Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 10:21 a.m.
Smoking a cigar usually is a special occasion, one that requires the right amount of time and the right place to be thoroughly enjoyed.
A person can't inhale a cigar on a coffee break at the office, and even if he could co-workers would probably raise a stink.
Those who take cigars seriously, such as members of the Pheasant Cigars on West Sahara Avenue, don't want to be rushed when they are lighting up a $200 Opus X or even an $18 Padron Aniversario. Nor do they want to be hassled about the aroma.
Several members of the club will be among an estimated 5,000 of the most avid cigar-smoking enthusiasts who will attend Cigar Aficionado magazine's sixth annual "Big Smoke Las Vegas" at Paris Las Vegas this weekend.
The two "Big Smoke" evenings will include samples from more than 35 premium cigar producers that will have exhibits. There will also be samples of liquors, wines, beer and other beverages, as well as food.
Several seminars will cover such subjects as taste testing, tips on how to buy cigars and rolling your own cigars.
"Hardcore cigar smokers don't just light cigars up like a cigarette," Carl Valentino said.
Valentino and his brother, Paul, are co-owners of Pheasant Cigars, which is both a private club for people who like to be with friends while smoking cigars, and a retail outlet for those people who walk in off the street looking for cigars they wont find at a convenience store.
Club members enjoy sitting back in one of the deep-cushioned leather chairs and reading or watching television or visiting with a fellow member who also is smoking a favorite cigar in a friendly atmosphere.
Men and women who take their pastime seriously enough to join a club are not those who spend 50 cents for a cigar.
"They pay attention to labels, flavors, wrappers and how the cigar burns," noted Valentino, who managed Pheasant Cigars for 18 months before he and his brother decided to buy the business.
The Valentinos are late bloomers in the cigar business. They bought Pheasant Cigars in February. The company was about to close its doors when the brothers from Denver decided to take it over.
"Before we bought it we sat down with the club members and asked them if they really wanted a cigar club, otherwise we would move on to something else," said Valentino, who was a golf professional in Denver before moving to Las Vegas more than two years ago. "They said yes, so we took it on."
The club had only 10 members at the time. Now it has about 30 and is growing. Dues are $150 a month, which includes lockers for humidors and the privilege of relaxing in a smoke-friendly environment.
"But what they are really getting for their money are the intangibles," Valentino said. "You are getting a network of friends you can trust."
The club once was the domain of men but now has several women members. Cigar smoking is no longer (if it ever was) an exclusively male activity.
Cigars and women
Gordon Mott, executive editor of Cigar Aficionado, said since his magazine was founded almost 10 years ago the number of women cigar smokers has increased dramatically.
"That's one of the things that the magazine has accomplished," Mott said during a recent telephone interview from his New York City office. "We have stripped away a lot of the taboos, and one of those was women smoking cigars."
Mott said many women were smoking cigars long before the magazine was founded in 1992, but when a photograph ran of actress Demi Moore on the front cover in 1996 it gave the green light to other women to follow suit.
"We made it OK for them to smoke in public," he said.
Mott said there will be great diversity of people at the "Big Smoke."
"There will be women, blue-collar workers, union laborers, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and people from every other walk of life, all sharing cigars and cigar stories," Mott said.
He said there is "an atmosphere of camaraderie and sharing among cigar smokers. The activity is a true equalizer. One of the reasons we have been so successful is a common ground, a shared experience in an enjoyment of life."
Still smoking
Mott said 90 percent of cigar consumers smoke three cigars a week or less, and of those 90 percent, 92 percent don't inhale.
Smoking has been banned in many public places, such as restaurants. That, combined with a campaign against tobacco by the health industry, has reduced the number of cigar smokers, but Mott says the decline has been negligible.
"Compared against 1992, we believe there are two to three times as many cigar smokers today," Mott said. "And the number is a good 2 1/2 times larger for hand-rolled cigars.
"There was a period where consumption was up three times, but it has retreated from that level. Still, consumption is much larger now than 10 years ago."
Women going public with their cigar smoking has not been the only change in the cigar marketplace.
"When we launched the magazine, a man started smoking cigars at the age of 40, on average," Mott said. "So from the beginning, our audience was always a 40-plus median age. But since the magazine has stripped away the mystique, men in the 25 to 40-age range have picked up a cigar and tried it for the first time.
"We aren't talking about youths, but young men, many of whom are professionals who are attracted to and comfortable with smoking cigars."
There have been other changes along the way.
"We're going through a classic revolution," Mott said. "Look at wine and spirits. When people first come to a product, like wine and spirts, they tend to gravitate to the mildest tasting, simplest ones. Mild cigars dominated the marketplace in the beginning, but today a lot more people are seeking out full-flavored, stronger cigars with more complexity."
There are usually six "Big Smoke" events held around the country during the year, in such cities as New York, Chicago and Dallas.
Mott says the event in Las Vegas is the Super Bowl of all Cigar Aficionado weekends. He said it has the largest attendance of the national events, almost twice as much as its nearest competitor.
"It's a great atmosphere," Mott said. "It's a mini-vacation for families or for groups of buddies who take the opportunity to take in a show and gamble and smoke cigars.
"For a cigar smoker, Las Vegas is heaven."
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