James Suckling retires

[TheRiddick]

Originally Posted by akumushi

If Suckling does have this excessive knowledge as you say, it hasn't come across particularly strongly in his published work in CA in the time I've been reading it. If he regularly did more overt cigar history and processing content like that I would definitely have a higher opinion of his ouevre. Maybe, as you said, that is the editor's fault and not his own. Maybe he's far more interesting in person than the way he comes off in that publication, but as far as readership is concerned, I won't miss his editorial there, and that's what we were talking about here.

On your point of consumer VS. industry insider, you don't need to have encyclopedic knowledge of cigar history and cigar production to rate, recommend and review Habanos, you need first hand experience of the product; to have smoked a lot of them in a wide variety, and while I won't mention names out of respect, there are a lot of members of this board that have smoked a lot of Habanos, including rare and HTFs, whose opinion I would trust a hell of a lot more than Sucklings. Is that naive? Possibly, but maybe I prefer to listen to people who I've had interactions with that don't come off in a pompous manner rather than just taking Mr. 100 point CGR on his word because he is a so called "expert."

If people don't listen to a guys views despite his vast and superior knowledge maybe it's because he comes off in a prickish way that's disconnected from the populace. Frankly, I don't think it's envy because there are plenty of BOTL on this forum smoking a lot more expensive smokes than you see being reviewed on cigar aficionado.

On the first highlighted point above, I find it way too simplistic. All I can tell you is that you can probably count those on CA who have been smoking Cuban cigars for longer that, say, 10 years, on fingers of what, one hand? Those who have never smoked a good number of older Cuban tobacco (the pre-Habano days and mostly that of Corojo) simply cannot have a proper perspective of what Cuban cigars can (and did) achieve. So, I still stand by my point of view, no consumer on this board is even close to Suckling. I have been smoking cigars for a long time now, my first was in 1977, but would be hard pressed to match Suckling's experience and perspective. I find it strange that those who have been smoking cigars and Cuban cigars in particular, for JUST the past few years (5-8 tops and in most cases way less) all of a sudden are experts on the subject. And I use word "strange" here in as a mild political correctness way as I can...

On the second point above. Please remind me, just how many unique readers are here on this board? And what is the circulation of the Cigar Aficionado (and Wine Spectator)? Compare the numbers and let me know who has more "listeners". Suckling drives the market (whether you believe nor understand this) while your "experts" here and other boards do what exactly?

I always tell people not to simply and automatically believe everything they think, open mind can be an eye opening experience especially when facts are in play.

Funny that it took Spectator just 4 people to replace ONE guy... But then again, he knows nothing according to you.