Luc Timmermans

Luc Timmermans tells us the "what", "when", "how" and "why" of his collection of 11,000 Cuban cigars.

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“Her fault,” he says, with a cheeky smile and a discreet jab of the finger at his wife, Eiling Lim who is just far enough to not notice.

I was not a cigar smoker. I went for the first time to Cuba about 25 years ago and I was not really interested in cigars. At the time I bought cigars and I smoked cigars but I was not hooked to it. But then when I met her, she handed me a cigar and she said you should try this --Upmann Connoisseur No. 1, 2007 ; an aged cigar. I smoked it and I thought ‘wow’.”

That fateful day took place four years ago and in the short time since, Luc Timmermans has amassed a collection of over 11,000 cigars.

"Luc the buyer"

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“Luc the buyer” is the nickname he goes by in Europe, according to Eiling, because “when he starts buying something, no one else will be able to buy it anymore because he buys everything.”

A man with a genuine passion for collecting, Luc also owns a massive collection of whiskies and watches.

Formerly an owner of a software company, Luc sold it when he decided to turn one of his passions into profit and became an independent whisky bottler. First introduced to Scotch whisky in 1998, he would go on to become one of the foremost experts on the golden elixir, and was accepted to the Malt Maniacs, a group that reviews, grades and awards whiskies the world over.

Today, the independent bottling is done under Eiling’s name whilst Luc remains an advisor as he enjoys the finer things in life.

Aging cigars

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“An aged cigar is so much better,” he tells me. “But every cigar is a bit different. The aging potential of a cigar depends on the leaves that were used when they rolled the cigars. So some cigars are rolled for quicker smoking while others are rolled to keep for thirty, forty or fifty years.”

But it isn’t easy to figure out the blend of leaves used in the cigar and therefore difficult to know if the cigar was made to be smoked immediately or to be matured; unless of course you smoke it.

“You can tell immediately the type of cigar when you smoke it. If it’s a greenish cigar, it has a lot of tannins and is therefore a cigar that has a lot of potential for aging. But if you buy a cigar like the Montecristo No. 2, they are made for immediate smoking.”

Valuable investment

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Luc ages most of his cigars for two reasons.  Firstly: “the rough edges go away, they become smoother and the aromas get more integrated and softer. You have to smoke an older cigar to know it and when you do, you become addicted.”

Secondly: “the value of cigars increase exponentially if you buy the right ones. If you bought the Cohiba 40th anniversary humidor with its specifically made cigars 10 years ago for about €15,000, you could easily sell it now for €80,000 to €100,000."

The cigars are stored at his homes in Malaysia and Belgium as well as dedicated warehouses where they are kept at specific humidity levels: 68% humidity if they are to be smoked immediately and 65-68% if they are being aged.

Although his entire collection consists of Cuban cigars, none of them were actually purchased from Cuba directly: “It’s very difficult. Surprisingly they don’t have so many cigars in Cuba because most of them have left the country already. So mostly I buy from La Casa Del Habanos, the official franchise for Habanos cigars so I know they are legitimate, because there are a lot of fakes in cigars.”

His favourites

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Buying his cigars from all over the world, many boxes at a time, Luc fills me in on the different types that are released every year:

“You have to make a distinction between the regular production cigars, the limited edition cigars and the regional releases.”

The limited edition cigars or limitadas are produced annually while the regional releases are made for specific countries and come in different sizes and use different blends of leaves. As for his favourites, I imagined that for a man who has thousands of them, it would be difficult to choose; but not so:

“I love Cohiba Siglo VI; for me, it’s a classic reference. It’s very hard to get today because they cannot keep up with production, so they are sold out, constantly. Partagas Lusitanias is in my opinion a really classic cigar. Upmann No.2 and Montecristo No. 2 are also classic references.”

“Amongst the limitadas, I think the Upmann No.56 is a classic in the making. So is the Diplomaticos Bushidos – a super, great cigar.”

His holy grail

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As he makes his way through the mental list of his favourite cigars, his eyes light up when he stops at his “holy grail cigar.”

The Dunhill Estupendos. Luc explains that when Cuba turned into a communist state, many foreign businesses left with Dunhill amongst them, who left in 1991 after deciding not to renew their contract with Cubatabaco, the nationalised tobacco company. This ended their production of cigars with Cuban tobacco, thus making the ones remaining rare and very valuable.

He shows me the only one he has, stored in a white tube, expected to be over 40 years old and believed to be worth around £1,000.

“One day, I will smoke it,” he says with a gleeful smile.

Passionate collectors

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As for the rest of his collection, Luc figures he will sell most of them off when the time comes to it:

“If I had to smoke 11,000 cigars I would die,” he admits laughing.

At the end of our evening, he goes back to the Upmann Connoisseur No. 1, 2007 and tells Eiling how grateful he is that she let him try it.

Jokingly, she replies “I regret it, because ever since, you’ve been hoarding cigars like a mad man.”

Mad man or genius? The difference is often very little, and in the case of this passionate cigar smoking couple, and their higly valuable collection, it’s hard not to see the genius in it all.

Another passionate collector: Ross Hamilton and his train models.