Andrew Welch: Vitolas.net

Whether you know him by his cigar forum moniker: “Moki” or by his alter identity: Andrew Welch, President of Ambrosia Software, Inc., you will quickly realize that Andrew is a cigar enthusiast, collector, and hobbiest of the first order.

If you belong to nearly any cigar forum, you’ve probably read the insightful posts and marveled at the seemingly endless knowledge that he possess about cigars. I have often wondered how one person can be so well informed about the cigar industry. Yet, Andrew comes by this knowledge through his meticulous attention to detail, his exhaustive research, and his insatiable desire to catalog anything and everything about cigars to satisfy his own thirst for knowledge and to share it all with the cigar community.

If you have never visited his website, Vitolas.net, you have missed a golden opportunity to become more educated about cigars. I finally tracked down this prodigious “Cigar-bot” and he graciously accepted my invitation to share his musings about his life and his passion: Cigars. So sit back and enjoy this tour.

DOC: So, what led you to start smoking cigars and, when did your cigar hobby turn into a passion?

ANDREW: I first began smoking real cigars back in the early 1990's. My brother had gone to college in Spain and ended up living there for 7 years or so afterwards. I'd visit him over the summer on a fairly regular basis and we'd pick out some nice Cubans and enjoy a “Cafe con Leche” in one of the many bar/cafes in Madrid.

Back then I really didn't know what I was doing, other than knowing a couple of brands that I liked. It was primarily something I'd enjoy on vacation, kicking back with a beer and a cigar. I didn't even own a humidor.

My interest was rekindled when traveling to Puerto Rico of all places; I picked up some Padron’s for my brother and I to enjoy and was extremely impressed with how they tasted. Not being part of the "scene", I'd actually never even heard of Padron, as most of my cigar experiences to date had been Cuban cigars smoked outside of the USA while on vacation.

I picked up a humidor to store my newfound treasures and learned far more about cigars than I'd ever known before in a relatively short period of time, due to a number of online cigar communities.

DOC: You are the president of a software company, Ambrosia Software; cigar collecting seems pretty far a field. What inspired you to construct Vitolas.net?

ANDREW: It was actually a fairly interesting nexus for me. My formal training is in photojournalism, but I work at a computer software company. I was a bit overwhelmed with the variety of cigars and information that was available and found a way to combine my photography and computer experience to make a web site that was originally intended as a reference for me.

It's expanded a bit beyond that now, but I honestly wish I had more time to put into it, there are a number of things I'd like to do with it.

I'm the type of person who wants to find out accurate information about any subject that I'm interested in. As such, vitolas.net is really an extension of that. Much of what is up there consists of contributions from the cigar community, all I've done is distill it down, determine the veracity of it, and post it online.

DOC: Vitolas.net is a fantastic resource for cigar collectors and enthusiasts. There are thousands of photographs and many different categories. What do you see as the overall purpose of your site and how do you keep track of it all?

ANDREW: The irony is that the site was created so that I could keep track of it all. I'd receive a limited production cigar, but unless I wrote down exactly what it was, I'd probably forget. Then I realized that there was an awful lot of information that was passed around as "folklore," in a sense, that really could stand to be codified and made available for everyone to benefit from.

So vitolas.net really exists to keep track of things. Which reminds me, I have a few cigars sitting in my "holding pen" that are waiting to be photographed and put up on vitolas.net

DOC: What are some of your ideas for the future of Vitolas.net?

ANDREW: The first thing I need to do is update the site to reflect the new Fuente MSRPs; after that, I want to expand to cover cigar brands such as Padron in terms of providing a picture of each vitola along with MSRP information. I also would like to expand the Cuban section with MSRP information, because I think that's a useful resource too.

I'm also partnering with some fantastic people to expand the site a bit; Wilkey Wong (aka "Ginseng") will be working on a counterfeit Cuban cigar archive for vitolas.net, and there are some other things in the works too.

DOC: For the techies out there, can you tell us what kind of equipment and techniques you use to take photographs of cigars?

ANDREW: I just picked up a softbox, and use a camera mounted on a tripod to take the pictures. The cigars I just position on some stationary of mine, along with the infamous quarter, and take a picture. The real key is getting the lighting right, in terms of color balance, and also in terms of the proper balance of highlights/shadows.

As it stands now, none of the vitolas.net pictures are really technically good photos; I just try to make sure they are properly lit and show off the cigars well. I recently purchased a new camera that takes much better pictures and am trying to resist the urge to redo a number of older pictures on the site that seem rather ugly to me now.

After the pictures for the cigars are taken, which I generally do in batches of a dozen or so at a time, I pop the memory card out of the camera, put it into my Mac and download the photos. I open them up in Photoshop, do a little color balancing, scaling, cropping, etc., and then upload the photos to vitolas.net.

The real work isn't taking the photos, it’s in researching, compiling, and documenting the information for each particular cigar.

DOC: You seem to have a special relationship with certain cigar manufacturers like the Fuente’s. Can you expand on the close ties you have developed with major players in the industry?

ANDREW: I really don't have a special relationship in terms of favors or anything like that, Fuente just happens to be a very open organization. They throw annual events where you can enjoy a cigar with the folks who actually create them, and much of what I've learned has come from talking to people in the industry, who are surprisingly open and generous. I've also learned a great deal from people in the online cigar community, and have made some great friends that way as well.

DOC: You seem to have an extensive cigar collection. What tips would you give to all of the budding cigar collectors and hobbyists out there?

ANDREW: My advice would be to do what you like. Some people think it's crazy to collect cigars; why have a cigar you'll never smoke, after all? For me it's just something that interests me, just as someone who collects rare coins or misprinted stamps, never intending to actually use them to pay for something or mail a letter.

It's nice to have cigars that are meaningful to you that you can enjoy at a special event, or share with a special friend. Collecting allows you to do that.

[Doc Notes: Be sure to visit the vitolas.net site. This site is a must-see for all who are interested in fine cigars.]

Andrew Welch: Vitolas.net

Thursday, January 18, 2007