It’s a quirk of our times that while smoking is ever more frowned upon, the market for really good cigars just keeps getting better.

One person who knows this well is Gordon Johns, an investment banker working at ING in the City of London. He started smoking cigars at 21 and, at the age of 57, has become an undoubted connoisseur. He buys only the best Havanas, but not just to puff on after dinner. The rare and sought-after cigars he acquires for large sums also serve as excellent investments, which have reaped much larger sums after being “laid down” for a few years.