Richard Carleton Hacker is an author, and one of the world’s foremost experts on cigars, wine and spirits. He has written 11 books, as well as countless columns for Robb Report, Playboy Magazine, Ritz-Carlton Magazine and more, and is credited with helping to ignite the cigar boom of the 1990s.

Since he smoked his first ‘proper’ cigar in the mid-1960s, Richard has been researching and writing about them, their place in society, as well as the countries and people producing them. That research first culminated in the most-popular of his 11 titles, The Ultimate Cigar Book, which continues to fly off the shelves and has just been released as a fourth edition.

Not only is Richard a preeminent authority on cigars – he’s also well versed in spirits of all types, wine and “anything over 40 per cent!” He’s been a judge on many a global spirits competition, has been inducted by the Scotch industry as a Keeper of the Quaich, and was even knighted in Germany. He is absolutely brilliant, and full of knowledge you simply won’t find anywhere else.