MATCHLESS SMOKES

Like champagne perfectionists who insist that the best bubbly can come only from the Champagne province of France, cigar  purists insist that cigars can, and do come only from Cuba.  The best cigar that the country has to offer  - what connoisseurs lovingly call the puro - is made entirely  by  hand and completely of tobaccos grown in  the warm earth of the Vuelta Abajo, a portion of western Cuba's Pifiar del Rio province.  There the climate and soil are perfect for growing cigar tobaccos.  The temperature ranges between 85 degree F and 90 degree F during the day; nights are cool; and humidity hovers consistently around 80%.  The soil is sandy and light, which makes it capable of retaining moisture from the dew and from the frequent but not drenching rains.

But is the Cuban cigar still king?  Is it worth the price, which can run as high as $15 per cigar at Dunhill's in London?   Has international politics severely limited the cigar lover's access to the best?  The answer to all three questions is yes.

People with palates only for puros often name the Cuban Montecristo No. 1 as the world's finest cigar.  It is pungently aromatic, boldly flavored, beautifully constructed and classic corona size  - about 6 1/2 inches long and a 42-ring gauge, meaning that the cigar is 42/64 of an inch thick - or roughly the diameter of a dime.

Most connoisseurs favour coronas - stogies ranging from 40 to 44 in ring gauge and from five inches to 7 1/2 inches in length.  Such cigars combine full flavor with a moderate burning pace and temperature.   Thinner cigars delivers less taste, hence viewed with a measure of disdain by serious smokers.  They also burn faster and hotter than coronas do.  Cigar thicker than coronas often called double coronas or Churchills, are as flavorful as coronas but burn slower and cooler.

Among the double coronas, the best may be the seven-inch-long, 47-ring-gauge Davidoff Dom Perignon.  This stupefying expensive stogie is a specially made house brand produced in Havana to the specifications of Swiss tobacconist Zino Davidoff, the man known among cigar connoisseurs as the high priest of the puro.

Many cigar aficionados, however, insist that the puro's excellence is no longer something you can rely on.  Quality control in Cuban factories, they argue, has suffered since the revolution. Some experts further say the puro is losing its competitive edge altogether. Cuban tobacco growers appear not to have benefited as much as farmers elsewhere from agricultural advances.   More important, many of the first families of the pre-Castro Cuban cigar industry fled the island at the start of the revolution, taking with them tobacco seeds and irreplaceable manufacturing wisdom.   These craftsmen set up plantations and factories in Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Canary Islands, where climate and soil conditions are much the same as in Cuba.  Now, having had more than two decades to work the soil & develop a skilled labor force, they produce top quality, handmade cigars for U.S. companies and market them under the classic old Cuban brand names - Partagas, Hoyo de  Monterry, H. Upmann, Punch and Montecristo.

The Partagas line, produced in the Dominican Republic for the General Cigar Co., is widely regarded as the most consistently excellent. The most popular size is the 6 3/4 inch-long, 43-ring-gauge Partagas No.1. Pleasingly aromatic, it is filled with roughly equal amounts of Mexican, Dominican and Jamaican tobaccos and is wrapped in a leaf from Cameroon. This blend produces  a  cigar  that is prized because it  hits  a  desirable midpoint  in flavour between boldness and mildness. Like Cuban cigars, it is firmly packed, making it occasionally somewhat hard-drawing.

People who prefer a milder, easier-drawing stogie  couldn't  go wrong with any of Dunhill's superb Montecruz cigars.  Made in the Dominican  Republic  from Central and South American  filler  and Cameroon  wrapper,  the Montecruz line offers a  wider  range  of sizes  than  does Partagas.  The 6 1/2  inch-long,  42-ring-gauge No.210  is  the classic.  The Montecruz has a  delicate  wrapper, which has a tendency to crack and peel.

Other  excellent  cigars on the mild side include  the  extremely light-tasting  Don Diegos; the smooth-drawing Royal Jamaicas  and the  exquisitely  constructed  Macanudos, made  in  Jamaica  from Jamaican  and South American filler and Connecticut  shade  grown wrapper.   Macanudos' fiercely loyal followers often  prefer  the  6 1/2-inch-long, 42-ring-gauge Baron de Rothschild corona.

so-� Z e u ��O �� This stupefying expensive stogie is a specially made house brand produced in Havana to the specifications of Swiss tobacconist Zino Davidoff, the man known among cigar connoisseurs as the high priest of the puro.

Many cigar aficionados, however, insist that the puro's excellence is no longer something you can rely on.  Quality control in Cuban factories, they argue, has suffered since the revolution. Some experts further say the puro is losing its competitive edge altogether. Cuban tobacco growers appear not to have benefited as much as farmers elsewhere from agricultural advances.   More important, many of the first families of the pre-Castro Cuban cigar industry fled the island at the start of the revolution, taking with them tobacco seeds and irreplaceable manufacturing wisdom.   These craftsmen set up plantations and factories in Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Canary Islands, where climate and soil conditions are much the same as in Cuba.  Now, having had more than two decades to work the soil & develop a skilled labor force, they produce top quality, handmade cigars for U.S. companies and market them under the classic old Cuban brand names - Partagas, Hoyo de  Monterry, H. Upmann, Punch and Montecristo.