Wednesday, August 12 2009
A tidal wave of new brands and sizes is being offered to retailers this week at the 77th national cigar convention – better known as the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association convention and trade show – in New Orleans. Among the highlights:
>> Keith Park's Prometheus International is best known for its top-of-the-line lighters and accessories, but in recent years has earned considerable notoriety for its Fuente Aged Selection and God of Fire lines, both made by the Tabacalera A. Fuente in the Dominican Republic.
For 2009, the new Fuente Aged Selection cigar is a special line saluting the Andy Garcia-directed "The Lost City" film that debuted in 2005 and is set against the backdrop of Cuba as the Castro regime takes over. The story goes that Garcia, a friend of Carlito Fuente, wanted to film scenes for the movie at the Chateau de la Fuente tobacco fields in July of 2004. Unfortunately, the harvest is usually completed in March and the fields are empty during the summer, but Fuente was not about to turn his friend down. He planted tobacco specially for the occasion and that tobacco – planted during the off-season – was used to create the limited-edition "The Lost City" Black Band cigars.
Two series of "The Lost City" cigars – all of which bear the Fuente Fuente Opus X main band – were made: one with a black second band (using the 2004 tobacco) inscribed with the words "Lost City" and another of similar style, but specially-aged editions of the standard Opus X line with a red background. "The Lost City" Black Band series was made in five sizes in a total of 26,000 cigars, while the "The Lost City" Red Band series was made in two sizes in a total of just 5,000 cigars; these are standard- blend, but specially-aged Opus X cigars.
Garcia, who both directed and starred in the film, will be honored on September 26 at the annual God of Fire Charity Dinner in Los Angeles, which also raises money for the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation.
>> The combined efforts of Erik Espinosa and Eddie Ortega at EO Brands led to the creation of hot blends including 601 and Cubao and now they are introducing a wild new line called Murcielago, which means "bat" in Spanish. The name reportedly comes from a trip the two of them took in Mexico, where they visited a cave filled with the winged creatures.
The cigars, made in Nicaragua, are appropriately dark and mysterious, wrapped in an extra-dark Mexican-grown maduro wrapper, combined with a Mexican binder and Nicaraguan filler. The blend is considered medium-to-full in body, with a slight box press, and offered in five sizes in boxes of 20.
Also set to debut in New Orleans is a maduro-wrapped edition of the popular Cubao line.
>> Rocky Patel has made his name in the cigar world from factories in Honduras, producing his famous lines that have made him one of the top cigar producers in the world today. And he is not stopping now, introducing several new lines, most importantly those from his new cigar-production facility in Esteli, Nicaragua named Tabacalera Villa Cuba.
The two new blends which will highlight his new Nicaraguan production include (1) Patel Brothers, the realization of the long-discussed collaboration between Rocky and his brother Nish on a full-bodied, richly-flavored cigar. This new blend uses Nicaraguan-grown leaves for the binder and filler, but wrapped in a surprising Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper in four sizes will be offered in boxes of 20 and (2) Rocky Patel 1961, named for the year Rocky Patel was born, is a medium-to-full-bodied cigar with Nicaraguan-grown filler leaves, a Honduran binder and an Ecuadorian-grown, Habano-seed wrapper. Rocky Patel Premium Cigars director of marketing Sam Phillips characterizes it as "rich and spicy, yet smooth and elegant." There are also four sizes, also offered in boxes of 20.
Patel's introductions for the show also include a bundled cigar, the Rocky Patel Corojo Especial, the second in a series which he began last year with the Cameroon Especial – one of the best values in his line-up. The Corojo Especial has a Cuban-seed Corojo wrapper and Nicaraguan-grown binder and filler leaves for a medium-bodied heft. Phillips calls the taste "robust and earthy with a sultry spice." As with the Cameroon Especial, there are three sizes that will be available in bundles of 20.
>> Short fillers: The two-month-long entry period for the Partagas Cigar Cave contest ended on July 31, but not before hundreds of entries were received to try to win $10,000 to create a personal cigar-smoking area for the winner. General Cigar officials called the contest a "home run" for the Partagas Black Label brand, which was the featured blend in the promotion. A total of 401 entries have been received so far, with a few more expected by the received-by deadline of August 10 (entries had to be postmarked by July 31) . . . According to the contest rules, judging will be 'based upon demonstrated need for a makeover (20%), creativity in description of the ideal smoking room (30%), conveyance of the cigar smoking experience (30%) and relevance to Partagas (20%)." The winner is expected to be announced August 21 or soon after . . . General has been in a giving mood lately, handing out two tickets and hotel accommodations to the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in St. Louis to Joshua Stevens of St. Charles, Missouri and selecting Frank Esposito of Brooklyn, New York as the winner of the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Miami sweepstakes. He and a guest (along with the owner of The Humidor in Brooklyn, Angelo Grigoli, where Esposito entered the contest) will be flown to Miami later this year to visit the El Credito Factory for an individual rolling lesson, along with some cultural sightseeing of the nightlife at South Beach and in Little Havana. Esposito and Grigoli will both also receive a box of Artesanos de Miami cigars – complete with a secondary band with their names – each month for a year.
- Rich Perelman in Los Angeles
Want more? Join us for daily coverage of cigars, accessories, people and issues at CigarCyclopedia.com.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Reprinted by permission. "Heard in the Humidor" is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2009; All rights reserved.
