Sunday, April 22 2007
Altadis U.S.A. already brought out a
maduro-wrapped version of its popular Saint Luis Rey brand, the Saint Luis Rey Serie G. Now it has upped the ante once again with a new line of maduro-wrapped cigars, the Romeo y Julieta
Vintage Maduro!
It's their second high-profile line introduction this month, after the Montecristo Serie C and brings to six the number of blends available under the Altadis U.S.A.-made Romeo y Julieta umbrella.
The Vintage Maduro uses a blackened Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper so familiar to American smokers, with an Ecuadorian-grown, Sumatra-seed binder – just the reverse of the Aniversario – and the familiar three-nation interior blend from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Peru. The description attached to the cigar characterizes it as "spicy and bold" with a medium-to-full-bodied flavor.
This new line is being offered in the six traditional Vintage sizes plus the new Toro-sized Vintage VII. Suggested retail pricing ranges from $7.00 to $9.00 before local tobacco taxes for the straight-sized cigars and $11.50 for the bulbous Vintage VI.
Altadis U.S.A. wasn't done, however. Next up for expansion is a small brand that's ready to grow, the Jose Seijas Signature Series. Seijas is an Altadis U.S.A. Senior Vice President and the General Manager of the world's largest cigar factory, the Tabacalera de Garcia in La Romana, Dominican Republic. In 2005, he had a cigar blended to his specifications for sale at a handful of retailers in one size: a 6 1/8-inch by 52 ring Toro called the 2000.
But it was a good cigar and the line - and the distribution - expanded last year to three sizes. But that was far short of the interest in what was perceived as a high-quality, hard-to-get blend.
So now there are seven sizes and distribution to 85 shops in 29 states, with four new sizes introduced this month.
All of the leaves in this blend are aged for three years and include an Ecuadorian-grown, Sumatra-seed wrapper, Dominican-grown binder and Dominican, Nicaraguan and Peruvian filler leaves. The result is a medium-to-full-bodied cigar that isn't cheap, but isn't designed to be. It's offered in clamshell-style boxes of 25 at suggested retail prices of $12.50 to $16.00 per cigar.
Then again, that's not bad for the ultimate cigar from the world's largest cigar factory.
Short fillers: "This legislation is deeply flawed on several counts. S. 625 would harm American consumers, raise taxes, cause injury to a competitive business environment, dilute FDA's vital mission to protect America's food supply and approve life-saving drugs, and ironically create a federally sponsored tobacco cartel system." That's a piece of a letter sent by the Coalition of Protect Free Markets to the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chair Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and ranking member Michael Enzi (R-Wyoming). It will likely be blithely ignored as the anti-tobacco witch hunt continues in the U.S. Congress. A bigger battle may come in the House of Representatives, but the bill has a good chance of being passed by the Congress and sent to President George W. Bush, whose stance on it is unknown. However, his own head of the Food & Drug Administration, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, has come out against the bill, telling reporters "We could find ourselves in the conundrum of having made a decision about nicotine only to have made the public health radically worse. And that is not the position the FDA is in; we approve products that enhance health, not destroy it." The bill is lengthy, but speaks almost not at all to cigars, but clearly puts cigars in the purview of the FDA and will impose about a $1 per cigar tax to raise funds for FDA administration of tobacco. It's a disaster waiting to happen . . . and may happen . . . find our latest tasting review, of six blends from Felipe Gregorio Tobacco World, in our News & Views archives for April 20.
- Rich Perelman in Los Angeles
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Reprinted by permission. "Heard in the Humidor" is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2007; All rights reserved.
