The story of the most famous photograph of Winston Churchill — known informally as “The Roaring Lion” — is a telling one.
Shot by Yousef Karsh in 1941, the photo session was brief. Just before clicking the shutter, Karsh placed an ashtray in front of the British prime minister and asked that he remove the cigar that was lodged in his mouth.
Churchill angrily refused, and Karsh was momentarily perplexed; the cigar’s smoke would almost certainly obscure the image. But in an instant, he had a flash of an idea, and he returned to the camera, appearing to be ready to snap the photo. All of a sudden, with lightning speed, he leaned forward and plucked the cigar from the prime minister’s lips.
“He looked so belligerent, he could have devoured me,” Karsh remembered later; the belligerence is the singular quality that comes across most clearly in the resulting photograph (which went on to grace the cover of Life Magazine that May) — a scowl over a pilfered cigar that came to double as a fierce glare that Churchill might have worn when confronting a formidable enemy.
It’s not known if the cigar in this photo was an Arturo Fuente, but the Arturo Fuente Churchill is most definitely Churchill-sized at 7.25 inches in length and 48 in its ring gauge. In the Seleccion d’Oro vitola — named after the golden complexion of its Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed shade-grown wrapper — a Dominican binder seals a select blend of aged Dominican long-fillers.
Luxurious, light and easy-to-smoke Seleccion d’Oros are mild-to-medium-strength, medium-bodied and surprisingly packed with an abundance of flavor. The Seleccion d’Oro is noted for its particularly earthy, sweet, creamy and complex nuances of cedar, toasted almonds and vanilla beans, infused with a hint of spices. The cigar’s construction is flawless, the draw is easy, and the burn is dead-even.
An unbeatable value, the Seleccion d’Oro is the perfect smoke for a quiet, relaxing evening after a long day on the job. As Churchill himself once pithily reflected, “Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.”