There are evenings you organize, that you prepare for weeks, secretly hoping some small bit of magic will eventually take hold. Rock the Smoke, that wonderful Thursday, September 3, at La Cave Ô Délices in Montauban, was clearly one of those evenings.
An absolutely perfect late-summer temperature, a magnificent terrace overlooking the racecourse with its golf driving range at its center, remarkable food, two Rocky Patels to discover, some good spirits, and above all a wonderful gathering of cigar enthusiasts who came to share a few hours of good company.
All the ingredients were in place. And this last Cigare et Compagnie HÉDONISTE Evening of 2026 lived up to every bit of its promise.
A Rather Special HÉDONISTE Evening at La Cave Ô Délices in Montauban
Starting at 7:30pm, the first guests began taking over the superb terrace at La Cave Ô Délices. Gilles and his whole team had gotten the place ready to welcome us like kings… and queens, of course!
It has to be said, the setting was perfect for the occasion. In front of us, Montauban’s racecourse and its golf driving range. Above our heads, a late-summer sky. And above all, that lovely mild warmth we wish we could order up for every single one of our evenings.
Once everyone was settled in, it was time for yours truly to take the microphone.
And this time, there were a few things to announce.
This evening was special in more ways than one. First, because it was our first evening at La Cave Ô Délices. And second, because we were welcoming Jérémy from Eurotab for the first time, our Rocky Patel ambassador for the occasion.
But it was special too because Rock the Smoke was going to be the last HÉDONISTE Evening of 2026.
Yours truly will indeed need to lie a bit low for a while, with a fairly simple goal: to come back stronger, sturdier, and, incidentally… with a brand-new spine!
All the more reason, then, to make the most of this final evening.
Rocky Patel: When a Los Angeles Lawyer Decided to Change His Life for Cigars
Rock the Smoke also had a feature we’d never encountered at one of our evenings before: for once, we weren’t going to be telling the story of yet another family tobacco dynasty passed down from generation to generation.
Rocky Patel’s story is radically different.
Rakesh “Rocky” Patel wasn’t born amid tobacco plantations. He didn’t inherit a family factory. Before cigars, Rocky Patel was a lawyer in Los Angeles, working notably in the entertainment industry.
It was in the early 1990s that he fell in love with cigars. A passion that gradually took up more and more space in his life, eventually leading him to Honduras to truly learn the craft: the tobaccos, fermentation, aging, blending and manufacturing.
In 2003, he made a major shift, putting his own name more firmly at the forefront and turning Indian Tabac into Rocky Patel Premium Cigars. Many lines that would become iconic for the house followed, including Vintage, Decade and, of course, The Edge. Rocky Patel’s philosophy rests notably on seeking complexity through blending tobaccos from different growing regions, along with a particularly rigorous control over production consistency.
A rather incredible journey for someone who, just a few years earlier, was still practicing law in California.
And to tell us all about it and bring us a little further into the world of the house, we were lucky enough to have Jérémy from Eurotab by our side. Throughout the evening, he treated us to anecdotes, explanations and little stories about Rocky Patel and his cigars.
All that was left to do was move from theory to practice.
The Rocky Patel LB1 to Open the Festivities
To start off the tasting, Jérémy introduced us to our first cigar: the Rocky Patel LB1.
A particularly fitting choice to open the evening. The LB1 has enough personality to catch the interest of seasoned enthusiasts while remaining accessible and balanced enough for an easy start to a two-cigar tasting.
Beneath its Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, the LB1 blends Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos. On the palate, it reveals a rather balanced cigar, with a register that can range around wood, cedar, coffee and roasted notes, accompanied by spices and a peppery touch.
No needless show of strength: the LB1 quietly finds its place.
And as wisps of smoke began drifting across the terrace, the first plates arrived.
Here too, Gilles had decided not to do things by halves.
Rather than a traditional dinner, he had prepared a genuine showcase of bistronomic tapas, with one refined dish following another.
Around the tables, between two puffs of the LB1, it wasn’t unusual to hear a very technical, very gastronomic comment:
“Mmmmmm!”
Sometimes the simplest comments say it best.
The Edge 20th Anniversary Toro: And Suddenly, a Whole Different Dimension…
Night had well and truly settled over Montauban but, rather exceptionally for this time of late summer, the warmth was still with us.
Conversations were flowing, plates kept circulating, and it was time to discover our second cigar.
And not just any cigar.
The Rocky Patel The Edge 20th Anniversary in Toro format.
The Edge holds a special place in Rocky Patel’s history. The house explains that the work behind this line began twenty years before this anniversary edition, with the Edge cigar itself finally launching two years after that research began. To celebrate this history, Rocky Patel developed the 20th Anniversaryaround a blend of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos wrapped in a superb Ecuadorian Sumatra leaf aged for more than ten years.
That alone deserved taking our time.
And from the very first puffs, the tone was set.
We had clearly just stepped into another dimension.
Richer, deeper and more complex, The Edge 20th Anniversary immediately sparked conversation around the tables. Wood, earth, spice, coffee, cocoa… everyone had their own impressions and takeaways.
But there was one unmistakable sign above all: by the end of the tasting, everyone wanted to know how to order some!
It’s hard to pay a cigar a better compliment.
The desserts prepared by the La Cave Ô Délices team, deliberately subtle and lightly sweetened, paired wonderfully with this second cigar without ever overpowering it.
Armagnac, Rum and Beautiful Cigars to Close Out Rock the Smoke
At this point in the evening, we probably could have called it a night.
But that would have been far too reasonable.
A few bottles of Armagnac and rum therefore made an appearance, extending the pleasure a little further and accompanying the last wisps of The Edge 20th Anniversary.
The terrace gradually emptied out, conversations went on, the last cigars burned down, and everyone eventually made their way home.
With, quite visibly, very big smiles on their faces.
That’s probably the best way to sum up Rock the Smoke.
Not just two great cigars. Not just an excellent dinner. But that combination of discoveries, fine food, stories, laughter and encounters that makes up the entire spirit of Cigare et Compagnie’s HÉDONISTE Evenings.
Thank You!
A huge thank you to Gilles and the whole team at La Cave Ô Délices in Montauban. For a first time together, you welcomed us wonderfully and, above all… you treated us to a feast!
Thank you to Jérémy from Eurotab, our Rocky Patel ambassador for the evening, for his presence, his expertise, his professionalism and all the anecdotes that let us get to know the Rocky Patel house a little better.
A big thank you also to Jean-Marie from Le Lalande, our loyal partner, without whom this evening simply couldn’t have happened.
And finally, thank you to all of you.
Thank you for your presence, your loyalty, your kindness, your curiosity, your conversations, your laughter and that wonderful atmosphere you create at every one of our gatherings.
Cigare et Compagnie’s evenings exist because you’re there to bring them to life.
This last HÉDONISTE evening of 2026 therefore inevitably had a slightly bittersweet flavor…
But rest assured: yours truly fully intends to come back stronger than ever.
Until then, take care of yourselves and keep making beautiful smoke.
See you very soon for the next chapter of the Cigare et Compagnie adventure.
