After a long Wednesday, we decided to take it easy on Thursday and skip the early morning official factory tour. After a late breakfast and a cigar in the patio of the Nacional, the rest of the gang headed to Ernest Hemingway’s house, the Finca Vigia, while I stayed back to upload some photos to Facebook.

Finca Vigia was built in the late 19th century and was purchased by Ernest Hemingway in 1940, where he lived until his death in 1961. It is much preserved the way it was left after his death and visitors can see many artefacts belonging to him, as well as the lookout he used to write his novels from. The swimming pool and his boat “Pilar” can be seen in the surrounding gardens, as well as the small graves of his four cats.

During lunchtime, we had an invitation to an exciting pre-release blend testing of the 2014 UK Regional Edition, the Por Larranaga Sobresaliente, with all the Hunters & Frankau crew and the trade crew from the UK and Ireland. Simon Chase was very excited on this new release, which is destined to have the same success as the Por Larranaga Magnificos Regional Edition from 2007.

The Sobresaliente is an unusual shape that we don’t see to often, and would be not far from a Robusto Extra, measuring 153mm in length with a 53 ring gauge. The first Sobresalientes were created in 2007 for the Partagas Antique Replica Humidor, and then released again in 2011 as the Bolivar 681 a regional edition for Bulgaria and in 2013 as the Ramon Allones Sidon in Lebanon.

The Por Larranaga Sobresalientes we smoked were rolled only a few days before in Villa Clara, 300 miles away from Havana, where the regular release will also be rolled when the time comes. Although they were unbanded, we got to see the bands that will be used and are identical to the embossed, two tone band used in the Magnificos and the Regalias de Londres. They will be presented in Semi Boite Nature box of 10 that will have a papeletta.

I found the cigar to be fairly mild, with grassy notes at start. However, it showed great complexity through the second third with sweet, creamy flavours – exactly what I would have expected from a large ring gauge Por Larranaga. This would be a great cigar and one that we would definitely put to sleep for a few years. The general consensus of the table was that although young, it was a very good cigar, with great ageing potential and the H&F crew were delighted to hear that.

On a table nearby, the rest of our group, the poor unfortunates who weren’t part of the trade and the Sobresaliente tasting, were having their tasting going, sampling cigars from Stewart’s old box of Cuban Davidoff Haut Brion! Needless to say, their tasting gathered more attention than our own!

After a traditional El Aljibe chicken lunch that followed the tasting, we made our way to Havana for a cigar in the Partagas factory. The (…) and the VIP lounge was booming. The centre of attention was a beautiful old radio that had been hand painted and converted to a cigar humidor, and was at the time filled with cigars and was getting ready for its new owner. A couple of cigars and mojtos later we made our way back to the Nacional hotel to get ready for the evening.

Another side event that was taking place early that evening was in the Habana Libre hotel, which we visited. A raffle was taking place and Rob was one of the luckiest men of the night, winning a nice bottle of rum, while Nino and Jimmy won themselves some nice humidors filled with cigars!

While the rest of our group headed over for dinner in La Guarida, I joined a great side event with our good friend Wishnu, the Pacific Cigar Party. Although the torrential rain didn’t help, the party was great, with some fantastic custom rolled cigars on offer, plenty of drinks and hundreds of lobsters lined up! The entertainment was also phenomenal, with two bands taking turns on the stage, followed by an unbelievable salsa dancing group called “Habana Queens”.

The party kept going till well after midnight, as nobody was brave enough to step out in the heavy rainfall, with the streets of old Habana who where turned into fast flowing rivers. Luckily, Ajay came to the rescue with his driver and offered us a lift back to the “Irish Embassy”.