at home.
I mean, he's like, you want a glass of wine? You want a cigar? I said, no, I have plenty of cigars. But I mean, he, he made me feel
**Gizmo:** welcome. He was so friendly. And he
**Rooster:** was watching a basketball, basketball game. I think it was the Nets game that was on. And, uh, he was a huge basketball, uh, fan. Yeah. And I played golf with him a number of times.
Yeah. You played golf with him. Yeah. Yeah. A few times. I haven't, I mean, I, but I, I still thought he would, he would come out of it. I never thought that this,
**Gizmo:** you know, this, this would happen. It was shocking. It was a, it was a real shock. Yeah. It was shock. It was real
**Rooster:** shock. I mean, the guy gave us a . I mean, I'll never forget.
He was, he worked for a company that makes uh, oh, all [00:23:00] kinds of, uh, right.
**Gizmo:** Buckets. Buckets. And uh, you know, so he gave us the cigar bucket. We put our ashes in and uh, each of us got one, I think. Yeah. We all have one. Yeah. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
**Rooster:** So we have something to remember him by. But I mean, he was a absolutely
**Gizmo:** a gem of a person.
Yeah. He was one of those gem, he was one of those guys when you came in the lounge, no matter what mood you were in, larger than life. Yeah. And you were always happy to see John.
**Bam Bam:** He made you forget about whatever you were thinking about a hundred percent before that
**Gizmo:** you entered the lounge. I'll never forget his laugh.
Yeah. He's got such a boom, his big voice. Yeah. What a sweetheart of a man. And he was so sharp and quick. Very, very quick witted. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. He, he was really an incredible, loved his kids. Loved his family. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** He was great to everyone ev everyone was great to him. Like he was just a lovable guy.
Yeah.
**Senator:** John's a guy who's just had like an awesome. Experience through life. So many great stories. Like Rooster said, [00:24:00] the the first day we both joined, uh, you know, we spent a lot of time with him that night and immediately knew this is gonna be a perfect fit for us. Yeah. If every guy's half as interesting and kind and amazing as John, we're gonna love it here.
Oh yeah. Um, and I got really close to John just because I think everybody knows I'm a huge, huge, huge basketball fan and I honestly rarely meet people. Have spent as much time as I have, um, involved in any way in this sport. Um, and John is like that person. And I'll never forget I came in once. John's the only guy here, and this is still early on when we didn't know each other that well yet.
And um, we're both sitting at the bar. We're drinking wine. This is another thing that we have in common. John's a huge wine guy. He's been out to Napa a ton of times. I've done the same thing we had talked about wine for, for days and. We started talking about basketball and just like going back to like two thousands, the nineties, like all the different dec it was, it was so crazy.
And I remember we just look at the clock. I must have got there at maybe [00:25:00] four o'clock. We're the only people in this lounge. And I look at the clock, it's like one in the morning . And we're still taught, we, we were both done. We're like, we feel like we just scratched the surface. . We have so much more to talk about.
And it was just so cool. And, um, I mean, every night there was like a Nets game, a Nick's game. We're always texting through it. And, um, uh, he's just, uh, I mean, we've been privileged to meet a lot of great people through multiple lounges that we've been members of. Yeah. Um, but honestly, I mean, I just. Easily top of the charts outside of the lizards.
Like one of the guys that I've connected with in a way that I would've never imagined how quickly, um, I'm gonna miss him tremendously. Um, but that's why the, the wine we're drinking tonight. Yeah. Um, yeah, in his honor. Yeah. I mean, John and I had a conversation how I knew John's a wine guy too. You've heard me say this before.
The hardest question how, you know, someone knows wine is to find a 20, $30 bottle of red. That's good. It's the hardest thing to [00:26:00] find. Anyone can find a 50, 60, $80 bottle of wine. That's good. That's easy. And John is sitting there saying to me, and he's like, , what do you like to drink? Just like every day, like 20, $30 bottle of wine.
So I was talking about Obon and uh, he's like, oh, I've gotta try it. And I'm like, I always see you with this iter. And I was like, what's the price point on that? He's like, it's great. It's 20 bucks. You can get it at total Wine. As soon as he said someone recommended at Total Wine, I immediately start laughing because I'm sorry for any total wine fans out there.
I think the people that work in their wine department are a fucking joke, . Like they are clearly paid some sort of kickback to promote, to push their own wine. Yeah, that's the thing. There's some kickback that goes on with some of these vineyards that's not surprising. And I remember the first few times, like back when I didn't know as much as I do now about wine.
And I would go there and I'd ask for a recommendation and I'd stupidly buy it. And I'd come home and I'm like, this is horrible, . Why? Why did this person tell me this is their favorite wine? And so when John says this, I'm like, John, I'm sorry. There's no way that you [00:27:00] trust the things these people tell you there.
He's like, oh, no, no, no. , believe me. Mm-hmm. , I've been fooled many, many times. , he goes, but the difference between me and everybody else, he's like, I went back and I told the guy who recommended the shitty wine to me. I love it. That bottle sucked. .
**Bam Bam:** So that's Johnny,
**Senator:** that's Johnny Wine. So he calls this guy out.
And the funny thing is, now to this day, he made great friends with this one guy who works in the wine department at Total Wine, and it's the guy who recommended a shitty bottle Tim years ago, who John called him out on it. The guy said, okay, all right, you know, here's stuff that maybe we don't push as much, but that I think is great.
And John started to find good wines through that, and he'd always get him Christmas gifts, take good care of him. And, uh, they became really good friends. So Iter was actually one of those wines after he kind of went through his little, uh, trial period and he started recommending good stuff that he got him drinking.
And I remember when I had it, I was shocked. Um, I wasn't super familiar with it at all, but it's, it's from Napa, uh, John actually grew up in California, so, [00:28:00] um, that state and, and Napa as a wine person's always meant a lot to him. And, uh, for an everyday red, it, it's
**Bam Bam:** great. Yeah, it's delicious. Yeah. It's got a, it's slightly dry earth, some earthiness to, it's
**Gizmo:** very, very good.
So she said it's pronounced iter, I t e r, ITER. I, I
**Senator:** think, I'll be honest, I'm not positive.
**Gizmo:** Ire maybe. Got it. Yeah. I mean it's, it's, you know, we're drinking this in John's honor tonight. He loved this wine. He always had it on him.
**Bam Bam:** It's the first time I'm having him. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it's very good. I had it with John.
John gave me some of it. But
**Senator:** the other thing with John, I think we've all experienced this. Rooster mentioned in his, um, when he met him, John's one of the most generous people I a hundred percent I have ever met. I mean, when we just first started talking about wine, and I guess he could see that I was as passionate as he is about it.
John would just pop up in the lounge and he'd go, Senator, I've got this bottle. You gotta try it. And he'd go out to his car and he would just bring these things like he'd just sewed. Such a thoughtful guy. Yeah. I remember when my son was, actually, my son wasn't even born yet. My wife was pregnant. And I come in one day and John's like, come [00:29:00] out to my.
Okay. I assume he's giving me more wine . And we get out there and he, because he, he makes, uh, I think through his business also, like a lot of, um, custom and engraved products and things like that. So through some supplier that he's got a relationship with, like he got an engraved piggy bank for my son who at the time was months from even being born.
And it was like, just so incredibly thoughtful. Um, just awesome. One of a kind, such a class act. Oh yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. He loved talking about his kids. Yeah. And those moments when I had a chance to sit with him, we had in-depth discussions about what they're doing about his grandkids. And I have an interest in what his kids do because of kind of do the same thing.
Yeah. Like-minded. Yeah. Yeah. And it was, those moments were precious to me because he, I had a chance to see him not talk about what we were drinking or smoking. It was outside of the realm of our thing that we're doing. It was, it was fantastic.
**Senator:** And like you said, his grandkids. Yeah, he
**Bam Bam:** love children. Oh, oh yeah.
Love children. Yeah. What a, I mean all around excellent human [00:30:00] being. It's a big loss.
**Gizmo:** It's a huge loss for us. Yeah. And it's a huge loss for our community. I mean, we were so, you know, we were lucky. We have a group chat with the entire lounge, you know, a lot of the guys in the lounge and everybody's sending tributes and I mean, it was like,
It was really, I, I wish John could see it because I think he'd really smile. Oh yeah. At at what people? Oh, he's
**Bam Bam:** seeing it and he's smiling.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. He's left quite a legacy. Yeah. I mean, I, I remember one night saying to John, and, and I still planted in my head, um, cuz he's in many ways what I hope I will be at his age, a hundred percent.
John, John was in his seventies and he was a senior, Liz. No doubt about it. I said to John one night, I said, John, I pray that when I'm in my seventies, I'm half as cool as you are. Totally. I mean, he could hang with the best of Oh yeah. Just guy who live life to the fullest. Always upbeat and hap just, just an awesome, uh, that's everything I aspire to be later in life.
**Gizmo:** Agreed. I remember, like, you know, I would always play with the Sonos and put Snoop music on when I, when I drink , [00:31:00] and I remember we were talking and he said, put on some fucking Snoop Dogg. . John loves Snoop Dogg. We watched the whole
**Senator:** Super Bowl's Right. Performance with, with Dre Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Dre, all of Love.
**Gizmo:** He loves Tupac too. Tupac too loves Tupac and Lizzo. Yeah. Yeah. He love Lizzo . And he was
**Rooster:** the only guy who didn't believe in online gambling. Yes. He
**Gizmo:** would physically go in person. In person, yeah. To FanDuel place the bets. Yeah. I
**Bam Bam:** like that. Yeah, I
**Senator:** like that. I, I will say this, which was very cool. Uh, and this is a shout out to, um, one of our other friends, uh, at the lounge, Henry, who, uh, is really, really close, uh, with John.
Yeah. Uh, when John was going through some health issues and naturally could make it to actually place his beds physically, um, it's not easy for him cuz you know, he's sitting home watching these games. He likes to put a little act, get a little action and make them a little more interesting. And so Henry actually set him up an iPad at his place and got him an account.
So he started for the first time placing online beds, . So, yeah. Um, I'm glad even when, [00:32:00] uh, you know, life wasn't the easiest for him, he was still able to, you know, live the, the way he would like to and that's awesome. He still, uh, he was still watching sports every night. I have a vivid
**Gizmo:** memory of him sitting down.
He would come in the lounge, he'd make his old fashioned with his fresh oranges. Yep. Crushed, crushed oranges. He's muddled his oranges at the counter. , he'd make his drink, he'd come over, he'd sit down very deliberately, and then he'd dig in his left pocket and he'd pull out all the FanDuel slips, all the paper slips, and he'd start going through them one by one, cursing or celebrating whatever was happening at the time.
Um, but yeah, it's a, it's a huge loss. And I think for the listener, um, who wasn't fortunate to meet John, um, it really, to me, it just goes to the value of what we do. I mean, this thing we have in our hand that we enjoy so much, it's just, it's the vehicle to these, these amazing connections that, that certainly we've made.
And anybody who smokes cigars and is able to find like-minded folks, yeah. Um, it's, it's a [00:33:00] wonderful vehicle for real. Deep human connection that you can't find in, in other, I don't wanna call it a hobby. It's really a lifestyle, what we do and the ar, you know, as Puba, the, I'll use his word, the archetype of the person who mm-hmm.
who does this
**Bam Bam:** is, and as Senator said before, it is the ultimate equalizer. It's it's cigar. Yeah. When you're in that lounge, it doesn't matter if you're a C E O. Totally. Or a
**Gizmo:** carpenter. Absolutely. It has nothing to do with money or what you do. What you do. What you do. Yeah. It has everything to do with what kind of person you are and how willing you are.
Right.
**Bam Bam:** And honestly connect. I think that's really the whole point of our podcast. Right. Yeah. That's why we started this. That's why we do what we do. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** absolutely. . Yeah. So it's a, it's a, this is really the beginning of our tribute. I mean, uh, you know, fortunately we have a great lounge community, obviously, as we talked about.
So we're gonna do a nice tribute to him sometime next month, um, with all the members here and celebrate 'em. But yeah, real, real big loss for us. Oh, yeah.
**Senator:** Can, can we just raise the last to let's to John to, uh, to a true [00:34:00] legend and lizard?
**Gizmo:** An OG lizard. OG lizard. That's right. Well, before us, I remember we were buying cigars for him.
He, we were helping him find Cuban Cigars , and he said, all I want is to, oh, learn how to be a lizard. And I'm like, John, honestly, I'm trying to learn how to be like you, John . That
**Bam Bam:** was hilarious. That whole couple of weeks of his, like delving into Cubans. It was fantastic. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Fantastic. Yeah. Sorry, Senator,
**Senator:** I interrupted you to a legend and a lizard.
We're gonna miss him dearly may rest in peace. Rest in peace.
**Gizmo:** John. We will miss you. We love you. Man, what a bummer, man. Yeah. Ugh.
**Bam Bam:** And God bless his two sons in California that are dealing with this, of course, in the family. It was
**Senator:** really cool to see. I mean, you, you can tell that, um, I mean, John would go out to California, uh, several times a year to go visit his, his kids and grandkids.
And, um, I have no doubt the way that, you know, he, he would tell us stories when he used to hear that clearly, he was telling his sons about some of us because it was so funny and so nice to see when his sons, uh, had reached out to all of us in the launch community about, uh, kind of, you know, what had happened and, and arrangements and [00:35:00] things like that.
Um, you know, they started the note by saying, fellow lizards, . And, uh, yeah, it was clear they knew that, that John was really part of this lizard community. That's right. And it was just really cool to see Very,
**Gizmo:** yeah. It's, uh, this thing we've, this thing we've got, you know, this thing of ours, this thing of ours.
Mm-hmm. , uh, it's a really beautiful thing. , you know, and, and you know, again, we, we do this podcast and we've got a wonderful, uh, community of folks out there, and everybody has their pockets of people. And you know, if not John, someone else, I saw an f o h the same day John passed somebody else on f o h put up a tribute to a, a cigar buddy that, that they had lost.
And it really was like, wow. Like, yeah. You know, this is a, this is a really amazing
**Senator:** community. Mm-hmm. , I think the thing that people don't realize, um, I mean, I think even people in my house, this really hit me hard. And, um, the thing you don't realize in the lounge, this lounge community, , the people that you see most often.[00:36:00]
You literally see a lot of these people as much as your own family members. A hundred percent. Like that's where I think people, you know, it's like, oh, well, you know, this is just someone at your cigar lounge. It, it's, it's really not. Yeah. Um, it's someone that you see multiple times a week. Right. Literally only second to your own immediate family, and you just become really close.
And it's such a tight-knit group, and I think that's why it's so hard when you lose, uh, you know, someone like that. But, um, it, uh, I, I think he's a testament to Yeah. Uh, what the lounge community should be like. Totally. Like ly said, how welcoming he was. Uh, so generous.
**Gizmo:** Yep. So generous. Yeah. So, yeah. Uh, an incredible guy.
And like I said, the cer certainly the start of our tribute, um, in our local, in our little community here. Um, really, really, uh, really, really a great guy. Huge loss, huge loss. All right, boys, we're about halfway, a little further than halfway here in the Boulevard, Royal Corona. I am finding this to be a perfect cigar for tonight [00:37:00] with how we're feeling a perfect match for this excellent wine.
We've got, um, just fantastic right now. It's a rich
**Bam Bam:** smoke. Yeah, I'm on. I am going through it very quickly. Um, and it's still delivering on all notes very highly. Geez, he's not
**Senator:** kidding.
**Gizmo:** I, I'm, I'm Mike. I have another one. He's gonna have to smoke that one.
**Bam Bam:** We've find one. Honestly, I'd be happy to do another one.
I know you would. I do love this cigar. I really do. I know. You know what's, what's amazing is if you smoke the, just take a whiff of the, the aroma. Yeah. It's incredible. It's really amazing. It's very, so I don't do this very often, hold it vertically under my nose like Gizmo does. I do it all the time. You capture.
Different notes in the smoke than you do when you wave it under your nose. I
**Gizmo:** think you capture more, you, there's much more. There's technically what? There's more, uh, good. What, what's the word? Not taste, bud, but there's more. Oh, factory. Yeah. In your nose than there is in your mouth. The smoke is
**Bam Bam:** sweet.
Mm-hmm. . That's very unusual. It's
**Senator:** actually sweet. I agree with that. The funny thing is the smoke, the aroma is, is more baking spice and up andlike, [00:38:00] honestly, it's, it's totally baking spice. The aroma is not what you traditionally expect out of boulevard, which is why when I say like, it just transforms with age, it's, it's truly unrecognizable to me from where this starts,
**Bam Bam:** you know?
And I'm curious what the end of the night's gonna tell. Yeah, I, I see. It's gonna be fantastic. A lot of people, depending on how we rate this, they'll scoff and they'll say, this is not any elite cigar. It's not a high level cigar. I don't know if I don't agree with that. That's, I think it'll be a
**Gizmo:** little controversial.
I, well, I, I think the, the important thing is that in this moment, the, the, the experience that when you pick up this specific cigar with this specific amount of age on it, yeah. It's
**Bam Bam:** a rare, its rare at
this
**Gizmo:** point. It's really, but it's really a special cigar. And I think for the listener out there who isn't gonna buy a 15 or can't find a 15, whatever it may be, I can't find a 15 right now.
But it's really the point that you can buy a reasonable box of fresh Cubans, 20 ones. Okay. And be patient with them. and smoke one every six months and just mm-hmm. journey with, with the [00:39:00] box, journey with it as it ages. And by the time it's, you know, by the time it's 12 years old, you're, you're able to compare.
That's the
**Bam Bam:** ultimate cigar experience to me. Yeah, it is.
**Senator:** Really, and, and that's the thing. I mean, not every box, you know, gets so much better with age. I mean, truly, you know, we, we've had age, you know, r and j Churchills that are garbage. Oh, garbage. Don't bring up that cigar. Bruce . I think you know, the value for a listener, you know, hearing this that hasn't maybe had that much experience with the Royal Corona, it's a cigar that's worth actually holding onto.
I inadvertently experienced that to an extent. Just I did too, for forgetting. You've done the same. The
**Gizmo:** only reason that we did this tonight on the podcast is because I'm looking at the list of cigars we've done going what Cuban marker Really? You know, try another stick from like in, in, you know, right now.
And Bo came up and I'm like, oh my God, I have those royal Coronas in the, in the tower that I, I just don't reach for them.
**Bam Bam:** I'm surprised it took us so long to do it. Yeah. Honestly.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Well it's, it's working out pretty good right now. [00:40:00] Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Trying to waft the smoke to my face. Yeah. . It's just,
**Senator:** it's awesome.
And the other thing I'll say, just such a testament to this cigar, um, the way it's pairing with a full-bodied cab is just awesome. Yeah. You know, there are certain Cuban cigars that have. , um, enough character that they can hold up with a fuller red wine. And this is one of them. I, I think anyone who hasn't smoked this and is gonna try it or who has ought to try pairing it with a red, I think it works perfectly.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah.
**Rooster:** I mean this is most definitely a medium to false
**Gizmo:** cigar. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. You know,
**Rooster:** I mean, it's, I'm trying to think of any other cigar that this compares to. And it's easy in a, in a Cuban cigar and there's nothing really comes
**Gizmo:** to mind. It's
**Bam Bam:** easy for a lot of listeners to confuse that with strength rather than the flavored no flavor profile.
It's two different things. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's full flavored. Yeah. I think this is a delicious, full flavored cigar, but very smooth. Yeah. Not strength wise. Right. It's delivery's very small. Oh, it's, it's amazing.
**Gizmo:** And the other point I [00:41:00] wanted to make about aging too, you know, if, if you're, you're thinking about robusto, let's just single those out, right?
Let's say you're, you, you get a, a box or a pack of D four s, and same with RAs, same with the same with EPI two, the D four and the RAs, and the epi two. are gonna smoke really well. Pretty fresh. Yeah. D four especially. So, and that's, you know, that's where it's like, that's how you, to me, that's how you justify buying a box to age or to do, like I said, smoke one every six months.
Mm-hmm. . Um, because you can get these other robusto at a similar price point that are smoking great. Right out of the box, pretty fresh. Like they're really delivering. Um, and may not be, they, they may not have the, the potential that a cigar like this does after eight years. Maybe they do, maybe they don't.
But at that moment, when you buy them, you can smoke them. These, I would age out. I think
**Rooster:** the hoyo Epi two s need some
**Gizmo:** age. Yeah. I've, I, I'm, I'm working out of a box. I've had a couple of those. My father-in-law loves them. Um, their 2020s. They're [00:42:00] inconsistent. They're smoking. Great. They're inconsistent. They make a lot of,
**Senator:** by the way, your father-in-law's very unhappy with who characterize his smoking preferences.
Oh, is that, do we know that? He and I had a conversation about this. We actually know this. Oh, we sure did. Oh, I sure did. I didn't know this. What He looks at me. He, he, so Gizmo brings him to the lounge. One night I was at the lounge. We had a great conversation. Love your father-in-law, by the way, . He should spend more time here.
We, you know, you, we, you're, you're good. GIZ Bud . He's, he's, he's a lizard.
**Gizmo:** Oh boy. Oh, he's, he's, he's very much a lizard. He's a
**Senator:** lizard. And we're chatting and he's like, you know, I feel like every time Gizmo talks about this is a cigar, your my father-in-law would like, it's, it's always. Cheap and mild . Let's
**Gizmo:** start
**Bam Bam:** Oh
**Gizmo:** boy. So you guys, I resent the implication. .
**Senator:** Yeah. But you gotta spend a little more, you know, just be a little more generous.
**Bam Bam:** He's, I'm sure he does as well. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Wow. I actually got him a box of epi twos for Christmas. Nice. An slb, a sliding lit box. It's a good cigar. Loves him. Yeah. Yeah. [00:43:00] You gotta stop giving him
**Rooster:** those plastic tipped ones.
**Bam Bam:** blueberry flavor.
**Gizmo:** Those are from my father. Yeah. That's . That's right. That's right.
**Bam Bam:** He may need a perfect draw to get through that whole box
**Gizmo:** from I, what I'll find though is that the recent ones are actually, the construction's definitely better. Oh wow. Yeah. They kind of like a lot of the other, uh, cigar manufacturers, which is why I'm toying, we joke about Romeo.
I'm toying with maybe doing a Churchill that's a little younger. Mm-hmm. . Um, because I think we probably need to do it, um, at some point here on the pod, but, Uh, the EPI two s, I have not pulled a perfect draw on an EPI two in a long time. Oh, wow.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Has he had the Padron exclusive? Yes. Does he not like
**Gizmo:** it?
Uh, I think it was a little bit too much oom form. Hmm? You're saying that or he said that? He said that , you should try the natural. Yeah. Maybe I'll give him a natural. I was thinking to give him, uh, the torpedo natural, the one that won, uh, cigar year. Yeah. That's a great one. I think. I think I'll, I'll I'll give him that one a try.
Just give him the 80th the, you know what cigar he really liked was [00:44:00] the Patron Corona in Natural. That box that I have from 2012. Yeah.
**Senator:** That's really good. He like torpedo.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. 2012.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Give him, give him the 90th
**Senator:** rooster's trying to kill him. Jesus
**Gizmo:** hair
**Rooster:** Pop. The full breakfast . Yeah. You and me. Let's
**Bam Bam:** go.
And the garage. . Mrs. Uh, Mrs. Uh, gizmo. You gotta leave the house now. ,
**Gizmo:** she loves when we go down there because mm-hmm. , we have such a good time. That's cool. You know, I have a great setup in the garage. So, Garon, we need to re Yeah, we need, we need some more wine here. Garon. Oh yeah. John would not have had our glasses go empty.
It's true. Bam. I wanted to just say that. You know what, yes. John was, uh, always made sure glasses were full .
**Bam Bam:** So can we talk about this, uh, unusual tip on the bottle? Have we discussed this? Oh, look at you. You're all caught ,
**Senator:** so, oh, is there? Oh, there's plenty. Yeah. You're taking psig mo Uh, we've talked about this before.
So the, the aerator, I'm, I'm [00:45:00] a big fan of air rating, red wine. Um, it helps release, you know, those tannins. You don't have to sit there and leave a bottle, one cork for hours to try to decant it or put it in an annoying glass decanter that looks beautiful, but is a huge pain in the ass to clean. So this thing's great.
I mean, I hate the Venturi. I think I've mentioned this on prior episodes. Gizmo did not listen and follow instructions, and first bought a Venturi, which
**Gizmo:** was very disappointing. Disappointed, just Googled it. I thought it was the right one. I don't know. . The Venturi. The
**Senator:** problem is you didn't guide me. You didn't guide me.
Uh, you put it in the episode description, . I put the wrong one and then
**Gizmo:** you fixed it. Yeah. . I did. I put the wrong one. I did. So the, the Venturi, many listeners out there,
**Senator:** my problem with the Ventura is you have to hold this little contraption over your wine. . Then your other hand, you hold the bottle, you have to pour it perfectly through this little contraption into the glass.
It's like you're filtering
**Gizmo:** the wine into your
**Senator:** glass. Yeah. It's a nice party trick though. It's, oh, no, it's not.
**Bam Bam:** You gotta do that like 10 times for
**Senator:** 10 guests. You look like an idiot doing this. That's a lot of work party. Uh, a saber is a nice party trick. [00:46:00] That is a joke. Yeah. So you're sitting there, you know, trying to perfectly balance this, get it into the glass, it looks totally ridiculous and it takes way too much time.
That's like the worst part of it. Can you imagine if you're serving people at a table, you're, you're trying to fill people's wine, you're gonna go carry this little contraption, reach person's glass. It looks so stupid. Mm-hmm. . So, the reason I say this is much better, and the Ventura is like $40 for this inconvenience.
This thing you can buy on Amazon for 15 bucks. Nice plugs right into the top of the wine bottle, has the built-in air rate. It funnels the wine straight in through it, air rates, and just goes right into the glass. And so you can just turn it over, pour it into the glass, onto the next. , it's life changing.
**Bam Bam:** Send us, when you send
**Gizmo:** us the link, we need that it, it's in the episode description of the prior episode. I'll put the correct one in the episode description of this episode. Again, here's my question for you, Senator, cuz I don't know the answer to this. I'm not a wine guy like you. Um, what percentage of a que increase in experience do you think that that [00:47:00] provides a bottle of wine that maybe would normally be a six?
What does that
**Senator:** get it to? Great question. I, I think anywhere from 10 to 20% it's gonna bring your experience with the wine. I truly believe
**Gizmo:** that. So you think that takes a six wine to a seven? I do. So
**Bam Bam:** isn't the, so it's like a, it's like decanting the bottle without decanting
it,
**Senator:** isn't that right? Yeah, to a degree.
Now, now here, let me just explain like why I give a range. It depends on the wine. A wine that's already smooth and what doesn't have a ton of tannins doesn't even, I mean, it, it's not harmed, it benefits somewhat marginally from it, but it doesn't need it. So that wine is, if it's a nine, it's still gonna be a nine.
A wine that has a lot of tannins that's gonna help open it up. Now it's still may be a shitty bottle of wine that either you don't like the flavor profile. , it has so many tannins in it that even as this aeration helps release some of them, it's still a bit too tannic for you and you may not score that very high.
So I don't think it's gonna fundamentally change a wine as [00:48:00] much as it's gonna enhance, um, a good wine, uh, and make it possibly very good, even great. Um, or it's just gonna make sure that if you're opening a great bottle, that you're going to get the great experience that it's designed to have, which requires some decanting and it just shortens that time.
There's nothing more annoying than having to have the foresight and think before you're having people over and you wanna open a certain fuller bottle of red and you've gotta sit there and let that decant for five hours before they get there. Most of us are not thinking that far.
**Gizmo:** By the way, the decanter is a pain in the ass to clean.
It's horrible. It's horrible cuz it's this rounded. Oversized awkward thing. You, you don't want to put too much soap. It's, it's like the whole thing. It's not, not the,
**Senator:** the problem is most, most of the nice decanters, they're, they're, they're very wide at the bottom. Yeah. And very narrow at the top. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. . So you can't put your hand in to clean it. Nope. You can't even get a sponge in there. You gotta buy a whole special tool that can get in there and then [00:49:00] it's curves inside. So you're like, some of them are like
**Gizmo:** a donut. Yeah. You know,
**Senator:** with a spout. It's, that's true. It's crazy. So there's just no reasonable way to easily clean it.
If you put it in the dishwasher, it always comes out spotted because it's not able to Dr. You know, there's not enough area for it to dry. The whole thing's a pain. That's why when I got this, it's 15 bucks. That's the craziest part of it. It's awesome. Game changing. And the
**Rooster:** way this is shaped, it also prevents
**Senator:** drips.
It does. Yeah. It does. It's
**Gizmo:** true. You know? Yeah. So it's true. It's our lesson in, uh, aeration Yeah. Wine or aeration. Yep. Who would've thought, who would've thought ? I'll put it in the episode description again. Oh, the other thing, by the way, we have to mention this, uh, Senator is . You remember I brought a couple bottles of wine to the lounge a couple weeks ago, and remember I pulled out this system.
I didn't know that there's like a little straw you have to attach to it. This. To this thing there, like you get a little, [00:50:00] like, it's like a, like a cut, like a hard plastic case. Mm-hmm. that it comes in, you flip the lid, open the straws, and it has like a straw on it's metal though though, right? No, it's, it's rubbers, but I didn't know You see this?
Yeah. I didn't know that you had to attach that. I didn't even notice it was in the box. Yeah.
**Senator:** This comes off and it's to regulate the flow so that it's not coming through too fast so that it fully air rates the wine. Very cool. Gizmo and I, we order wonder, we're having steaks back at the lounge. He brings this great bottle of wine and he puts this in and I'm like, did you attach the straw to thing?
He's like, what straw? It didn't come with a straw. I'm like, giz, I'm telling you, it comes with a straw. Was it just pouring out of it? Yeah. And then he's like, he's like, there's no straw with it, so he, I'm like, go get the box. He breaks the box over. Oh shit. There's a straw .
**Gizmo:** Funny. It was a user error situation.
Yeah. We're gonna talk about your eating habits in the car. Oh God. Oh, please. Two roosters. I'm gonna turn off my mic as. I mean, who would've, so who has a pop
**Rooster:** pie in a car? So Gizmo, [00:51:00] gizmo eats a, eats a salad in the car while driving, don't, I don't know how
**Senator:** while driving. I don't know how that's possible.
He's not an autopilot in a Tesla. He's actually driving.
**Rooster:** I mean, the first time he mentioned that, I'm like, so he's, we've known about that. He's pulled over in a parking lot and he's eating salad and that's okay. Which is okay. You can do that if you're pulled over.
**Gizmo:** If you're pulled over . But he's eating,
**Rooster:** I don't know where he keeps the bowl.
If it's on his lap while doing 50 miles an hour on his seat and he's driving and he's probably texting more. God knows what he is doing. , I mean the amount, amount, amount of money this guy spends on cigars, he can get a
**Gizmo:** chauffeur, . It's true
**Bam Bam:** actually, he can sell a few boxes a year and afford that chauffeur.
No.
**Rooster:** I mean, it's insane today. Today was eating a pot
**Gizmo:** pie , a
**Senator:** pot pie, a chicken pot pie. This is what in the car, this is what crossed, I mean, the salad was already ridiculous, but when you sent a text, I'm eating a pot pie while driving. This is crossed the line. I know what I
**Gizmo:** said was some liquid. What I said was, hold
**Bam Bam:** on.
I think you, Senator was [00:52:00] really concerned about your quality of life at that. What? Eating a Popeye. That's just elevator
**Gizmo:** line. Everything what I said crossed over the line, I'm eating. You may
**Senator:** pie a truck driver. I mean, I'm like, you know, it's one thing if you're driving a truck every day, you, you have limited opportunities, you know, to stop and eat.
You, you have plate. Why you couldn't pull over to eat your pot pie? I have no idea. I,
**Rooster:** I think the name Gizmo, he must have some kind of a contraption hooked up to his vent or something that holds the pot pie under his chin. Under his chin. It feeds him. There's a spoon that like comes
**Senator:** out and like a robot that he's built himself feeds him as he's driving
**Gizmo:** Oh boy. I mean, listen, what I do, here's what I do. Okay? So it wasn't a whole pot pie, it's a Costco pot pie, which is by the way, the size of. Extra, extra large. Yeah. It's like the size of an extra large pizza. Really? Yeah. It's the greatest thing ever Costco, uh, is bam. Could polish it. Uh, no, I
**Bam Bam:** do, I No, you couldn't polish it when I was a kid.
I love chicken Popeye.
**Gizmo:** It's massive. I I love chicken Popeye and [00:53:00] it's, it's, it's made, they make it in the store. Each store makes them rotisserie chicken, whatever. It sounds like a Costco ad. I gotta try it. The, by the way, the chicken noodle soup that they make in the store. Unbelievable. Anyway, um,
**Senator:** you'll have a heart attack after you finished
**Gizmo:** the Popeye going.
I
**Rooster:** would like to see you eat that chicken soup
**Gizmo:** in the car that I'm not gonna do. Actually, I could put it in a cup and so, and drink it. Yeah. That's actually made practical. You could use this anyway with the straw
**Rooster:** and just pour down your mouth.
**Gizmo:** I could do that. Hey, wait, . But, uh, all right, so the pop pie, I just, what I do is I put a little chunk of it in a bowl and I microwave it and I bring that in the car.
It's like in a bowl with a. with a handle and I put it on my cup holder thing. My, what do they call that? Uh, console, the console, center console. It sits there perfectly. And I have a fork in my right hand driving with my left, totally focused. I'm not texting, don't get excited. And then I just make sure when I put something on the fork, I shake it so I, you know, there's no droppage.
[00:54:00] Yep. And I, I eat the pop pie. All right. Or the salad or whatever it may be. This is lunacy, this,
**Senator:** I mean, would it kill you to pull the car over and eat? No. Don't even get in the car with food. I agree with that.
**Rooster:** I mean, spend the extra 10 minutes at home, finish your meal,
**Gizmo:** get in the car. I had a very busy day today.
You know this we talked about, but you were here like two hours earlier. Yeah, cuz I had a, I had an appointment here at six o'. I was, I, I was on my way to an
**Senator:** appointment. I hate to break you into giz. There is no excuse for this behavior. You could have had to meet the president of the United States. You should not be eating pot pie in the car.
Yeah, we would like some
**Rooster:** listener input on this. ,
**Gizmo:** please.
**Bam Bam:** Listener email please. Please don't email. Do .
**Gizmo:** I mean, I mean, it's not that crazy
**Bam Bam:** to me. For all the fans of bam, bam, let's annihilate Gizmo.
You know who you are. .
**Gizmo:** I don't think it's that crazy. I mean, if there's listeners out [00:55:00] there who think it is, I'd love to hear it, but I don't, um,
**Senator:** we're just glad that you laid off the seltzer today and the listener not having to listen. Actually,
**Gizmo:** I've, I've been kind panicking cuz I left my seltzer on the other side.
Mm-hmm. Wonderful. In my, uh, thermos, i, i my sippy cup. We'll text them to pour it down the drain guess you know, we would be lost
**Rooster:** without you. We couldn't do this pot without you. Please stop eating pot pie in the car
**Gizmo:** while driving. I do it
**Senator:** very safely. Do you imagine him getting pulled over? Do you know why I pulled you over?
No, because you're eating fucking pot pie while driving. I mean, can you imagine that conversation with a cop? It would be made
**Gizmo:** for tv. Oh gosh. Listen, I'm doing my best.
**Bam Bam:** Yes, you are. I'm down to about an inch and a half of this thing. It's really incredible. It's still quite
**Gizmo:** delicious. It's so good. Yeah. Yeah.
It's, it's really a. Special cigar at this, with this age. That's a great experience. Like, and, and you think about, you know, we've talked about regionals and LE limited [00:56:00] editions and you know, L C D H editions and we've had decent experiences across the board. Mm-hmm. , but we've also had a lot of really challenging experiences.
Epic failures with really expensive cigars. Yeah. And you know, it, this is a great example of time benefiting, you know, investing in your collection and, and spending a little bit and then investing time to get a lot of value out of that spend. Yeah. It's really something special at this stage on it. You
**Senator:** know, the other thing I'll say, the final third of this cigar, I think it starts and through the first two thirds is medium full.
I think this ends firmly full. It's firmly full now. And I think that Rooster was saying this before, I think this has gotta be one of the fullest Cuban cigars. I think so.
**Bam Bam:** But Deliciously delivered.
**Senator:** Oh yeah. No, no. I'm saying
**Gizmo:** that in a good way. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean this, this is the fullest
**Rooster:** Cuban, or [00:57:00] of say,
**Gizmo:** one of the fullest Cubans I've ever had.
Yeah. That you're experiencing right now. Yeah. See for me, I don't, I don't, I'm not having that experience where I'm not feeling like it's the pot pies interfering .
**Senator:** Clearly. Way too much pot pie today. Gibel.
**Gizmo:** You guys are gonna have to hedge my, uh, your, your my rating tonight. . We're gonna have to rate the pot pie first.
Oh, that's a 10. Oh, that pot pie is a 10 boys. I wanna try it. It's really good in the car. . No . So, um, before we get back to the cigar, I just had, we had a great, uh, listener email from, uh, uh, wizard Bill who's a listener of ours, and I wanted to see what the guys thought of this. He. He was commenting. We, uh, we went back and forth a couple times.
He was talking about bam, bam and his, uh, debauchery. Mm-hmm. in episode 62 and 63. We don't need to get into that. If listeners missed it, go back and listen to, yeah, don't mention it. Bam is a totally reformed, by the way, he showed up tonight with a fiver of cigars from me. Did you guys notice that
**Bam Bam:** you request I de I
**Gizmo:** [00:58:00] deliver.
That is, that is really
**Bam Bam:** something that, that's always been the case. Just no one's ever really requested.
**Senator:** All right, all . Let's not, let's not revert back.
**Gizmo:** Let's not revert back. Let's not revert
**Senator:** back. I was just about to compliment you. Oh God. The new bam. To his credit, not the old bam, but the new Bam. To his credit, I need another
**Gizmo:** cigar.
By the way, I didn't have to remind him.
**Senator:** Didn't remind him. I mentioned to BAM during our intervention that I've been waiting to try one of those glass jar. Uh, yes. Ahman nos. No.
**Gizmo:** 2014. Sure enough I'd
**Senator:** last time we were together, bam. Shows up. There's a big glass sitting in my seat. What you think of that cigar?
I had it. I know.
**Bam Bam:** It's very good. Yeah.
**Senator:** Very good light though. Medium? Medium. I'd say medium. The only thing light to medium. What? What year are those? 20 fourteens. Wow. Okay. So the only thing that's a little odd to me, It doesn't smoke like a 2014. It,
**Bam Bam:** it seemingly
**Gizmo:** there is little, I think I know why. Lost edges to it.
You know why, why? Because it's sealed with a rubber gasket. [00:59:00] It's true. Interesting. In that glass jar. So it doesn't age like cigars in semi boy nature or dress boxes. That's, it's quite literally in, it's it's own little glass Tupperware, like tupper door. Yeah. That there's no airflow. Yep.
**Senator:** Happening. That would make sense.
So then this tells me, I mean, those glass jars, they look nice, but crack are probably not optimal for aging. Not for aging. Crack 'em. But my take on that, I, I thought it was very good. Just some rough edges. I was a little surprised that they're 2014. Yeah. It's still a very good cigar. Nice cigar. And thank you.
**Gizmo:** Of course. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, sir. All right. So Lizard bill. asked a great question that I wanted to, uh, pose to you guys, and this may be a discussion that we will extend across a couple episodes, or we can keep this in mind, but he said, Hey, I'd love to hear if the lizards have a favorite type of tobacco.
They prefer meaning like, uh, you know, he says, uh, I love anything that has corro ho. Mm-hmm. . Um, you know, once you learn its taste, I can pick it out of anything I smoke if it's present. Uh, and he says one of the manufacturers Aino uses it abundant. , uh, but it's obviously used in a lot of [01:00:00] brand, uh, blends. So are there types of tobacco or wrapper, you know, colors, um, that you guys lean to?
Or is that even a part of your thought process when you're choosing a cigar smoking it? Because I go back to, my quick answer to this is I've thought about this, obviously I saw this email before you guys, but I thought about what Rob said about you get a Lucy with a great risotto rapper on it. Or you get to me Mag 46 when it has that reddish Yeah, yeah.
That Magnum 46 from Huppman has that, that reddish type of rapper on it. It's, it's special. It's special. Yeah. Or you get a B, B F that's really dark. Dark mm-hmm. , you know, or a P two that has, or a D four that has that dark wrapper. Yeah. You know, so I wouldn't
**Bam Bam:** say I, I also happen to like the D four s when they're very light as well.
**Senator:** So it's funny you say that. I, I feel the same way. Like that's why I'm having a hard time with this question. I think I have strong preferences about this then depends on the cigar. And then every now and then I'll get something that's wildly lighter than I'm used to. The rapper, D four s in particular, like Bam is saying, oh yeah, and I'm not [01:01:00] happy about it.
And then I begrudgingly light it up and I sit there and I say, oh my gosh, this is so good. It's interesting, the lighter ones I've had, they, they are sweeter. Yeah. And really tasty. So I, I'm not sure that I have like a very prescriptive, like, this is exactly what I like because I feel like. what I think I won't, like, I sometimes am really pleasantly
**Bam Bam:** surprised by it.
Yeah. And we've learned what the DNA of each of the cigars that we smoke are over time. And you kind of rely on that profile,
**Rooster:** you know? Yeah. I kind of look for like, sticks with some sheen on it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, there's certain, certain, sometimes you, you see boxes that come up and you kind of look for that.
I mean, I hope they're not like Photoshopped or anything , but the she, but, but when you get, when you get the box at
**Gizmo:** home and there's a nice, she a bit of an oily wrapper. Oily wrapper. Yeah. You know, it, you know, it's, it's a good box.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Agreed. You know, like those 80th, that senator aged.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. The drone, the
**Senator:** patron drones.
Yeah. I'll just say this, this is [01:02:00] my secret with any cigar. I do this every day, like no exaggeration. Whenever I come to lounge and I pick sticks outta my, um, outta my tower, I just hold them up to the light. When sticks have aged just long enough, they start to get these little sparkly crystals. Crystal.
Yeah. Even just a couple years, it starts, meaning it's not gonna be lit up like a disco ball, but you're gonna start to see some, so I always take them out and I just hold it up to the light. And if I see it shining, I know, okay, it's got enough age that this is probably gonna smoke. Well, if there's not a single crystal visible on it, I put it right back.
Just let it keep sitting. So that's just kind of my little cheat sheet to know when something's got more age. And then when you look at it and it's glistening like crazy and light up like a Christmas tree, you know, that's been obviously age for a, a significant period of time. That's what you want.
**Bam Bam:** That's right. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So I think we've come to the fact that we, I, we, I, I would say we don't have a preference. Mm-hmm. No,
**Senator:** but I have to give this listener credit. Yeah. As, as someone who, like, where I have strong preferences, things like wine, o, other [01:03:00] things, it's an in-depth question. That's a, that's a sophisticated lizard.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm really impressed by that question.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. Yep. Great question.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah, because that couldn't tell you what tobaccos I like.
**Senator:** Well, I think the one answer we do have to that now as I think about it, Is in the new world context. We've discovered recently with some of these new worlds that we like The rapper, Ecuadorian,
**Gizmo:** what e is it Ecuadorian?
I think it's Ecuadorian. Rapper. On Rapper. Remember we were drawing the
**Senator:** connection. We were like the, my father land, Sarah, Mexican. Mexican son.
**Gizmo:** I thought it was Santa Andreas. Oh, maybe. Yes. Maybe you're right.
**Senator:** You're right. I'm sorry. So that we have discovered new world sticks. We really do like Sure. A Mexican San Andreas rapper.
Now, how many
**Bam Bam:** of those, of the cigars in that new world category have that rapper? I'm guessing not many. No, I
**Senator:** think a lot. Lot. And because, oh, is that the rumor that we've talked about drone? Is that Padron? That those rappers are Actually Mexican
**Gizmo:** did not Nicaragua. So my father serious, it's Havana Rosado is the, my father, uh, is the rapper on the number four [01:04:00] Donald Hold.
**Bam Bam:** That wouldn't make the Pedro Piro then.
**Gizmo:** Well, that's the, that's the rumor that's always kind of been around. Mm-hmm. . But I don't think it's founded on They don't, in reality, they disclose that. They say it's a Nicaraguan Piro. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe
**Senator:** the seed.
**Gizmo:** I don't know, maybe. I don't know. Are you done with your smoke?
Yeah, I finished my, uh, I'm not dropping this my royal corona. It was excellent. All the way down, not dropping off. Oh yeah, right to enough. I finished it right off.
**Senator:** It was great. I don't know. I didn't hear, it didn't sound like your fingers were burning G
**Gizmo:** It was actually, my fingers started getting real hot.
That's why I dropped it. I was gonna put the perfect draw on it, but it was really, yeah, you
**Senator:** should pull a bam, bam. He does that . Yeah. I love, so that's pink. That's some pinky out with the perfect draw in the cigar. Like a roach clip. Still smell it. Yes. .
**Gizmo:** I love it. So I did that once and all of a sudden he's shaking the, uh, shaking the uh, perfect.
He's shaking the perfect draw. like a, oh god. Like a fine one. I got a question for you guys, cuz I think I know what my answer to this and I'm kind of thinking about having not smoked this for quite some time, smoking this more, because I [01:05:00] think these cigars are kind of, hopefully at their peak or I, I don't know where they're at in their journey, but I think I need to start smoking these and not let them sit for another 10 years.
But, um, I'm wondering, I'm thinking about using this at like after a meal. If I have a 45 minutes or an hour to have a cigar, this is really an excellent cigar to have after a meal. It's a treat. No, I agree with that. Yeah. Like even a full like Yeah. Steak, dinner type of meal. I think that this would work really, really well.
Even, uh,
**Rooster:** we we're almost at the end of the cigar. I, we still have, you know, some cigar to go. I mean, there's no harsh
**Gizmo:** notes, no nothing. It's still smooth. No rough edges, perfect delivery. Absolutely.
**Bam Bam:** I'm much further along than you are, and it's really still very nice.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And we all have gone through it.
There wasn't a single draw issue. No. Construction was great. No, combustion was great. Like I haven't had a single one of these with
**Bam Bam:** an issue. Now I will tell you, I've had young raw Coronas, they've all performed for me. I've never had a bad one. [01:06:00] Now the flavor notes are much milder. Mm-hmm. in the youngest cigars.
But the draw has always been perfect and the construction for me is great. ,
**Senator:** young, old. The only thing I will say about this cigar, and it's funny, we were comparing this to other Rob Robusto, like the D four, the RAs, um, and this is true of most boulevards, but I tend to think the bbf is like their most refined looking cigar.
Yeah, absolutely. It's a very rustic looking cigar. Yeah. Yes. And the funny thing is, I, I think it's, it's akin to the RAs. Yep. Not in flavor profile. They're different. And look and look, but in look, yeah, man, where the first time I looked at a RAs, they said, that's not a really nice looking cigar . But then you let it up and you're sitting there saying, wow, the flavor's awesome.
And I think that's also true with this cigar, which is why it may deter some people. You don't see this in a shop, in a box and say, wow, that's a beautiful stick. You say, oh, that's, that's rustically bold. That's not pretty. But they're delicious.
**Bam Bam:** They are. What was the cigar that we had with Dan when he, we had him on the pod, San
**Gizmo:** Louie Ray Regio.
Was that at [01:07:00] robust? It's an, uh, Hermosa. Hermosa the same size. Length, the smaller, smaller, same size as the Montecristo number four. Okay. Okay. I
**Bam Bam:** think, yeah, an evening with that cigar followed by this would be great. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** that was a great cigar. Sowa Supreme is also Hermosa.
**Bam Bam:** Yes. Yeah. Yes. Another excellent cigar.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Which you just got.
**Bam Bam:** Yes, sir. Thanks to Senator.
**Gizmo:** So boys, we're coming to the, uh, end of our cigar journey here before you rate the wine. Any, uh, final comments before we. Get to this excellent wine pairing. Ho
**Bam Bam:** honestly, the pairing tonight I think was spectacular
**Senator:** all around. Well, I wanna talk a little bit about the wine.
I feel like we've said nothing other than we're enjoying
**Gizmo:** it. Yeah, let's talk about it. Well, you're the wine girl. You're the wine. Hey, this is on you. Oh no. Look, this is on you. You wanted to talk about pot pies. Speak up, Senator. You push. The listeners' needs aside.
**Senator:** Don't dis. I've worked very hard to try to don't needs, try to refine these blizzard pallets.
And I, I think I've, I've achieved that because Gizmo the other day tried a [01:08:00] grape bottle of wine that he recommended to me. Did he? That I tried and I said I agree is very, very good. What about the
**Bam Bam:** rest of us? Um, thank you very
**Senator:** much. You weren't here. All right. So I, no, I think every lizard has developed a palate for wine at this point.
I, I really do. Agreed. Um, but the, the, I think the way this wine drinks, it's, it's from Napa, so it's, it's fruit forward. Um, you get dark fruit like blackberry right up front. But what I like about it and what John and I, I think our pallets are, have always been very similar. We don't like overly fruit forward or overly sweet California wines.
We like some balance, and I liken this, that it's balanced with a little bit of earthiness, with a little bit of oak. Um, , I mean, for $20, uh, it, it, it really, I think drinks abo, it punches above its weight class. I think if you just poured this blind to someone, they would say, oh, this is maybe a mid forties, $40, 40 something dollars.
Napa, you know, uh, cab. Yeah. So, um, I think they've done a pretty nice job with this [01:09:00] wine. It's
**Bam Bam:** slightly dry, which I happen to love. Yeah. A slightly fineness
**Gizmo:** too. It's great. I think I, you know, I, I'm interested how this would work with food, um, but Oh, it would work wonderfully with food. Totally. And I, I, I'm, as you know, that's my assumption.
I think it would
**Bam Bam:** be great, honestly, with pasta or with a steak. I think for me,
**Senator:** this would be great. That's the thing that's remarkable about this. This holds up well with a steak. Yeah. The funny thing is, when John and I were going back and forth about this wine andron, kind of the two $20. Um, pound for pound best wines at that price point that you can easily find.
Yeah. And uh, John, it was so funny, I remember cuz we each traded a bottle of them and John was like, oh, I was just gonna have one when he was by himself. And then he is like, but I felt like it was so similar I needed to try the other. So he basically just like killed the two bottles. . He's like, I had to taste test them side by side,
And he goes, Senator, I'm telling you I had each and a glass. They were almost indistinguishable.
**Bam Bam:** You know what? I was
**Senator:** about to say the same thing. They're very similar. But what I will [01:10:00] say about this wine, this has a bit more structure than Obon does. Obon, I would not pair with a steak. Mm-hmm. This, I think holds up with a steak.
Mm-hmm. So I think there's also something about this where at 20 bucks to have the legs to be able to have this with the range from a pasta to a steak. Yeah. Says a lot. Yeah. I, I agree. And the funny thing I'll also say, I think Rooster found this once. , one of our cigar groups that, um, were, were involved with, uh, there was a discussion around what are like your favorite kind of excessively priced wines?
And someone had actually recommended this. I think you found that. Do you remember that? I think
**Gizmo:** so,
**Senator:** yeah. Yeah. So it, it has other fans. I wasn't familiar with it until John had introduced us to it, but
**Bam Bam:** love loving
**Gizmo:** the pairing. Great pairing to, oh yeah. I think to me, this wine with this cigar was just an absolute home run for me.
The other
**Senator:** thing I like him getting on the finish, so just a little bit of cocoa, which I think goes really well with this cigar. [01:11:00] Yeah,
**Gizmo:** yeah, yeah. It's really well pared and you know, again, despite the time and despite if you tried to buy a 2015 box. , we're talking about a really reasonable experience that we had tonight price-wise, between both the cigar and the wine.
Very, very reasonable. And
**Bam Bam:** we said both do punch above their weight class. A hundred percent. You said that earlier about the cigar, and you just mentioned it about the wine. Absolutely. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Great value for a Cuban cigar. . Yes. Yeah, for a Cuban cigar. There's not a lot of value right now. ? No. In young Cuban cigar or old ones?
for that matter. I mean, think about what Robusto
**Rooster:** Cuban Robusto you can buy for under $20
**Gizmo:** right now. Yeah. Not many. None.
**Rooster:** That's probably nothing.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Maybe in a 50 cab or RAs or something like that. That's about it. Yeah, that's about it. D four s have skyrocketed. Yep. Seeing those for low fives. I, I
**Bam Bam:** paid just under $800 though for 50 cab of brass.
Yeah. [01:12:00] Not too long ago.
**Senator:** We ought, we ought to congratulate. Bam. Bam. Sourced. Yes. Wow. His first 50 cab that his with gizmo's. Hell, I
**Gizmo:** sent it to him that it was available. Senator. He stole my thunder. You see that? You pointed to me. I wasn't gonna
**Senator:** do it. . Bam. I tried .
**Bam Bam:** I know. . Just
**Gizmo:** take the credit. Bam. All right, boys, are you guys ready to do the, uh, formal liquor rating on the iar?
Eter? Yeah. How do we pronounce that? I'm gonna say I think Iter. Iter
**Senator:** either. That's my guess. Iter. I like,
**Gizmo:** I like Eider. All right. Bam. Bam. You're up.
**Bam Bam:** I gotta give it a nine for the price and what we're getting for it. It, it just tastes for me like you, like Senator said earlier, it's well above its weight class. I'm giving it a nine
**Gizmo:** Senator. .
**Senator:** Um, I'm in the exact same camp as bam, I think for $20. That's the hardest price point for a cab. Um, [01:13:00] it's made in Napa.
Um, it tastes like Napa. There's not rough edges to this wine, like a lot of others that you would get at this price point. Um, and the versatility that Bam mentioned, I think it deserves a lot of credit for that. This could amazingly hold up even with something as heavy and robust as a steak. Mm-hmm. . Yep.
I'm at a nine
**Bam Bam:** or, or a very heavy lasagna. My wife makes a fantastic lasagna dish. I could pair this easily with that. Yeah. Have a wonderful
**Gizmo:** time. Yeah. I'm also at a nine. It's a great, great, yeah. Value wine performed wonderfully tonight and I'm really looking forward to having it with a nice meal and a nice take.
Um, so the one thing I was looking at, um, was seeing if we reviewed the and rated and the Ober on it. We haven't done it.
**Bam Bam:** No. We drank that. We recorded it.
**Gizmo:** I don't know when we did it, but we did not rate it is prior to our liquor ratings. Yeah. So I think that we need to put that in the list.
**Senator:** All right. We have, uh, the jury has spoken.
Uh, eider is the pronunciation. [01:14:00]
**Gizmo:** All right. So the formal liquor rating is a 9.0 for the Eider Cabaret.
**Senator:** Cabaret.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. You got what's on your mind tonight? Kiss, vote. Except
**Gizmo:** I knew it. , is that, is that the Diamond Cabaret , the Cabernet Boys, uh, introduced to us by our great friend. Uh, lizard. Jonn, yeah. 9.0. Yep. All right.
I am certainly done. I'm assuming you guys are very, very close here on the Boulevard, Royal Corona. Oh, yeah. You guys ready to do the, uh, formal lizard rating on this thing? Yep. All right, rooster, you're up.
**Rooster:** Um, I'm gonna give it a nine. Okay. Really good. Enjoyed it thoroughly from start to finish. And it's like everything I look for in Esgar, it's medium full.
Yeah. And the last third was definitely, like Senator said, on the fuller side. Mm-hmm. , uh, great notes, delicious smoke. Uh, you get [01:15:00] coffee, get a, you know, like dark, dark, uh, chocolate espresso notes. Yeah. I get it all. Leather. Yeah. I mean, all the notes that we look for in SAR R and with this, uh, with the amount of age on this, I mean, I'm sure a younger, uh, Boulevard, Royal Corona would not have gotten this score.
Yeah. But I think as the, I think it still has potential to age. Mm-hmm. I agree. I think if this box, if you smoke it like in a couple of years, I think it's gonna be a different
**Gizmo:** experience. Wow. I'm nervous about it. I, I really am. I'm, I think it will, I think Bol Wars do age well. Yeah. I just don't want it to get, like, I had that 99, uh, 97 Menis.
Mm-hmm. , you could tell that it's on the down. It's on the, it's, it's after its peak.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you have two boxes, right? I have two boxes of these. Yeah. And you've broken into one. Yeah. So maybe the one that you've opened, you'll sample in a year. Exactly. And then see how it goes. And
**Gizmo:** just keep, I'm just, I'm gonna
**Bam Bam:** make this.
And if it improves, then you keep that other
**Gizmo:** box. Exactly. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna regularly test this and see how it goes, and I'll help you test it. All right, perfect. There all will . [01:16:00] So they'll be gone in about two weeks. . All right. I'm also gonna give it a nine. I think that this is, uh, continues to be probably the best bva, um, that I've had the best experience with bva.
It does perform better for me than Bellaco Sophos, um, young or old. I just, that's cigar has just fallen out of, I've fallen outta love with it, which I know is, you know, sacrilegious to Senator. But, um, it's definitely a nine for me.
**Senator:** Well, now that you've upset me by starting , this war on the Bbbs for sub reason, I be Jesus, you couldn't just rate the cigar definitive statement.
Very definitive statement. Yeah. Um, well now I'm gonna strike back and start with, Ooh, uhoh. I hate this cigar, man. .
**Gizmo:** That's good cuz that's the, that's one less cigar I need. You're an awful
**Senator:** liar, by the way, . No, I mean that. It's young, young, young. I don't like this cigar young. Got it. I still maintain that this is nothing like, this is young.
Nothing at all. Totally. Uh, but this cigar with this amount of age, [01:17:00] I'm also in the same camp. I would give it a nine. Um, I think, like Rooster said, a lot of the flavor notes in this are exactly what we pursue. Um, I do wish it looked a, a bit nicer. Yeah. Um, I mean that's where, when you compare it to a D four or some other rub robusto mm-hmm.
I think it, it falls a little bit. . But, um, it's got a lot of merit and I think it's a, it's an evening smoke. Don't make the mistake. Well, unless you're rooster. Yeah. Don't make the mistake. I did try to like this or a petite Corona from Boulevard, make the morning, make a mistake,
**Gizmo:** judge for yourself.
**Senator:** But, um, I, I do like this and my take on this cigar, like I would only pursue this with age in a way that the bbb f I'm happy to smoke with just a couple years of age and relatively young.
Um, so that, that's where I'm at. Mm-hmm. ,
**Bam Bam:** I'm, I'm also at a nine, but I'm very happy pursuing young Royal Coronas and keeping them for a while. Mm-hmm. , because I do, I happen to love the cigar. Yeah. For me, it's a regular cigar, uh, that I have often and I'm, it's, [01:18:00] it's, I'm in a, it's a love affair for me. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** So that's a flat 9.0 boys for the formal lizard rating on the Boulevard, Royal Corona. And the one thing I will say, cuz we didn't talk about it, I kind of mentioned it briefly is that I wish it was a Corona. Mm. I wish it wasn't a rib robusto. I wish it was the same exact flavor profile. Just a little bit longer.
You want more of it? Yeah, I want more of it. Me too. Even if the ring gauge was the same mm-hmm. i'd, I just want a little bit more of it. Another half inch or an inch. I'd be so much more thrilled Yeah. Than I am at a rub robusto. Yeah. They, they need to make a lawn sale. Oh. Oh, that'd be awesome. Every, every
**Bam Bam:** wow.
Every brand does. Yeah. Honestly, tonight's pairings, this, everything was just delicious from beginning to end. What a, what a wonderful night. Excellent night. Reminds me of the RA pairing. I don't remember what we had with that, but that was a delicious, delicious evening. The cigar and the spirit together.
Fantastic.
**Gizmo:** So the one thing that's interesting I wanted to bring up to you guys, uh, we've only done one other boulevard on the pod, I [01:19:00] think maybe two, but namely the one that we should mention, uh, that we did the Boulevard Bellaco Pheno on episode 11 quite a while back. We did that with Macallan 12.
Mm-hmm. . Um, and, uh, it got an 8.1, so obviously that was a young cigar. Um, very young with those. So I think, you know, listen, obviously we're gonna get to a point where we try a lot of these again in the coming months and years. Uh, but that was, uh, that, that's another great smoke from Boulevard. Much different experience and
**Senator:** are that, to be that young.
Yeah. And get an 8.1. I mean, imagine with age. Yeah. Well, to
**Bam Bam:** me the BBF is a historic cigar. I mean, that's a must to have the must.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. People love that cigar. Yeah, I do too. Definit.
**Rooster:** You know, we gave the cigar a nine, a wine a nine, and lizard John is a 10. Oh,
**Gizmo:** absolutely. Off the track. Well said. We'll always be well said.
Missed. Yeah. Yeah. It's a huge loss. I love
**Bam Bam:** that guy. I do too. Yeah. Yeah. It's such a sweetheart. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Well, boys, an [01:20:00] excellent night here with both, uh, our cigar and our wine. Nice tribute to John. We're gonna miss him. Um, excellent. Excellent. 9.0 for both. Um, yeah. Thanks guys.
**Senator:** John Gibson, rest in peace. We will miss you,
**Bam Bam:** John.
Absolutely.
**Gizmo:** All right, boys. We'll see you next week.
Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's Lounge lizards p o d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello, tell us what you're smoking, email us hello@loungelizardspod.com.
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