Macanudo Vintage

A Macanudo Vintage Cabinet Selection cigar is the ultimate in mellowness and smoothness in two distinct ways. First, the wrapper is the rarest of all Connecticut Shade tobacco leaves. Second, all of the tobaccos used in crafting these extraordinary cigars are aged longer than any others. To set these cigars apart in yet another way, each of them displays two bands – one to identify the cigar as Macanudo Vintage Cabinet Selection and the other to designate the year of the Vintage harvest. As one would expect, the cigars grow in value as they age and become more and more scarce. Since a 1979 Macanudo Vintage cigar is older and more rare than a 1997, for example, the differences in their ages are reflected in their separate prices.

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Introduced in its current form in the United States in 1971, this is an exceptionally consistent cigar, made with Connecticut Shade wrappers that have been aged for at least three years. The cigar has a silky feel to the hand and has a taste, which is only found in a Macanudo. The Vintage Cabinet Selection cigars are each more than four years in the making and include filler leaves from the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Vintage Cabinet cigars have been offered only in the following years: 1979, 1984 and 1993.

Cigars rated 90 and above by the connoisseurs of Cigar Aficionado are the acknowledged cream of the crop. And La Aurora sun-grown Maduro occupies a place in the pantheon of the greats. Every smoker we know who has tried it has confirmed that the rating is fully justified. With its Maduro wrapper grown in the sun, subject to all the vicissitudes of nature, it’s an incredible feat to achieve such uniformity of chocolaty color. But the La Aurora extreme commitment to taking only leaves grown on the same farm in the rich soil and ideal climate of Santiago de los Caballeros, leaves picked from the same priming of the plants, leaves cured and aged in the same bale, assures such consistency.

The Java is one of the more recent Drew Estate concoctions. Coffee and cigars have been long time compliments, but the Java really puts a new twist on this taste with a medium bodied blend that has strong espresso notes with hints of chocolate. While the cigar has dominating flavors, it still maintains much of its premium tobacco qualities from its Nicaraguan fillers. The secret to this balance is the infusion process Drew Estate uses in making their cigars. If you are a fan of cigars made by Drew Estate, the Java is not to be missed

This ancient brand began in Cuba but first appeared in a Honduran-manufactured blend in 1969. Hoyo de Monterrey cigars are medium-to-heavy in flavor. Handmade in Honduras, these are truly quality cigars with a large variety of sizes to give exceptional satisfaction to the smoker. The tobaccos are blended from four nations, including the Cuban-seed Honduran binder and Sumatra-seed wrappers from Ecuador. The maduro wrappers use only the finest Connecticut Broadleaf available. The 135th Anniversary Rothschilds debuted in 2001 and are clothed in a special commemorative cedar wrap to salute the long history (and best-selling shape) of this famous brand.

“The Rolls Royce of Cigars.” That is what Gurkha cigars have been referred to, and when you look at the time and energy put into each cigar, it is not hard to see why. Production of Gurkha cigars starts with a 5-year old Connecticut Shade wrapper that has been fermented an additional seven months, which is about five months more than the traditional Cuban cigar. The wrapper is also infused with cognac to further enhance the taste. The filler and the binder are grown from the Cuban piloto seed, which produces a rich, creamy flavor with just a hint of spice and perfectly aged before they are hand rolled into a magnificent cigar.

These medium-strength cigars, with the unmistakable Griffin logo, are made from a blend of three different types of Santo Domingo tobaccos from various harvests, and are rolled by hand.

Excalibur cigars are handmade in Honduras and are the choicest cigars picked from the famous Hoyo de Monterrey line of fine cigars. All of the shapes are wrapped in beautiful Connecticut Shade wrappers, which gives each and every Excalibur cigar a robust, medium-to-full-bodied, but exquisitely smooth taste. Shapes 1-8 are available in boxes of 20, as are the Epicures, the box pressed Prensados, Minis and Cigarillos; the Minis, Cigarillos, Banquets and Emperors are packed in 10s.

Each Dunhill Aged Dominican cigar is specially handmade from a special selection of Piloto Cubano and Olor tobaccos grown in the Dominican Republic’s fertile Cibao Valley. Extremely mild and well constructed, these cigars are encased in only the finest quality USA-Connecticut shade-grown leaves. The final stage of blending includes aging for one year in cedar-lined rooms to produce one of the most mellow, well-rounded, and finest cigars. The cigar is very even burning and offers a cool, smooth finish and light aroma.

Don Pepin Garcia is made by this Cuban master the fashioned Cuban way, in his tiny factory in Miami, Florida. This quaint, yet well run and impressive factory employs only 12 cigar rollers that Don Pepin personally supervises. The result are perfectly crafted cigars the likes of which are rarely seen these days. Don Pepin was Cuba’s most renowned roller and master cigar blender when he fled that country only a couple of years ago. Since starting his famous little factory in Miami he has created some of the most exciting and flavorful blends to hit our shores; Cabaiguan, Tatuaje and Padilla Miami 8&11. The two blends that bear his name are his most fantastic blends he has ever created.

From its especially rich El Bajo Sungrown wrapper harvested on the Oliva family’s Ecuador plantation, to its superb Fuente style craftmanship, to its highly unique packaging and presentation, there has never been a cigar like DIAMOND CROWN MAXIMUS from Arturo Fuente. It has taken Carlos Fuente Jr. more than three years to develop this complex, fuller bodied taste. Despite its rich ,dark Ecudorian wrapper, Diamond Crown Maximus is not a maduro cigar. The richest,hardiest and darkest tobacco that the Fuentes selected for the Diamond Crown Maximus cigar comes from the top corona proming of the tobacco plant. Availability is extremely limited.

The Cuesta-Rey Centennial Collection uses only the finest aged long filler tobaccos which are skillfully blended with Dominican Binder tobacco. This ‘bunch’ is then hand-rolled with either Connecticut Shade ‘natural’ or Connecticut Broadleaf Sun Grown dark ‘maduro’ wrapper tobaccos. These ‘Vintage’ wrapper tobaccos are aged for an average of five years before they are sorted for their color, texture, and overall quality.

The Dominican Cohiba “Red Dot” cigars are a deeply satisfying cigar, rich both in flavor,
and in history, that does not overpower the smoker. During his second voyage to the New World in 1496, Christopher Columbus returned and revisited western Hispaniola, which is now known as the Dominican Republic. To his surprise, he discovered that the native Taino Indians of Hispaniola were smoking leaves of cured tobacco. “Cohiba,” was the name they called it. Today, the famous name in cigars, Cohiba, remains as much a part of Dominican history as ever. Five centuries after Christopher Columbus heard the word Cohiba for the first time in the Dominican Republic, a Cohiba cigar was developed in the same country by Diaz y Cia in l978. The Dominican Cohiba cigars, which were reformulated in the 1990s, are the only Cohiba cigars that can be purchased legally in the United States. The Cohiba cigars that are crafted today in the Dominican Republic took many years to develop. The dark, rich wrapper leaf is grown in the softly clouded sub-tropical West African climate of Cameroon. The supple and flavorful Jember binder is grown in Indonesia. To balance the richness of the Cohiba Red Dot cigars wrapper, the smooth-smoking Piloto Cubano filler leaves are grown in the Dominican Republic. Cohiba “Red Dot” cigars are true classics
Enjoy one now!

Gold Honey Has a sweet honey flavor from the highest quality orange blossom honey in the world compliments the finest tobaccos, which results in a delicate blend that has a bright faintly citrus flavor.
Bella Vanillautilizes only the highest quality vanilla beans found in Madagascar. The complex flavors are imbued into a blend of rich Cuban seed tobaccos yielding a flavor that is rich and layered in complexities and an intoxicating aroma.
Moontrancea blend of 100% all natural exotic fruit and bourbon vanilla extracts. Bourbon vanilla is a type of vanilla bean renowned for its caramel like sweetness is married with ripe Georgia Peach Nectar and then mixed with other organic fruits. This well rounded blend is complimented with an exquisite blend of mild and rich tobaccos featuring grade one Cameroon wrapper.

The Italian Habano seed filler is complimented by filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and Peru, and finished with a Habano seed Honduran-grown wrapper and binder.

Widely heralded as the producer of some of the world’s finest wines, olive oils, and truffles, Italy has been largely overlooked as a source for premium cigar tobacco. “Historically, there have been two types of tobacco seeds that thrive in Italy,” said CAO Vice President, Tim Ozgener. “The Geudertheimer seed is grown and used primarily for machine made cigars. The seed grown for CAO Italia, however, is an Italian Habano seed originally brought to Italy from Cuba some forty-plus years ago. This seed is grown in the Benevento region of the southern portion of Italy, located between Rome and Naples. We’ve experimented a great deal with Italian tobacco and we believe it lends a very unique earthy-sweetness to the blend, one that rounds out the robust, full-bodied flavor profile that is CAO Italia.”

The perfectly-balanced marriage of five different tobaccos, mostly from the Cibao Valley of the Dominican Republic, gives the Avo line – introduced in 1987 – a rich flavor in a mild-bodied cigar. The wrapper uses Connecticut-seed, Ecuadorian-grown Tobacco.

This great cigar was created in 1985…and what a success. Ashton cigars are manufactured without compromise, blending six tobaccos; Dominican filler and Dominican-grown, Cuban-seed binder leaves with perfect shade-grown wrapper leaves from the Connecticut Valley. The maduro wrappers are longer-aged Connecticut Broadleaf. The unique range of sizes includes three large perfecto-shaped cigars – tapered at both ends – in the Cabinet Selection. The Virgin Sun Grown series was introduced in 1999 and brings a full-bodied taste to the Ashton line. It features an Ecuadorian-grown wrapper with extra ligero leaf in the blend for the maximum in flavor. The all-box-pressed series is offered in elegant boxes of 24.

This dark, oily cigar has a nice cap. It has a smooth draw and an even burn. It is nutty and woody with hints of cream and vanilla, with a touch of spice on the finish, which is also earthy.

Handmade in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Arturo Fuente learned the art of growing and processing tobacco and the making of premium, handmade cigars in Cuba at the end of the 19th century, producing his own line in 1912. Today, his son Carlos and grandson, Carlos, Jr. oversee the more than 500 rollers who manufacture more than 24 million cigars every year. Their line offers a medium-to-full bodied taste, with the celebrated Hemingway series a little mellower, thanks to an additional 140 days of aging. Many of the natural-wrapper cigars (including the Hemingway series) feature Cameroon leaves, with Connecticut leaf used for maduros.

Handmade in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Arturo Fuente learned the art of growing and processing tobacco and the making of premium, handmade cigars in Cuba at the end of the 19th century, producing his own line in 1912. Today, his son Carlos and grandson, Carlos, Jr. oversee the more than 500 rollers who manufacture more than 24 million cigars every year. Their line offers a medium-to-full bodied taste, with the celebrated Hemingway series a little mellower, thanks to an additional 140 days of aging. Many of the natural-wrapper cigars (including the Hemingway series) feature Cameroon leaves, with Connecticut leaf used for maduros.