CWNews
HEARD IN THE HUMIDOR for June 19, 2009
Highlights of the week in cigars and smoking from
For the week of June 22-26, 2009
Los Angeles – Traditionally, manufacturers have introduced their new blends and sizes at the major cigar trade show, the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) convention and exhibition. That is changing.
In the more recent and challenging sales environment, more and more makers are announcing their new blends and styles in order to create interest prior to the show, hoping to generate more orders at the event. In recent weeks, new blends from Alec Bradley, Camacho and Cuban Crafters have been revealed and now, fresh off "National Nestor Miranda Cigar Day," Miami Cigar & Co. is taking a new size of its Nestor Miranda Special Selection to the national market.
The "Ruky" is, like the rest of the Special Selection line, made in Nicaragua under the direction of Pepin Garcia. But the size is unique, a short perfecto of 5 5/8 inches by 52 ring gauge.
"‘Ruky’ is Nestor Miranda’s nickname," noted Miami Cigar vice president Rene Castenada in the announcement. "From the age before he was a teenager, growing up in Holguin in the tobacco-rich Oriente Province of Cuba, his friends called him ‘Ruky.’ The name has remained among his closest and oldest friends. Inasmuch as he insisted on the creation of this vitola, we thought it appropriate to name it ‘Ruky.’"
The cigar itself features a Nicaraguan-grown Habano Oscuro wrapper, a Nicaraguan-grown binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan filler leaves, a slightly different blend that used for the other Special Selection sizes (a 5 1/2-inch by 54-ring robusto and 6-inch by 60-ring toro). It’s been in limited distribution, essentially in a test-marketing phase, for about eight weeks.
"We have been extremely gratified by the initial response," said Castenada, "so we decided to expand the distribution even before the IPCPR." The Ruky was a strong seller where it was tested during the 500 Nestor Miranda National Cigar Day in-store events on June 12, so the decision was made to release it a couple of months early.
The Special Selection Ruky will also be uniquely packed, offered not in boxes of 20 like the other sizes, but in a hinged box of five cigars which will retail for $40.00.
>> "We have a whole set of plans that are materializing in the near future." Camacho Cigars president Christian Eiroa was happy to give a glimpse of the future in a short questions-and-answers session in the June catalog from Mike’s Cigars. What’s next from Camacho?
"Next month we are launching the Camacho Connecticut for the first time with a tremendous, secret wrapper, to be followed shortly by the Baccarat Dominican which will be our first collaboration with the Davidoff OK factory. Right after that we are going to roll out the Camacho Plus ‘No Excuse Full Body Smoke.’"
The Camacho Connecticut blend is now here, with the as-promised Connecticut wrapper over Honduran-grown binder and Honduran and Dominican filler leaves. Made in Honduras, there are six sizes in this full-bodied range to start with - 11/18, 60x6, Churchill, Figurado, Monarca and Toro - all in boxes of 25. Pricing on this line – as has been typical for most of the Camacho lines – is quite reasonable, at $6.15 to $7.50 per cigar, or $153.75 to $187.50 per box.
The new Baccarat Dominican line will be an interesting test of the new relationship between Camacho and Davidoff, which purchased the company in late 2008. The Honduran-made Baccarat is Camacho’s best-selling brand, well ahead of any of the Camacho lines, thanks to its value pricing, quality construction and light, sweet taste. Now another Baccarat line will be made, but this time in the Dominican Republic at the OK Cigars factory, part of the three-factory complex overseen by legendary cigar maker Hendrik Kelner. The OK Cigars facility in Santiago, Dominican Republic is also the home of the Avo, Zino and The Griffin’s lines, all owned by Davidoff.
As to the working relationship with Davidoff, Eiroa enthused, "It has been exactly what we expected and what Davidoff promised. We have absolutely no issues between us and the Davidoff team. They are tobacco people, they know the industry and they give us their complete trust and support."
Eiroa has also been working on the Camacho Plus blend for more than a year with the idea to offer a medium-to-full-bodied cigars of "7 out of 10" on the strength scale for some time and it will debut later in the summer. "The focus will start on creaminess and then move on from there," he said in an interview last year.
Asked for his view of trends for the future, Eiroa noted that "Right now is a great time for cigar consumers in the sense that they have such a wide selection of cigars to choose from. There is no question that the full-bodied cigar will keep on being the engine driving the market forward."
>> There’s little doubt that the Oliva Cigar Company has been on a roll. Long a producer of value-priced cigars, Oliva shot into the cigar stratosphere with the introduction of the re-organized Serie G and Serie O lines in 2006 and especially with the richly-flavored and powerful Serie V in 2007.
Now the company is working diligently to expand its line to cover all smokers with the Oliva White Label Connecticut Reserve and has introduced the fourth style of its intriguing Nub line, this time with a maduro wrapper.
Oliva director of marketing Idalmis Mila noted that "As makers of Nicaraguan cigars, our focus is usually in the medium-to-full range. We felt we need a medium-to-mild cigar to complement our line." The Oliva White Label Connecticut filled that niche with an elegant cigar that features a Connecticut-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador over Nicaraguan-grown binder and filler leaves.
This newest blend from Oliva is offered in five sizes - Churchill, Lonsdale, Robusto, Toro and Torpedo - all packed in boxes of 20 and once again an excellent value.
In the Nub line, the new maduro-wrapped group uses a Brazilian-grown wrapper and is offered in the two sizes common to all four styles in the brand: a 4-inch by 60-ring straight-sided cigar and a 4-inch by 64-ring torpedo. As with all other Nub sizes, it’s offered in boxes of 24.
"The addition of a Maduro to the Nub line was a natural progression," noted Mila. "Since its introduction in April 2008, Nub has created quite a following and many requests for additional wrappers." Among the four styles – Connecticut, Cameroon, Habano and now Maduro – the Habano sells slightly more than the rest.
Oliva has ended production on one of its lines, the Special S. "This line used a wrapper that was aged in cedar crates," explained Mila. "It gave the wrappers a distinct taste and color, but ran the price up above where we would like to see it. The new Connecticut Reserve has many nuances of the Special S."
>> Although it’s hard to organize cigar dinners in New York’s extreme anti-smoking environment, Davidoff of Geneva pulled off a robusto evening of food, drink and cigars on June 8 at Bayard’s in downtown Manhattan, topped by a preview of the 2009 Davidoff limited edition.
The Davidoff "Toro Especial" is a 6 1/2-inch by 50-ring cigar, to be offered in boxes of 10 sometime in the summer. According to Davidoff Columbus Circle general manager Michael Herklots’ blog entry on the evening, "The filler tobaccos are all Dominican, 80% of which comes from the plants’ higher leaves, delivering more strength and flavor. The binder is also Dominican, and the wrapper is a Hybrid seed we developed using 3 different Cuban seeds, and grown in Ecuador."
He noted his own view that "the cigar was really fabulous. A totally different direction from some of our more recent releases and limited editions. Full-bodied, rich, earthy, and complex start to finish!"
The boxes of 10 will retail for $260 each ($26 per cigar) before local sales and tobacco taxes and the crowd at Bayard’s was instantly converted. After getting a sample, all 50 boxes brought to the dinner for sale to attendees were gone in about 14 minutes and a line quickly formed for Davidoff’s master blender, Hendrik Kelner, to autograph the boxes. Only 12,500 boxes (125,000 cigars) were made of this limited-edition blend.
It’s the eighth year for a Davidoff-designated limited edition cigar, dating back to 2002. The company is more involved in designated limited-editions than any other cigar maker on the U.S. market, producing annual special-edition cigars for one or more of its brands since 2001. After the introduction of the Avo 75 in that year, limiteds have been made for the Davidoff line beginning in 2002, The Griffin’s starting in 2004 and the Zino Platinum Scepter brand from 2007 on.
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