Cigar Snob Magazine November December 2017

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INTRODUCING A BROTHER FROM ANOTHER BARREL BOURBON

RUM

SWEET 2 4

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SPICY

OAKY 2.5 4

EARTHY

CHAR

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FEARLESSLY PRECISE. POWERFULLY COMPLEX. UNDENIABLY INTENSE. Having pioneered and perfected the art of aging Original Corojo tobacco in Kentucky Bourbon barrels, our master builders have continued their relentless quest, venturing further south to harness the wild flavors of Nicaragua. Starting with the sweet, spicy, and oaky flavors that define tobacco from this region, our Esteli-grown Corojo is aged in some of the world’s oldest Nicaraguan rum barrels. Once filled with bourbon, these well-seasoned rum barrels were hand selected for optimal humidity and add layers of complexity for an entirely unique experience. Toasted flavors combined with leather and oak are rounded out by sweet flavors and caramel notes from the aged rum. Our proprietary Powerband™ bunching process amplifies this complex combination, resulting in a peak performance flavor explosion that once again pushes the limits. An unforgettable taste experience that rewards you at every draw. .

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editorials NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2017

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PERFECT PAIRINGS MONTE BY MONTECRISTO AJ FERNANDEZ / MAURO VEGLIO BAROLO Take your time on this one if you want to experience all the rich flavors this combination has to offer.

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PERFECT PAIRINGS UNDERCROWN SHADE / BERLUCCHI FRANCIACORTA It can be hard to find mild cigars to pair with sparkling wines, but Drew Estate’s popular Connecticut brings flavor without overpowering the Franciacorta.

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DESTINATION: TUSCANY

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DOMENICO VACCA

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STYLE GUIDE

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AJ FERNANDEZ

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HAMLET Q & A

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GIFT GUIDE

Take a peek behind the scenes of a Cigar Snob shoot as our publisher darts around northern Italy to help bring it all together.

The Italian designer, a favorite of Hollywood tastemakers, grew up in a family of tailors and seamstresses, but he had to cross an ocean to bring his fashion vision to life.

We put three looks together to help ensure you always look good when you light up.

These days, you can’t escape A.J.’s name and cigars. Find out about what drives him and why his growing cigar empire almost never got off the ground.

Once among Cuba’s most beloved cigar ambassadors, Hamlet Paredes is starting over in the U.S. with help from Rocky Patel and a heavy dose of freedom.

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features NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2017

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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

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FEEDBACK

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WHAT’S BURNIN’

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SMOKING HOT CIGAR SNOB

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RATINGS

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SMOKING HOT CIGAR SNOB

UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN

LA RIVIERA ITALIANA

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TWITTER SCOREBOARD

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EVENT COVERAGE 110 TAMPA CIGAR BASH 112 LITTLE SMOKE 114 AJ FERNANDEZ TASTING BY THE PARTY SOURCE

116 NESTOR MIRANDA AT CASA DE MONTECRISTO BY PRIME

118 BLACK SMOKE 120 VILLIGER AT NEPTUNE CIGARS 122 DEBONAIRE AT NEME GASTRO BAR 12 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

Ask for it by name, In fine cigar stores near you NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2017

VO L . 9 IS SU E 6 www.cigarsnobmag.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR Erik Calviño SENIOR EDITOR Nicolás Antonio Jiménez COPY EDITOR Michael LaRocca SALES & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Oscar M. Calviño PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Ivan Ocampo ART DIRECTOR Andy Astencio DIGITAL RETOUCHING SPECIALISTS Ramón Santana CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR Florin Safner CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS David Benoliel Andy Astencio Martin Crook Zach Ramsey Mark Byron EVENT PHOTOGRAPHERS Jamilet Calviño Katherine Hartwig Cover Photography by David Benoliel www.davidbenolielphotography.com Cover Model - Victoria Papkovich Cigar Snob is published bi-monthly

by Lockstock Publications, Inc. 1421-1 SW 107th Ave., #253 Miami, FL 33174-2509 Tel: 1 (786) 423-1015 Cigar Snob is a registered trademark of Lockstock Publications, Inc., all rights reserved. Reproduction in part or full without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. Cigar Snob is printed in the U.S. Contents copyright 2006, Lockstock Publications, Inc. To subscribe, visit www.cigarsnobmag.com

(SUBSCRIBE TODAY) - Only $18 for one Year (six issues) of -

- Magazine delivered to you Visit: www.cigarsnobmag.com or write: subscribe@cigarsnobmag.com

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Most of our readers don’t need to be sold on the wonders of overseas travel. But in case there’s some travel-hating hermit reading this magazine in his mother’s basement, consider this from Bill Bryson’s Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe: “But that’s the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned. I don’t want to know what people are talking about. I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can’t even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.”

Bill Bryson put into words what I find so exhilarating about overseas travel. Don’t get me wrong; the majority of my travel is to places where I speak the language and I’m not “endangering my life by crossing the street,” and I love that, too. In a strange way, though, trying to communicate with someone who is trying to help you in a foreign language is a hilarious and gratifying exercise.

Ivan Ocampo and I spent a week in northern Italy to produce content for this issue. It wasn’t my first time there, but unlike previous trips, we weren’t there for vacation. We were there to work! I wrote about the trip in a piece titled The Italian Job on p.35. It is essentially a travel story with the backdrop of being there to produce the two photo shoots that appear in this issue.

We’ve never done that type of travel piece and it makes for an interesting connection between the story and the two shoots; Under the Tuscan Sun on p. 56 and La Riviera Italiana on p. 94.

Putting together productions of this size and budget would have been impossible without the help of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Shaner Hotel Group, Diamond PR, and DAS Models. At the end of the day it is the boots on the ground that do the heavy lifting.

A special thanks to Georges Midleje, Paolo Buonfante, Lucia Capelli, and David Benoliel. Without your support it would have never worked.

In other travels, we sent Nicolás Antonio Jiménez to catch up with A.J. Fernandez at an event at The Party Source in Kentucky for an editorial titled A.J. Fernandez In the Spotlight on p. 89. He then flew from Kentucky to NYC to interview fashion designer to the stars Domenico Vacca for American Dream, Italian Fit on p. 47. Domenico also curated a style guide to help you look better on your next visit to your local cigar shop on p. 52. Finally, we met up with Hamlet Paredes at Rocky Patel Burn in Naples, Fla. for a Q&A with the famous cigar roller on p.104.

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This year has been a wild ride. There are terrible things happening in the world and we hope that our publication has helped bring some joy to your life. We hope this magazine continues to be your indispensable companion on your journey through the cigar world. Thank you for making us part of your hobby.

Have a blessed 2018 and, as always, Keep ‘em lit,

Erik Calviño ecalvino@cigarsnobmag.com

CORRECTION In the Events section of our September/October 2017 issue, we misidentified the two people on the bottom left of p. 102. Their names (from left) are Misha De Bok and Wouter Damman.

FAST LAPS To everyone at Cigar Snob, Just sharing a photo of a good day at the track… Fast laps and a proper end to the day, reading the bike issue and enjoying an Oliva Connecticut. Keep up the good work. You guys produce an awesome magazine.

Ron C. (#728)

VIA FEEDBACK@CIGARSNOBMAG.COM Hey Ron, We don’t know who you are or where you came from, but we do know that picture has jumped near the top of our list of the best things readers have sent in. Very cool to see the magazine is part of your track routine!

WHERE’S BERNIE!?

I enjoyed your story on all those athletes who have partnered with Rocky Patel (“All Pro Ambassadors,” September/October 2017), but how come Bernie Parent didn’t show up in any of the photos?

Hank M. Liberty, Mo.

VIA FEEDBACK@CIGARSNOBMAG.COM Good question, Hank.

Honestly, we’re not quite sure why Bernie wasn’t there for the shoot.

Our best guess: Bernie did hint at the fact that he was stripping when he met Rocky. Maybe he didn’t want to make it weird? Seriously, though, Bernie was a blast to talk to. We’re sure that won’t be the last time you see him mentioned in Cigar Snob, and we’ll work to get shots of him the next time around.

While we’re on the subject… Because he’s the oldest in the bunch and played the less popular sport, he might not have the same name recognition as say, Ray Lewis. But if you’re reading this and don’t know who Bernie Parent is, look up the man and his hockey résumé. Legendary as they come.

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SECOND ANNUAL SANTA MUERTE RELEASE IS OUT Black Label Trading Co. (blacklabeltrading. com) announced the second annual release of its Santa Muerte brand. The cigar commemorates the Day of the Dead, although it was released on Friday, Oct. 13, so you’ll have time to get your hands on it ahead of that day (Oct. 31).

Year of the Dog. The 7x50 Gran Churchill features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, San Vicente binder, and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. A box of 10 will run you $390.

In addition, Davidoff is releasing a Year of the Dog punch cutter ($230) and a leather travel humidor ($350).

CAMACHO DIPLOMA IS BACK

Manufactured at Fábrica Oveja Negra in Estelí, Nicaragua, the blend comprises Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and binder, along with fillers from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. It’s available in two vitolas: Corona Gorda (5½ x 48) and Short Robusto (4¾ x 52). Both are priced at $10 per cigar and are packaged in 20-count boxes.

“This is our second release of Santa Muerte and people really responded well to the change of pace for us,” said James Brown, creator of Black Label Trading Company and partner at Fabrica Oveja Negra, in a press release. “Our limited releases tend to be full bodied with a Maduro wrapper but this one is a medium bodied cigar with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. It features six filler tobaccos which create a very unique and rich flavor profile. You experience layer upon layer of coffee, malt, spice and cocoa.”

DAVIDOFF YEAR OF THE DOG

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Cigars International has three brick-andmortar locations in Pennsylvania, and Scandinavian runs retail locations around the world. In the U.S., most of the company’s stores are associated with Cigars International.

The only one of Scandinavian’s stores not associated with Cigars International is New York City’s Club Macanudo. It’s not clear whether the new Texas concepts will resemble any of those existing locations.

DEBONAIRE DAYBREAK AVAILABLE AT DREW DIPLOMAT RETAILERS

One of the more sought after products in the Camacho lineup, the Diploma, was discontinued in 2015. Now it’s making a comeback, as Davidoff announced the limited-edition November 1 launch (or relaunch) of the brand.

Camacho Diploma Special Selection is a 5x54 Honduran puro made only with Corojo at the Camacho factory in Danlí, Honduras.

It’s packaged in 18-count boxes with transparent tops.

Each cigar comes in its own blue triangular coffin, making a full box of Diplomas a unique showpiece in your humidor. Those boxes of 18 coffins, of which just 1,800 were made, are priced at $360 (or $20 per cigar).

From here on out, Camacho Diploma Special Selection is slated to be release once a year.

Davidoff has unveiled the next installment in its annual series of limited edition cigars themed after the Chinese zodiac: Davidoff

that at least one of the stores is supposed to open in The Colony, a Dallas suburb.

Debonaire Daybreak has shipped to retailers, according to Debonaire House and Drew Estate. Daybreak features an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper, which is a first among cigars sold exclusively through the Drew Diplomat Retailers program.

In describing the smoking experience, a press release reads, “Smokers can expect crisp notes of spice and earthiness from the Central American fillers, a nutty and sweet richness from the Dominican tobacco in the binder and filler with a smooth finish.”

SCANDINAVIAN TOBACCO TO OPEN STORES IN TEXAS

Daybreak, which is packaged in 20-count boxes, is available in six vitolas ranging in MSRP from $6 to $13: •

Corona (6x46)

Scandinavian Tobacco announced that its Cigars International arm (best known for its online and catalog business) would be opening two retail stores in the state of Texas, with the first location’s opening planned for mid2018. Halfwheel (halfwheel.com) reported

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Belicoso (6x54)

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First Degree (4x44)

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Robusto (5x50)

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Sagita-Petite Lancero (5.5x38)

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Toro (6x50)

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IT’S OFFICIAL: JOSÉ OLIVA TO BE SPEAKER OF FLORIDA HOUSE (PROVIDED GOP KEEPS MAJORITY) José Oliva of Oliva Cigar has been selected by Florida Republicans as their designee for the state House speakership. Assuming the party hangs onto its majority, José will move into a two-year stint as speaker in November 2018.

Florida residents and political news junkies probably know this is not a surprise. That José was on his way to the speakership has been known a long time, but the official decision is noteworthy nonetheless.

In his remarks on accepting the position, José said his policy focus would be on the “hospital industrial complex,” reforming the education system, and bloated pension programs.

The item that will be of most interest to smokers, though, was his assertion that he’d push back on “the ideological battle to prohibit services, products and behaviors that are not outlawed everywhere within their boundaries.” That’s broad enough to include a lot of things, but it almost certainly refers in part to government prohibitions on the sale and use of tobacco products in private businesses in Florida.

JOHN MILLER WILL BE SWISHER’S PRESIDENT IN 2018 When Peter Ghiloni retires from his position as the president of Swisher International at the end of 2017 (though he’ll be CEO for another year), he’ll be succeeded by John Miller, the company’s current VP of sales and marketing.

Swisher, which makes in excess of a billion small cigars and cigarillos (especially machine-made products), is the parent company of Drew Estate, having purchased the premium cigar company in 2014.

MICHAEL GIANNINI JOINS VENTURA CIGAR The California-based Ventura Cigar Company (Archetype, PSyKo Seven, Case Study, etc.) announced that it has hired Michael Giannini to be its Creative Director. Smokers know Michael’s work at General Cigar with the Foundry and La Gloria Cubana brands.

Michael will “lead brand vision … and serve as the Brand Ambassador at cigar events,” according to a Ventura press release.

“Michael Giannini is a key addition to the VCC team, we’re excited that Michael is back doing what he does best,” said Jason Carignan, CMO of Kretek, parent company of VCC, in a press release. “His vast industry knowledge and creative prowess are resources that we are excited to tap into and use to further develop the brands and products within the VCC portfolio. He is a true visionary with a business mind, and we are pleased to have him aboard.”

“I’m super excited to be joining the team at Ventura Cigars,” said Giannini.

“This is a brand that has been flying under the radar, and I know people are going to love what we come up with next.”

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Monte by Montecristo AJ Fernandez 2013 Mauro Veglio Rocche Dell’Annunziata After spending a week in Italy for this issue, we returned to Cigar Snob HQ craving more of those flavors, specifically the crushed grape flavors that come in 750 ml bottles. We called up Pablo Estades of Total Wine & More (totalwine.com) and explained our situation. We told him about everything we drank and asked for a recommendation that would fill any glaring voids. “You didn’t drink Barolo! Why not?” he asked. We’d spent most of our time in Tuscany; naturally, we ended up drinking mostly Tuscan wine.

Barolo is a red wine from the region of Piedmont in the northwest corner of Italy. We’ve drunk plenty of Barolos over the years, but Pablo recommended the 2013 Mauro Veglio Rocche Dell’Annunziata with the words, “This, my friends, is a no brainer.” The wine is full-bodied with intense fruit balanced by strong but elegant tannins. It is made from 100 percent Nebbiolo grapes and aged 24 months in oak and 18 months in bottle. Mauro Veglio, the man, comes from a family that has worked the lands in the region since the beginning of the 1900s.

Mauro’s father Angelo bought his first vineyard in the 1960s and in 1986 Mauro took over the management due to his father’s declining health. Today, the winery produces 80,000 bottles per year.

We had a no brainer of our own on the cigar side of the pairing: the Monte by Montecristo AJ Fernandez.

This latest iteration of the Monte by Montecristo is a box-pressed flavor powerhouse crafted by AJ Fernandez in Nicaragua.

THE PAIRING The wine should be decanted and allowed to rest a moment before pouring. While waiting for the wine, fire up the Monte by Montecristo AJ Fernandez and let it warm up. The cigar delivers cocoa, pepper, wood, and earth in spades right out of the gate.

Once the wine joins the party you will notice the tannins and acidity are offset by the cigar’s wood and pepper, leaving you with a wonderful mix of flavors: an earthy vanilla running alongside a combination of raspberry and cocoa.

LOCATION: Verde, Waterfront Dining and Bar at Perez Art Museum Miami (pamm.org/dining) NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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Undercrown Shade Berlucchi ’61 Brut

When thinking of Italian sparkling wine, most wine lovers immediately think of Prosecco, and for good reason. It has been the darling of the sparkling wine world for the last five years, driving a tremendous growth in sales and popularity for the segment in the United States. However, spend any amount of time on the ground in Italy and you’ll find that the Italian market leans towards Franciacorta.

Unlike Prosecco, Franciacorta sparkling wines are made following the Method Champenoise, the same method used in Champagne, France. Additionally, Franciacorta wines are made from the same grape varietals as Champagne, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Blanc. But the beauty of Franciacorta comes from the terroir. Because it’s warmer in Franciacorta than Champagne, the grapes ripen a bit more before harvest, resulting in noticeable differences in taste and minerality.

The idea of producing Italian sparkling wine in the French style was born in 1955 when a young oenologist, Franco Ziliani, proposed the far-fetched plan to the wealthy Guido Berlucchi. After several failed vintages, 1961 came along and the rest is Franciacorta history.

Today Mr. Ziliani is widely considered the father of Franciacorta, and the region produced more than 17.5 million bottles of Franciacorta in 2016.

The cigar for the pairing, the Undercrown Shade from Drew Estate, is an ideal one for sparkling wine. Its cedar, earth, and soft pepper core allow the leather, cream, and nut characteristics to emerge. It is consistently well constructed and delivers a mild to medium body.

THE PAIRING Without question get into the chilled Berlucchi Franciacorta first. A couple of sips later, light up the Undercrown Shade. The mouthwatering effect that the Berlucchi has on your palate while you light the cigar is amazing and delightful. The cigar’s notes of leather and nuts match up perfectly with the sparkling wine’s bready, apple, and pear flavors.

LOCATION: Ponte Vecchio Ristorante e Pizzeria (pontevecchiomiami.com) NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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FOR YEARS, WE’VE BEEN TRAVELING ALL OVER THE WORLD TO PRODUCE THE PHOTO SHOOTS THAT YOU LOVE BUT WE’VE NEVER DOCUMENTED THE ADVENTURES THAT GO INTO MAKING THEM HAPPEN. HOP ABOARD FOR THE TWISTS AND TURNS AND ALONG THE WAY YOU’LL LEARN WHERE TO GO FOR THE BEST VIEWS OF THE ITALIAN RIVIERA, HOW TO EXPERIENCE ANCIENT TUSCANY, AND HOW TO JOIN A CIGAR CLUB IN BOLOGNA.

BY ERIK CALVIÑO

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Manarola in Cinque Terre; Milan Cathedral; birdseye view of Il-Ciocco; Affettati misti at San Pietro Café; the courtyard at the Renaissance Tuscany

fter a long flight from Miami International to Milano Malpensa Airport, Ivan Ocampo, the magazine’s production director, and I found ourselves in a rented Fiat 500x bursting with luggage and photography equipment with a long ride ahead from the airport to the Renaissance Tuscany – Il Ciocco (374 km or 232 miles), the resort we would be staying in near the small town of Barga. The plan was simple enough: travel by Fiat to the hotel in time for dinner, take down an excellent Tuscan wine, and get a good night’s sleep. But leaving Milan without first checking it out just didn’t seem right, so off we went to see a sliver of this fashion mecca.

Two things became clear within minutes of driving away from the airport. First, it is fair to generalize the northern Italians as superb drivers. Second, splurging on the in-dash navigation on the Fiat was worth every penny. For all of the driving that we did through northern Italy, which for me was 1,671 kilometers (1,038 miles) in six days, I could not help but marvel at how well everyone seemed to drive. Traffic moves extremely fast, no one (and I mean no one) passes on the right except for American tourists, and the only people driving while staring at their cell phones are the same American tourists! Over the course of over 1,000 miles on everything from twisting mountain roads barely wide enough for one car to four-lane highways with a posted speed limit of 130 kmh (80 mph),

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I did not see a single accident. Not one. There’s something to be learned here; don’t open a collision repair business.

While searching for a restaurant recommended by a friend and Milanese ex-pat living in Miami Beach, we came to a street that was unexpectedly blocked off. A policeman said something in rapid-fire Italian that we took to mean, “Get the hell out of here you jerks. Can’t you see there’s a street fair going on?” Lacking the fluency to fire back or ask for directions, we opted to park nearby, grab a couple of cigars from my bag, and see what this street fair was all about.

It was late afternoon on Sunday and the street was teeming with impeccably dressed families strolling down the middle of this wide avenue lined with high-end stores. We walked among the families smoking our cigars and, for all of the heavy-handed anti-tobacco campaigns prevalent throughout Europe, we didn’t get a single sideways look. Sundays are reserved for family time in this old country, so finding an open restaurant wasn’t easy, but we eventually spotted an available outdoor table at San Pietro Café (sanpietrocafe.com) on Corso Buenos Aires.

When we sat, our waitress plopped down an ashtray for our cigars without missing a beat.

Didn’t even have to ask, and thank God for that.

Who knows what I would have asked her for in my broken Italian! What I did manage to ask for was a couple of fruity spritzes, San Pietro Café’s take on the famed Aperol spritz. I honestly don’t know at which point I confused her to the level that she figured, “these two dudes

want fruity drinks.” But there we sat, a cigar in one hand and a fruity spritz that I didn’t mean to order in the other. The looks we got from the old men in the neighborhood were classic.

ARE WE THERE YET? After the spritzes and antipasto, we worked our way back to the Fiat to begin our journey in earnest. We headed southeast on the Autostrada A1, the country’s longest highway, which connects Milan to Naples, at around 6 p.m. By the time it got dark, we had progressed from highways to winding foggy mountain roads.

We were delirious and sleepy, having been up for an unhealthy amount of time. I suggested we take turns punching each other in the face to stay awake, but just then we came upon a street sign with the words Il Ciocco. The excitement of seeing a familiar name gave us a jolt of energy to power through. We eventually made it to the Renaissance Tuscany – Il Ciocco (renaissancetuscany.com) at an ungodly hour.

We staggered out of the car and wandered onto the grounds of the hotel in a dazed stupor. We’d arrived.

After hours of driving through the fog and speaking only with Ivan about where to turn, alternate routes, and missed exits, I must’ve looked and sounded like Steve McQueen speaking to the warden in the solitary confinement scene in Papillon when we arrived at the front desk. In spite of the bumbling and stumbling, the staff managed to coax out our names and car keys and handled the rest. Before long, we

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: entrance to the Renaissance Tuscany; terrace overlooking Serchio Valley; Ligurian coastline; bruschetta in Manarola

were sitting in a warm, library-like room just off the lobby watching Sunday Night Football with a bottle of Brunello. In an odd but somehow fitting turn of events, we sat with three vacationing couples who happen to be New England Patriots fans. We were deep in the mountains of Tuscany in a secluded resort hours away from the nearest big city, but it was Sunday evening in America and this was the only TV that carried NBC in the resort. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the scene comically surreal. We toasted to making it through this eternal day in one piece and went up to our rooms as Brady threw a touchdown pass to some guy I’d never heard of to end the half.

ning these two photo shoots, we needed to find two locations to fit the cigars that we were going to feature. The first cigar was the CAO Italia (caocigars.com). The CAO brand is known for its flavorful, irreverent cigars with edgy and sometimes colorful packaging. The CAO Italia brand leans heavily on the Italian flag’s colors and styling. Of the five villages, we chose Manarola as our shoot location because of the variety of scenes it has to offer — views of the hanging terraces, long views of the coastline, and winding village streets. We could have probably just pulled up with the photo shoot crew, winged it, and still come away with great photos. But what fun would that be?

ALL ROADS LEAD TO LUCCA

The drive from the resort to Manarola takes you through the walled city of Lucca. We soldiered on, hugging the rocky coastline as we neared Manarola on the Strada Provinciale delle Cinque Terre. But the views became far too difficult to pass up and the soldiering on ended at a cliffside café named Bar il Giardino Da Nico (barilgiardinodanico.com). The café offers a view of the Ligurian Sea and a short menu of well executed, small plates like bruschetta topped with salted anchovies or a light, zucchini omelette that was excellent. We enjoyed them under shade on the terrace, where we followed them up with espresso and a cigar. On to Manarola.

They cover all of the bases for breakfast at the Renaissance Tuscany and I made sure to touch them all in preparation for another long day. The mission was threefold: scout locations and finalize logistics for the next day’s photo shoot in Cinque Terre, get the second rental car in Lucca, and pick up the photographer and first model at the Santa Maria Novella Train Station in Florence. Cue the Blues Brothers; it’s 106 kilometers to Cinque Terre, we’ve got a full tank of gas, and I’ve got a puff pastry in my jacket pocket.

Cinque Terre, meaning “Five Lands,” is the name given to a group of five villages that sit on a particularly rocky section of the Italian Riviera.

The five villages, Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore, are characterized by picturesque terraces that seem to hang over the crashing waves.

Flashback: When we were back in Miami plan-

TIP

From the resort, we had to go through Lucca to get to many of our destinations, which is not a bad thing. It’s a beautiful, historic city worth enjoying on its own.

As we approached the town, we pulled up to a gate that I half expected to open as I pulled up close to it. I inched closer and nothing. I waited a moment and nothing. By now several cars had piled up behind us. The attendant came out from a little shop with an annoyed look on his face.

Passare, I said confidently as if my home lay just beyond the gate. Identificazione, he replied.

I handed over my Florida driver’s license, not even my passport. The guy let out a frustrated chuckle at the ugly mug on the license and instructed the cars behind us to make space so we could back up. Parcheggia qui, he said pointing to a nearby parking lot. I tried once more with a much more polite, questioning tone, passare? He just glared at me. I parcheggi’d the Fiat without further discussion.

TIP

Only Manarola residents or permitted outsiders can drive past this gate and into the village, which lay about 600 meters down a very steep, windy, and impossibly narrow road. Everyone else just walks down a path into town. Be prepared to walk up and down steep inclines. If you’re a hiker, there is a path that allows you to hike through all five villages. If you’re not, there is also a train that goes from village to village that you can ride unlimited, all day for 10 EUR.

This was fine for today, when all we were doing was scouting. But what would happen tomorrow when we had equipment and wardrobe for the photo shoot? I went back to the already an-

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: the cliffs of Manarola; the workhorse Fiat 500x; a country lunch at Podere Concori Winery.

noyed attendant and attempted to ask if there was a permitted car for hire that could take our stuff down for us. His response was completely unintelligible and sounded thoroughly negative.

But since this shoot was going to happen either way we decided to get down there and scout, and address that problem later.

It was a warm day with a cloudless blue sky overhead. We walked down the path surrounded by hordes of tourists all marveling at the natural beauty. Every time I started to get caught up in the view, an image of myself as a Sherpa carrying loads of stuff up and down this crowded path kept jumping to the forefront of my mind.

The thought was interrupted when someone walked past me picking at seafood from a paper cone, and the glorious smell of battered and fried calamari jostled me back into reality. I needed one of these cones so badly that I walked up to the window, ordered one, paid for it, and scarfed it down without even looking at the name of the place. It was light, crispy, perfectly salted, and I dream about it once a week to this day. The good news for you is that they sell these on every corner in Manarola.

We found all the spots we wanted to shoot.

That was the easy par t. What we needed now was a field headquar ters/dressing room, but as I mentioned earlier, Manarola and all of Cinque Terre for that matter were slammed with tourists for the last few days of the season. We could’ve booked the room in advance but Cinque Terre is such a funky little logistical nightmare that we needed to see the

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place before booking it. We found a table at a tourist trap cafe, ordered a couple of beers, and star ted calling the places we had scoped out while walking around. Ivan called while I Googled. Several beers and an unexciting bruschetta later, we still had nothing. We were still waiting for a couple of responses but running out of options when Ivan looked up and saw a dude on a balcony smoking a cigar (not a common sight in Cinque Terre). Under the balcony hung a sign announcing rooms to rent!

We called the number, were shown a couple of options, and headed back to the car with room keys. Things were falling into place nicely.

I’m finding it difficult to convey just how much stuff we would have to carry and just how steep the climb was going to be, but suffice it to say that the entire walk back to the parking lot was spent strategizing how best to break up the Sherpa trips. But when we arrived at the parking lot we noticed that there was a new attendant! “Hey, since I had such terrible luck with the last one, why don’t you talk to this guy and see if he knows someone who can transport our stuff?” I said to Ivan. I tried to put a little distance between myself and the conversation so as not to spoil this new relationship like I did the last. I could see Ivan gesticulating and giving the international symbol for “we have a ton of big ass bags to carry down there and back.” I couldn’t help myself. I got a little closer.

He was still trying to convey the message to the guy who, although clearly good-natured, could not understand a word. I got a little closer and

told Ivan in Spanish, “Dude, forget about it, we’re screwed.” I’ll never forget the words that came out of the guy’s mouth in perfect Spanish; he said, “Are you Cuban?”

In that instant I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I would not have to blow out multiple vertebrae carrying bags the next day. It was as if with those three simple words he had said, “Don’t worry about this, I’m going to help you.” But he didn’t say that. Instead, he spent the next 10 minutes excitedly telling us about just how much he loves Cuba. “I’ve been to the island 11 times and I’ll be back in January!” He rattled off city after city, loving each one more than the last. He finally paused to take a breath and I blurted out as quickly as possible, “Can you help us get our equipment and wardrobe from here to down there and back tomorrow?”

“Yes of course. It’s part of the service we offer,” he replied. We just needed to call him 30 minutes in advance and he’d send a van to pick up our stuff. It was that easy.

TIP

If you plan to visit one of the villages of Cinque Terre and stay overnight, try to coordinate the transfer of your bags through your lodging provider. At the very least, get the number for the service that handles bag transfer ahead of time so that you don’t have to sit in the parking lot waiting for the bus to arrive.

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FROM LEFT: the serene smoking terrace at the Renaissance Tuscany; Podere Concori Winery’s cellar; behind the scenes for the Under the Tuscan Sun photo shoot

We found the Avis in Lucca easily and Ivan rushed off with the Fiat en route to Florence while I waited for our second rental car. The young lady behind the counter apologized for the delay and suggested I go next door and have a coffee while I wait. I sat at an outdoor table enjoying an espresso and a petite robusto while watching the locals go about their Monday. My new ride showed up and I hopped into the navigation-less Nissan Qashqai. Qash-wah?! And no navigation? You’re likely thinking, what’s the big deal about not having in-dash navigation, can’t you just use your phone or a map? Oh believe me, I am all about both of those options but when you’re driving a manual car through winding roads with constantly changing elevation, all your appendages are occupied full-time. And using the voice alerts on your phone’s navigation is just as tricky on winding mountain roads with multiple exits within feet of each other.

Nevertheless, I was in my newly rented Qashqai, which I later found was the European version of a Nissan Rogue. I made my way through and out of Lucca on memory, but once I got to the tricky country back roads I was toast. The sun was going down over the mountains in some town I had never been to before. This wasn’t right. I decided to stop for an espresso and regroup at a roadside café in the aforementioned unknown town. I wish I would have recorded my conversation with this incredibly helpful barista who tried her best to show me where I was in the world and how to get to my hotel. She didn’t speak a word of English or Spanish — and we already know how good my Italian is. I eventually made it back to the Renaissance Tuscany in time to shower and get ready for dinner. A special dinner.

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TANTI AUGURI! I got us a table for seven at La Veranda, the hotel’s restaurant overlooking the lush Serchio Valley. In addition to Ivan picking up the photographer (David) and the first model (Katherina), we were also joined by the rest of our Italybased crew, who made the drive from Milan. I prepped the wait staff, letting them know that it was Ivan’s birthday and, after an excellent dinner, they appeared out of nowhere singing, “Tanti auguri a te, tanti auguri a te.” Sing along if you know this one! With six different countries represented at the dinner table, we were suddenly one big international family singing happy birthday to Ivan in the Tuscan countryside. With our bellies full and one more bottle of Brunello left, the birthday boy and I fired up a couple of cigars to celebrate on the restaurant’s terrace.

Another day, another early departure to Cinque Terre. We passed Lucca’s wall, pointing at it like Chevy Chase pointing out Big Ben. When we arrived at the same parking lot, a tiny van was waiting to take our stuff down to Manarola.

The Cuba fanboy came through as promised although the van was so small and we had so much stuff that it almost didn’t fit. When we eventually started shooting, throngs of tourists snapping selfies and taking videos surrounded us on just about every shot, but the shoot went fairly smoothly. We held reflectors, carried changes of wardrobe up and down Manarola, and smoked CAO Italias all day. As we were wrapping up, we called for the van and this time the driver was the annoyed attendant from our initial visit! It was amazing to see his transformation from ballbuster to loverboy when surrounded by the women in our crew. He was the

most courteous and helpful fellow you’ve ever seen. We bid farewell to Cinque Terre and we headed back to the hotel while Ivan went to Florence to swap models.

TIP

When smoking cigars in Italy, you will find that the only people who give you a hard time about the smoke are the tourists.

Our experience was that in most cases, the Italians themselves did not mind the smoke as long as we were courteous.

Such was the case in Manarola; tourists looked at Katherina’s cigar with a puzzled look while the Italian men just looked at Katherina.

MODEL SWAP Ivan and Katherina sped off from Cinque Terre to Florence, where Katherina was taking the train to Milan and the second model (Victoria) was arriving from Milan. Just like that, we had our model for the next day’s shoot (it sounds instant but it’s a little over two hours each way to and back from Florence).

Flashback: The cigar for our second shoot was the Cohiba Macassar (cohiba.com), a brand known for luxury, quality, and style. The location for the shoot would be the grounds of the Renaissance Tuscany – Il Ciocco. The resort combines exclusivity and luxury with a unique old world charm in a way that we thought would match the brand perfectly. Here’s something about these photo shoots we’ve never told you: when we are conceptualizing the shoot, we make up a story that the shots convey. Ev-

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

41

resort. He offered to call the owner and set up a tour for me. Done! Everyone else went to bed while George and I stayed out on the terrace smoking cigars.

SOLO MISSION My alarm went off at 4 a.m. and I felt like I had just put my head on the pillow a moment earlier. A minute later, we were back on the road to — you guessed it — Lucca! We pulled into Avis, where I parked the Qashqai, dropped the key into the return box, and jumped into the Fiat Ivan was driving. The plan was to drop off Ivan, Victoria, and David at the Santa Maria Novella Train Station in Florence for their ride back to Milan. I was to stay with the Fiat and spend a couple more days in Italy.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence; warm crescentine at Al Botteghino; the photo shoot crew toasting at La Veranda erything from the wardrobe to the props to the expressions on the model’s face are telling a story. And like any art form, you as the consumer can interpret the shoot and make up your own story. Go for it.

Having stayed at the Renaissance Tuscany now for three nights and having walked the grounds several times over, we had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to shoot. The hotel sits high above the Serchio Valley between the Apuan Alps and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine mountain ranges. The valley and its surroundings offer a view into ancient and uncontaminated Tuscany.

In the early morning, as the fog lifts and the sun creeps into every little crevice in the valley, it’s hard not to be transfixed by the view.

Stunning shots came easy on that day. The stylists would get Victoria into wardrobe, give her the Cohiba Macassar, and she’d get into character. Four or five shutter clicks later, we were done with that look and moving on to the next.

The team was firing on all cylinders and the facilities and staff at the resort made it easy to work. When we finally wrapped it up, we were physically tired but thrilled with the result.

LAST SUPPER We gathered for one final meal at La Veranda before the band was going to break up for good. We ordered a variety of appetizers and entrées and drank wine while we shared photo shoot horror stories. We were starting to wind down when out of the corner of my eye I saw

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a man straightening out cushions and emptying ashtrays from an area where we had taken the last shot of the day. He wasn’t wearing a uniform or a name badge, but when I saw him look at the label of the cigar before tossing it in the trash, I knew who he was. I jumped out of my chair and walked over to greet him knowing exactly who he was without ever having met him. “You’re Georges Midleje, the GM of the hotel,” I said. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you!”

“How’d you know it was me?” he asked. One of his staff members had told me earlier that he had been out of town on business but that he would return today. I also knew from the hotel’s PR firm that he loved cigars. So when I saw him straightening out cushions and looking at cigar labels, I just knew.

He graciously joined our table and started ordering one of everything and more wine. Whoa! We were about to go overboard, on everything. We talked about cigars, the shoot, and the hotel. He told us about the history of the place. He told us a great story about how the video for Lionel Richie’s All Night Long was filmed here. How cool is that? As for Mr. Midleje, who by now was George, he’s a cigar nut! And it turns out that Nicaraguan cigars are his favorite. We finished our CAO Italias and he dropped a bombshell. “Why don’t we go inside and have dinner?” Again?

I can’t be sure, but I think we might have tried every dish the restaurant makes plus desserts and we loved every bite of it. George also introduced us to a couple of wines from a biodynamic winery that is 10 minutes away from the

We made it to Florence; by now Ivan had been to this train station so many times that he knew where to turn to avoid the road construction.

We pulled up with only a few minutes to spare before their train arrived. If you’ve ever been on a train in Italy, you know that they don’t play with the departure times. It goes like this, no exaggeration: the train arrives at the station, passengers quickly get off, new passengers immediately get on, and a minute or two later it’s gone. The whole process takes no more than five minutes total. They grabbed their bags and I said goodbye; no time for tears. They ran up the steps and into the train station and I jumped into the driver’s seat. Aaahh … the Fiat! I liked this so much more than the Qashqai. I pulled away from the curb, went over the tracks and turned right on Via della Scala. Just as I did the Fiat went into a tizzy. An alarm went off and a sign reading “The key is not in the vehicle” flashed on the dash. Oh crap! Ivan had the key in his pocket and he was getting on a train to Milan.

I pulled over and left the car blocking half the street. I called Ivan and sprinted toward the train station. He was about to board when I called.

“Don’t get on the train! You have the key!” If he waited for me, he’d miss the train. He opted to run over and leave the key at the nearest café.

He yelled back out of breath, “I gave the key to the chubby lady behind the counter at Café Mocha!” I ran into the station and looked for their train’s platform on the big screen. I knew the café would have to be close to their platform.

Platform 14. I got there just as the train was pulling away from the station. I looked around and there it was, MokaCafe (close enough). I walked past the line of customers and went behind the counter and blurted out, “una chiave auto!” One of the two ladies, the chubbier of the two, smiled with a look of, “you know I just saved your ass.” She handed over the key and I gave her a kiss on both cheeks and said “grazie mille” with a sigh of relief. I’ve never meant thank you as profoundly as I did in that moment and she knew it. “Prego” was all she said and

went back to making coffee.

I headed back to the Renaissance Tuscany, now confident and relieved. I took a different route back to the resort just to see a different view. The road through Prato didn’t deliver on the views, but there was a McDonald’s. I needed more coffee and thought it’d be cool to see what an American staple like McDonald’s looked like in Italy. The most impressive thing to me was the incredible selection of pastries and desserts. None of the apple pie hot pocket crap that we have in the US; they had tiramisu, torta della nonna, macarons, croissants, and a bunch more. I had a macaron and an espresso and it was pretty damn good.

George called earlier in the day to let me know that I was all set for a tour of the nearby winery. After checking out of the hotel, I drove over to Podere Còncori Winery (podereconcori.com) and walked into what I thought was the reception area of the winery. I actually walked in on two boys intently playing FIFA World Cup on a PlayStation. They were so caught up in their match that they didn’t even notice me. I backed out of there quickly and found that I had actually parked at and entered the owner’s home. A little farther down the path I found the winery’s tasting room. I opened the door and heard jazz playing while a group of visitors were enjoying their tastings. By the look of joy on their faces and the volume of the banter, I could tell that they’d probably already tasted the entire portfolio. Owner and winemaker Gabriele de Prato thanked them for their visit and came over to greet me. We toured his farms, the cellars, and even hung out with Pietro the donkey, who is quite a character. Afterward, I sat for a country lunch and a tasting of their best wines. I bought a bottle of each and just as I was getting ready to leave, Gabriele offered me a taste of his latest vintage of Pinot Noir, which is still in the barrels aging and won’t be ready for bottling until next year. It was a treat to taste the wine during its development. It was bright and intense with a light ruby color; I loved it and signed up to get a case immediately upon its release.

TIP

If you plan on visiting wineries during your Italian vacation, do your research before the trip. If you’re driving, take into account the distances from your lodging to the winery. Check with your hotel before check-in as they may have excursions already scheduled. For example, the Renaissance Tuscany schedules regular trips to Podere Còncori.

Flashback: Before I left for Italy, I was smoking with Felix Mesa of El Galan Cigars. I was telling him about my upcoming trip and what I had planned. He mentioned that he knew a guy through Facebook who owns a restaurant near Bologna and runs a cigar club out there. “Do you think you’d like to stop by and check out the club?” Felix asked. This would be perfect for my story. He called Fabrizio Lazzarini on the spot to set it up.

Without knowing me from Adam, this guy said, “Yes! Tell your friend to come to my restaurant. I will take care of everything. Don’t even book a hotel. If he’s your friend, he’s my guest.” And just like that, I had plans for Thursday evening.

The drive from the winery to Bologna was breathtaking. As you get closer to Bologna you see these endless rolling hills that look like they’ve been painted there. I love driving, especially in a manual transmission car through these hairpin turns and elevation changes, but just for that moment I wanted someone else to drive so I could take in the view. I promised myself I would come back with more time so I could enjoy the journey a little more. Fabrizio and his family own a restaurant called Trattoria Al Botteghino in the small town of Botteghino di Zocca, about 35 minutes south of the center of Bologna. I pulled in at around 5 p.m. and walked into what looks like an Italian neighborhood bar. There’s the walk-up bar on the right, a couple of arcade games, two cabinet cigar humidors (one for Cubans and one for non-Cubans), and a couple of cocktail tables on the left. Beyond the cocktail tables is a smoking area. It is technically

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: the entrance to Museo Ferrari in Maranello; grilled lamb chops and fritto at Al Botteghino; Kimi Räikkönen’s 2007 F1 Champion Ferrari; the Vigne Giorgio vineyard at Podere Concori

outdoors, but you are under a roof and there are thick, see-through plastic “walls.” It’s set up in a cozy way with a couple of couches against the wall and a table in the center.

I was greeted by Ines, Fabrizio’s sister, who served me an espresso immediately. Have I told you how much I love the coffee culture in this country? Fabrizio walked in moments later and we greeted each other like brothers who had not seen each other for 40 years. He gave me the lowdown on the plans for the evening and asked that I follow him to where I would be staying. I jumped back into the Fiat and followed his car up the road that ran behind the restaurant. We pulled into a gated area and parked in front of horse stables. I’m up for adventure, but sleeping with Mr. Ed may be a bit much! Thankfully a young woman appeared out of the darkness and led us up to a cozy bed and breakfast called Agriturismo Ca del Rio (cadelrio.com). I was given a key and Fabrizio said he’d be back in a couple of hours to pick me up for dinner. I set my alarm for an hour later and immediately fell asleep.

That night, we dined on homemade Bolognese dishes made by Roberta, Fabrizio’s mom, with some of Fabrizio’s friends. Among the appetizers was a slice of freshly baked country bread with a spread of black truffle that Fabrizio’s friend Dino had pulled out of the ground while I was leaving Florence earlier that morning. Then came the crescentine with prosciutto, salami, and ciccioli. The crescentine was outrageous. It is essentially a savory doughnut that is fried to a golden brown when you order it so it arrives at your table like a steaming pillow of doughy goodness. Thank God Trattoria Al Botteghino is not in Miami; I’d be in trouble with this crescen-

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tine business. We ate endless amounts of home cooked food from Roberta’s kitchen, each dish better than the last, until we could eat no more.

Thankfully we were having cigars for dessert.

TIP

If you ever make it to Bologna or any nearby town like Botteghino di Zocca, do not pass up a serving of homemade tagliatelle al ragú. The “ragú” sauce is the meat-based sauce that the rest of the world calls Bolognese.

We retired to the smoking lounge where a group of members of the Cigar Club Botteghino were gathered waiting for the club president, Fabrizio, to start their “meeting.” They went through roll call and made brief club announcements before Fabrizio brought out several boxes of Toscanos for the group. The members chose their cigar by order of seniority in the club. That night I was awarded an honorary membership. I couldn’t be happier to be part of this great group of guys.

I slept like a baby that night at the Agriturismo Ca del Rio and woke up to the sound of horse hooves clopping down the path adjacent to my second-story room. I went downstairs for coffee and met the owner of the establishment, the lovely Alisa, who gave me a tour of the place including the on-premises restaurant. She served me an espresso and lamented that I couldn’t stay for lunch. Again, I needed more time. I met up with Fabrizio for one more cigar at the lounge before hitting the road to Maranello.

rari country. In six days of driving up and down northern Italy, I had not seen a Ferrari on the road. Not even an old one. I found this odd until I got off the highway exit into Maranello. Apparently they were all here! I exited into a roundabout where I was in the only non-Ferrari there!

The distinctive sound of Ferrari engines revving all around me got my blood pumping. Turns out that when you schedule a Ferrari test drive, the route they take you through goes right into this roundabout. I followed that same group toward Museo Ferrari (musei.ferrari.com). It was a dreary day and I didn’t have much time, so I bought a ticket to the museum and walked around in awe. If you plan on visiting, give yourself plenty of time to visit Museo Ferrari in Maranello as well as Museo Enzo Ferrari in Modena. On my way out I bought one of nearly everything they had at the gift shop and headed west on a cold, rainy evening.

TIP

If you’re really into it, book a test drive through the museum or one of the many other test drive providers in the area.

They’ll let any ol’ schmenk with a driver’s license take one of these bad boys for a spin.

SEEING RED

By the time I reached my hotel in Milan, my last stop before heading back to the States, I was already planning a return in my head. I already craved more of Roberta’s Bolognese cooking, was dying to spend more time in Cinque Terre, and longed to explore every charming town in Tuscany.

Back in my trusty Fiat, I was en route to Fer-

Ciao bella. I’ll see you soon.

1

LEGANO E64

E64

A4

MONZA

E62

A35

2 MILANO

A50

E35

BRESCIA

A51

E70

E70

CREMA

A31

E35

MANERBIO

E35

SS434

SP343

MORTARA

ASOLA

SP415

PAVIA

E70

E70

PIACENZA

BRONI

E35

SP412R

TORTONA

U

SP420

SP343R

A22

C A N Y

MIRANDOLA

SP62R

PARMA

E33

BOBBIO

SR62

A13 SUZARRA

S

SS45

A7

SR10

MANTUA

T

E70

FERRARA

E35

CENTO

REGGIO EMILIA

A7

SR10

LEGNANO

E35

CREMONA

A7

E70

VERONA

A7

E70

ITALY

A35

SP586

MODENA

A13

SS45 E35

MARANELLO

10

BEDONIA

GENOA

SS1

BOLOGNA

SS63

E33

SS12

E80

E35

RAPALLO

SS1 PORTOFINO

CHIAVARI

VERGATO

SASTRI LEVANTE SS1

IMOLA

BOTTEGHINO DI ZOCCA

SP18 E80

E35

8 9

SS63

SP566

TREPPIGNANA

SS1

MONTEROSSO AL MARE

Ligurian Sea

SP51

MANAROLA

4

LA SPEZIA

CASTELNUOVO DI GARFAGNANA

E80

SP43

7

MASSA

SS12

3

BARGA

E35

SR302

PISTOIA

A11

LUCCA

SS67 PRATO

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The blue line marks the route described in the story.

R

3. Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort & Spa

5. Bar il Giardino Da Nico

8. Trattoria-Bar Al Botteghino

barilgiardinodanico.com

facebook.com/albotteghino.bartrattoria/

1. Milan–Malpensa Airport

renaissancetuscany.com/en/

6. McDonalds

9. Cà del Rio

milanomalpensa-airport.com/en

mcdonalds.it

cadelrio.it

2. San Pietro Cafè

4. Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station

7. Podere Còncori

10. Museo Ferrari

sanpietrocafe.com

firenzesantamarianovella.it/en/

podereconcori.com

musei.ferrari.com/en

- places of interest -

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

45

NS188 ©2017 NAT SHERMAN INTERNATIONAL, LLC

TIMELESS COLLECTION 4 CONSECUTIVE YEARS IN CIGAR AFICIONADO’S TOP 25 “A HANDSOMELY BOX-PRESSED TORPEDO OFFERING A RICH RANGE OF MOLASSES, OAK AND SEMISWEET CHOCOLATE.”

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CIGAR AFICIONADO - TIMELESS DOMINICAN NO.2

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JOEL SHERMAN 75th CELEBRATION 46 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

85th ANNIVERSARY CIGAR

BY NICOLÁS ANTONIO JIMÉNEZ / PHOTOS BY MARTIN CROOK NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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he terrace at the far back end of his New York City store is part of an expansive lounge area he uses to entertain guests at private events. The open-air portion has room for its own crowd to gather and sits almost right against the windows of the Argentinian consulate just off 5th Avenue between W 55th and 56th Streets.

We puff away on cigars while we enjoy snacks, wine and coffee in perfect weather, eventually joined by friends and his statuesque Italian fiancée. When he’s not here, he’s usually at one of his other shops — either in Los Angeles, Miami Beach, or back home in Italy.

By just about any objective measure — to the extent that these things can be measured objectively — Domenico Vacca is living the dream. Specifically, he’s living the American dream. The one in which an immigrant comes to America and spins his home country’s core values and identity into a business that couldn’t have happened back home. The one where opportunity makes all the difference and pairing a clear vision with hard work pays off in the form of big-time success and recognition.

“The famous American dream is getting soft,” said Domenico Vacca, pausing to gather his thoughts as he took a puff of his cigar and contemplated the way his adoptive country has changed since he started stitching his dreams together in the fashion industry. “And the point is that we should find a way to go back there.”

A CATHEDRAL OF QUALITY Domenico was born and raised in Andali, a tiny town in the south of Italy. His maternal grandmother had a fashion company and her side of the family included plenty of seamstresses and tailors.

“I grew up on tailor tables,” he said.

His family encouraged Domenico not to pursue fashion, though. There’d be no money in it, they said. It was too much work, they said. So in pursuit of other avenues to success, Domenico came to the U.S. 25 years ago and earned an LLM (master’s in law) from NYU. He spent time in the corporate world, but eventually, all roads led back to the business that ran through his blood.

“My grandmother had always told me and my brothers, ‘Don’t do anything related to fashion.’ Back then, fashion hadn’t gone global. She couldn’t have foreseen what’s happened with fashion.”

Domenico established his brand when he opened his first New York City boutique in 2002.

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Domenico has stores of various sizes around the world (Miami Beach, Beverly Hills, Milan), but to call the New York location where we met a “store” is to dramatically understate what Domenico has built in his little slice of Manhattan. The two-story lifestyle “cathedral,” as Domenico puts it, includes not only the retail and fitting areas you might expect, but a coffee shop, a barber shop (with a bottle of Scotch at the ready near the barber chairs), a hair salon and the large lounge space where we did our interview.

Throughout, the place is packed with a world-class art collection integrated so seamlessly into the space that you could be forgiven for overlooking the fact that that alone is worth the visit.

Every detail is designed to suck you into Domenico’s vision for his brand, which isn’t about him or his name, but rather an appreciation for the luxury of top-quality handmade goods. That love of crafts-

manship is patently Italian.

“What I’ve learned is that anything you do is about communication. You can make the best product in the world. If you don’t communicate it in a way that people can understand right away, then it’s not going to be easy to make a point. When you explain that everything that comes from Italy is done by hand, sometimes, you know, even in interviews, journalists say ‘Oh, it’s made by hand, so you bring it by hand underneath a machine’ and I say, “No no, it’s completely done by hand.”

“If I do a shirt handmade, meaning 90 percent of the seams are sewn by hand, it means you’re not dealing with a machine. When the machine’s needle goes in and out, you have 25 knots per inch. These 25 knots have nothing to do with one another. They are independent knots. That means that when you wash

the shirt and then iron it, you have to press like crazy on a machine shirt — because you have to have 25 knots that are completely independent — to go back and make a straight line. Very difficult to do that. You force the fabric, so after a while you have to throw the shirt out.

“On the other hand, when you do it by hand, you have stitches. A seam starts with a stitch, you have a knot at the beginning and one at the end. You’ve done the seam. In a handmade shirt you pass the iron on top and everything goes back into place.

“Another thing: when you wear your handmade shirt or jacket, it will mold to your body after I put it on you and you wear it three or four hours. That is the sartorial look. Because the garment works with your body because all the stress points are working to go around your body because they have stitches and not knots.”

For the sake of analogy, Domenico suggests thinking of clothes in terms of complications, the way you would watches. Of course you could buy yourself a watch that just tells time. But you pay a premium for watch complications, which are functions other than simply telling time. Those complications literally complicate the manufacturing process and the engineering that goes into fitting watch components into a casing and getting them to function properly.

Those complications include, for example, chronograph movement, date and month movement, and of course, the tourbillon, which you’ll generally find in the most expensive watches.

“If I start talking about one of my suits or jackets, it would take an hour to tell you about all the complications we do that other people don’t do,” Domenico said. “And they are very important for the final garment.”

CLOTHING IS ABOUT CULTURE Those ideas about the value of handmade complications and the appreciation of consistent precision and quality are notions that we cigar smokers understand intuitively. It’s no wonder, then, that Domenico smokes cigars daily too. When he’s not smoking Cubans, his go-to is the Padrón 7000 (which he says is just the right size for gathering his thoughts on long New York City walks).

I’ve never been a fashionista, but there’s another aspect of high fashion — at least the way Domenico does it — that feels familiar to me as a cigar lover.

Talk to any cigar maker and they’ll tell you that in some way, shape or form, there is an aspect of culture that they’re communicating to you with their cigars. If you’re smoking a Padrón, for example, you’re being told at least a piece of the story of the Padrón family, from Dámaso to José Orlando on down. To the extent that anyone is listening, your apprecia-

tion for handmade cigars also says something about what you value and how you live.

In that same way, fashion is a matter of cultural identity and lifestyle to Domenico.

“Clothing is about culture,” Domenico said. “It’s thinking about the kind of man or woman who wears my clothes. What do they do? What should be the lifestyle? As many of the luxury brands, we are becoming a lifestyle brand. So how do we cover — with clothes — all 24 hours of the 365 days of a year so we understand what is the lifestyle of our clients and we can dress them accordingly to their social life?”

The American fashion market wasn’t like that when Domenico created his brand 15 years ago, he said.

It was clothes-in-clothes-out. Even brand people associated with Italian fashion, he insists, were adjusting the cut of each garment to appeal to the American market (which generally seems to mean that they made the clothes less form-fitting, especially on men). This was also due to the fact that so many of those brands’ revenue models depended on selling clothes to retailers like department stores, which weren’t willing to take risks with a more Italian fit.

“I don’t give a damn about that. I want to educate Americans. I want them to dress the way we dress in Italy,” Domenico said. “We were the first to bring that. Taking a risk. I remember when we did our first collections for men and women, but especially men, in the factory they would say, ‘Are you sure this is going to work? This is a very Italian fit.’ This was the clothes that I was wearing. I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. If it doesn’t work I’ll wear it myself and give it to my friends.’ That was our winning element.”

Turning to analogy again, Domenico brings up food.

“Restaurants like Cipriani didn’t always exist (in the United States). So you would go to Venice and have an amazing dish at Cipriani, but then you would come here and you would find more Italian American restaurants with pasta swimming in red sauce,” Domenico said. “We don’t have marinara sauce in Italy. We don’t have Fettuccine Alfredo in Italy. It’s an invention of the American market. Giuseppe Cipriani came and said, ‘OK, the same menu you’re going to get in Venice, Milan, Florence, or Naples, you’re going to get here.’ And Americans went crazy about it because they were ready for that. The same thing happened in clothes.”

Importing what he saw as authentically Italian and refusing to compromise it for the sake of broader appeal turned out to be a winning strategy for Domenico. But success has been about more than bringing Italian aesthetics and sensibilities to American shores; it’s been about reaching Americans — with varying degrees of subtlety — by penetrating America’s popular culture.

Domenico isn’t a household name. You might assume that because you didn’t know the name or because you’d never treated yourself to one of his custom suits, you don’t know his work. You are almost certainly mistaken.

In fact, when you consider how recently Domenico launched his brand — remember, he’s only been around since 2002 — it’s incredible what he’s pulled off.

Domenico dressed Ari Gold, Jeremy Piven’s character on Entourage, through all eight seasons of the HBO hit series (plus the 2015 movie). He’s done wardrobe for Lucious Lyon, Terrence Howard’s character on Empire. He dressed Denzel Washington in American Gangster. He dressed Forest Whitaker for his role as police captain Jack Wander in Street Kings. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg on his Hollywood wardrobe résumé.

And then there are the clothes that stars wear when they’re not playing roles. At the 2013 Academy Awards, three winners accepted their Oscars in Domenico’s clothes: Daniel Day Lewis won Best Actor (Lincoln), Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor (Little Miss Sunshine) and Melissa Etheridge won for Best Original Song (“I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth). Ivana Trump is another big customer of his, and she wore his designs when she was all over the press promoting a recent book.

All of these tacit endorsements serve to build on the brand’s credibility with consumers who look to trendsetters for cues.

“We are able to send the message that Daniel Day Lewis picked Domenico Vacca, and this is a guy who does his own research on everything he does,” said Domenico. “It means we are doing something right. If they picked us for Entourage, which is like Sex and the City for guys, it means that we’re doing something right.” He added that while it’s common practice for brands to pay celebrities to wear their clothes, he does none of that.

In the case of the characters he dresses, Domenico says he’s involved enough and takes those challenges seriously enough that he has a hand in developing some of the characters you know and love.

“When I walked into Terrence Howard’s trailer [to work on his wardrobe for Empire], he said, ‘Finally, I’m going to have great clothes!’ You want your leading actor to be comfortable. And also dressing that guy, you also keep communicating your DNA, you know? Your lifestyle.”

If you’ve never seen Entourage, it helps to know that the Ari Gold character represents the height of caricature-ish Hollywood deal-making douchebaggery. He’s one of those characters so slimy you never want to be him (well… maybe sometimes you want to be him), but just good enough that you find

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

49

the slime endearing. Ari, though constantly tiptoeing along a thin line between crisis-driven desperation and explosive nervous breakdowns, is always dressed like the sort of person who is in complete and utter control.

“Journalists sometimes ask me how menswear has changed in America in the last 10 years,” Domenico said. “And I say ‘Go watch Entourage.’ From the first episode to the movie, it changes. When we first started, the agent in Hollywood was wearing a black suit with a black shirt with a black tie with a black pair of shoes. Now they dress like Italians. Now, when I go to L.A., I walk out of ICM or CAA (L.A.based talent agencies) and they are all dressed like they’re in Milan. I think we had a little part in that.”

Actors like Jeremy Piven and Forrest Whitaker, said Domenico, take things from his designs into the way they play their roles. Ari Gold’s swagger and the corruption of Jack Wander are reinforced by the A.G. monograms on the inside of Ari’s suit or the gold lining inside Jack’s jacket.

“Nobody saw it,” said Domenico. “You can’t see it on the screen. But they knew. They say, ‘Now I know who this character is,’ and that’s amazing because now you’re really participating in the creation of the character.”

CHANGING TIMES When Domenico launched his brand about 15 years ago, the idea of bringing an authentically Italian fit to the U.S. was novel. Ballsy, even. But, like any good idea, this one was duplicated. So what do you do to stay relevant and stand out from the crowd when too many people have adopted your ideas for you to stand on those alone?

“The challenge now is the experience,” said Domenico. “It’s bringing people back into the stores and in order to do that, my idea was that I want people to come here not only to shop, but they come to hang out. And while they do that, they see something they like and they buy it. Or they become closer to the brand and they understand the lifestyle of the brand.”

Hence the salon, barber shop, coffee, art collection and lounge. All those elements of Domenico’s Midtown Manhattan “cathedral” for the lifestyle he wants people to associate with his brand serve a clear purpose.

Unfortunately, artificial barriers have gotten in the way of Domenico’s vision coming to full fruition.

While the lounge area at the back of the building has been used for private events on occasion, the idea has always been for it to be more accessible. But neighbors and local government have put up a fight on that.

50 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

Domenico doesn’t remember the American landscape being quite so hostile to new things.

“You know, it’s painful for me to say it, but when I came here 25 years ago, the American Dream was on full speed,” he said. “You could do anything. I was always telling my friends in Italy that here, if you had an idea for a business, everybody will help you. It was always, ‘Great! Let’s do it. How can I help?’ In Italy, it’s not always that way. In Italy, you have to come from second and third generations.

If you make wine, you have to come from a wine family. If you make fashion, it’s the same most of the time.

“In Italy, this would have been impossible for me to create from scratch. Now I can do anything I want in Italy. Now they give me awards. But that’s 15 years of fashion and success around the world later.

“Here, 15 years ago, everything was possible. Everyone was gathering around people with ideas. If you had a vision, you would find all the support that you wanted. Right now, not so much. It’s becoming complicated,” he continued.

Naturally, as a cigar guy, this all sounded very familiar to me. But Domenico sees this all as symptomatic of a broader cultural shift in the States.

“There are too many regulations, too many problems, too much hate. You can’t do anything here that is great without people saying, ‘Eh, I don’t know.’

Right now, the country is divided 50-50 or 55-45, if we look at the election. And everybody is against the other 50 percent. Unfortunately, maybe the president or whoever is running the country right now forgot that the best thing you need to do in order to recreate the American dream is to unite people.

As long as we’re divided, there will always be 50 percent who will criticize anything you do. So that’s the status I think of America right now. I hope that, sooner or later, somebody will say, ‘Forget about if you are one party or another party. Let’s work together to rebuild this country because it needs to be rebuilt.’”

Domenico is an open book — the sort of person who has little trouble relating to people even while speaking his mind openly. It makes sense that he laments the divisions he didn’t see when he first arrived in New York from Italy, and it stands to reason that he would build his business around the idea of bringing people into his vision.

Consider that his product portfolio is broader than just the custom suits that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. A ready-made Domenico Vacca suit generally has a far more attainable price tag — about $2,900. Pants, shirts and jeans cost around $500 — not cheap, by any measure, but that’s not the point. These are luxury items made well enough to last you a relative eternity. You’re getting the qual-

ity you pay for.

Beyond that, his product offering has expanded to include things like belts, sunglasses, and — most recently — tableware. It’s all geared toward finding ways for you to be a part of Domenico’s world and experience his culture of authentic Italian quality for yourself.

While Domenico takes satisfaction from relaying his Italian culture through clothes, he’s found he feels most at home around those who have lived it themselves. It’s no wonder that he ended up with fiancée Eleonora Pieroni, an Italian model and actress he met in Miami while he was there for Art Basel events and she had just gotten through filming an Italian TV show.

“Strangely enough, for the last 20 years I had never had a relationship with an Italian woman. But in that moment, I started realizing that it was easier for me to communicate with her, to develop a relationship with her because we were coming from the same place.”

Domenico said their first date happened that week.

The two went to a charity event the night they met, with Domenico’s friend Mike Piazza and his wife.

“I never thought it was a date. He just invited me,” Eleonora said.

Domenico clarified, “It became a date after.”

Eleonora is now a part of Domenico’s spreading the gospel of Italian style, serving as the face of the brand for women’s clothing and even contributing to the design process.

She also shares his passion for spreading other aspects of Italian culture. For example, she was part of a group that took part in New York’s Columbus Day Parade dressed in classic 16th century Italian clothing. Not quite what’s made Domenico famous, but very Italian, to be sure.

“For me to see her walk down 5th Avenue with 100 people in costumes from the 16th century in the Columbus Day parade — it doesn’t get more Italian than that in terms of sharing our heritage — was amazing,” Domenico said.

As for his family back in Italy, his parents were able to see much of his success. His mother was around for more of it, even joining him for several store openings and events around the world. She died too soon to see his “cathedral,” though.

“We Italians are very proud of being Italians. Most people would say that, but Italians in particular. So to create something like this in New York, to have my name on the building and everything, for me, it’s very important. It’s a link to my roots, to my heritage, to my friends.”

LIGHT UP THE SCENE You earned it.

Perfected over 152 years, yours to enjoy now.

#LightUpYourSoul

PlasenciaCigars.com

Smoke in style

WITH SOME HELP FROM FRIEND AND DESIGNER DOMENICO VACCA, WE PUT TOGETHER THREE LOOKS FOR SOME COMMON CIGAR ACTIVITIES. LOOK GOOD WHEN YOU LIGHT UP.

FARM AND FACTORY TOUR A deep dive into how cigars are made is the best way to understand what you’re smoking. You’ll want to dress light and be ready for anything, because It’s going to be hot and you’re going to get dirty.

DOMENICO VACCA SHIRT domenicovacca.com $ 490 SARTORIA TRAMAROSSA JEANS artigianomiami.com $395 COLE HAAN CHUKKAS colehaan.com $180 DOMENICO VACCA SUNGLASSES domenicovacca.com $490

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A DAY AT THE LOUNGE

You can dress up without looking like a stiff. The prints, patterns and colors here make it clear you’re dead serious about taking it easy.

DOMENICO VACCA JACKET domenicovacca.com $2600 SUNSPEL SHIRT artigianomiami.com $135 DOMENICO VACCA PANTS domenicovacca.com $450 DOMENICO VACCA LOAFERS domenicovacca.com $580 ORCIANI BELT artigianomiami.com $185 ST DUPONT WHITE BRONZE LIGHTER st-dupont.com $496

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EVENING CIGAR EVENT

DOMENICO VACCA JACKET domenicovacca.com $2600 DOMENICO VACCA DRESS SHIRT domenicovacca.com $590 LUCIANO CARRELI SLACKS sartoriamici.com $195 THE LAPEL PROJECT LOAFERS thelapelproject.com $99 BRIZARD AND CO ELITE CIGAR CUTTER brizardandco.com $115

54 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

Ditch the monochromatic suit. Domenico helped us put together a look to help you stand out without making people think missed a memo.

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FEATURING

CORSET AND PANTIES SAINT LAURENT SHOES PHILIPP PLEIN SUNGLASSES DOLCE & GABBANA

FUR BOMBER PHILIPP PLEIN BRA LA PERLA TROUSER GUCCI SHOES ROBERTO CAVALLI

DUNGAREES EMPORIO ARMANI BRA PATRIZIA PEPE SANDALS AND CLUTCH PHILIPP PLEIN

CHEMISE LA PERLA SLEEPING MASK DIOR

SHIRT PHILIPP PLEIN BOTTOMS SAINT LAURENT

CHIFFON SHIRT DOLCE & GABBANA VEST AND TROUSER PANTS SAINT LAURENT

CORSET AND TROUSER PANTS SAINT LAURENT

MODEL

VICTORIA PAPKOVICH DAS MODEL MANAGEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY

LIMITED EDITION www.limitededitionmanagement.com PRODUCTION

IVAN OCAMPO iocampo@cigarsnobmag.com WARDROBE STYLIST

LUCIA CAPELLI DAS MODEL MANAGEMENT HAIR AND MAKE-UP ARTIST

ORNELLA RIVERDITI www.ornellariverditi.com HAIR AND MAKE-UP ASSISTANT

SARA BERGAGLIO www.sarabergaglio.wixsite.com/make-up LOCATION

RENAISSANCE TUSCANY IL CIOCCO RESORT & SPA www.renaissancetuscany.com

CORSET GUCCI TROUSER SUIT AND EARRINGS SAINT LAURENT COLLAR KARL LAGERFELD

CIGAR COHIBA MACASSAR www.cohiba.com

EVENING DRESS PHILIPP PLEIN SHOES ANDREA PFISTER COUTURE

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LOCATION: Artigiano Miami (artigianomiami.com)

54 cigars NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

69

CHURCHILL

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Fuente Fuente Opus X Angel’s Share

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93

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

$ 26.66

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Reserva D’Chateau 7 48 Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

JFR Lunatic

$ 8.50

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N I CA R AG UA

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Torch 7 50 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

CAO Pilón

A unique looking Churchill with about an inch of unbound and unwrapped tobacco protruding from the foot. This mild to medium bodied blend opens with tons of oak and pepper that are soon joined by sweet cedar and a touch of cream.

$ 11.1 4

)

N I CA R AG UA

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Churchill 7 48 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Gilberto Oliva Reserva

Produces a sweet and chewy smoke with notes of wood, molasses, and cocoa balanced by a touch of leather and spice. This medium strength blend is finished with an oily, reddish brown wrapper. Burns slowly and leaves behind a compact ash.

$ 6.40

)

N I CA R AG UA

)

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Churchill 7 50 Indonesia Ecuador Nicaragua

Aladino

A smooth and balanced blend, covered with a light brown wrapper with minimal veins. Delivers a core of cedar, earth, and nuts accompanied by a touch of sweet coffee. Draws well and burns even while producing an excellent smoke output.

$ 8.50

)

H O N D UR AS

)

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Churchill 7 48 Honduras Honduras Honduras

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Micallef Experiencia La Crema

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89

70 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

Beautifully balanced and complex with a core of sweet cedar, cinnamon, nuts, and coffee accompanied by a rich mix of pepper and heavy cream. Flawlessly constructed on a consistent basis and finished with an impeccable wrapper with a supple feel.

Consistently well-constructed, this smooth, medium strength Churchill produces an excellent smoke output with notes of wood, soft spice, and roasted almonds complemented by a touch of sweet cinnamon.

$ 13.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Churchill 7 52 Mexico Ecuador Panama, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

N I CA R AG UA Delivers a core of wood, smooth pepper, and a touch of earthiness complemented by a light, leather aroma. This well-constructed smoke is covered with a light brown wrapper with thin veins. Medium strength.

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71

GRAN TORO

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Camacho American Barrel-Aged

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92

$ 13.00

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Gordo 6 60 USA/Connecticut USA Honduras & USA

CAO Brazilia

$ 7.99

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H O N D UR AS

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91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Amazon 6 60 Brazil Nicaragua Nicaragua

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Daniel Marshall Red Label

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91

Covered with a dark brown wrapper with beautiful oils, this smooth, medium strength blend has a core of earth, dark chocolate, and espresso held together by a ripe fruit sweetness on the finish. Produces tons of thick smoke with a floral aroma.

$ 8.30

N I CA R AG UA VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Gigante 6 60 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

Casa Cuevas Maduro

Delivers a core of cedar, earth, and smooth pepper complemented by a rich cocoa flavor throughout. This medium strength blend is covered with a deep, reddish brown wrapper with only minimal veins showing.

)

$ 8.70

)

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Gordo 6 60 Mexico Nicaragua Colombia, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Dujo

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A consistently well-constructed gran toro with a smooth and balanced profile of sweet cedar, espresso, and ripe fruit complemented by a rich, leather aroma. Produces an excellent output of medium bodied smoke.

$ 11.00

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N I CA R AG UA

)

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 1/2 56 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

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Battleground The Widow’s Son

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89

72 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

Beautifully balanced and ultra-flavorful, this medium to full strength blend has a profile of charred oak, mocha, and earth accompanied by soft pepper and vanilla on the finish. This slowburning gran toro is covered with a dark brown, toothy wrapper.

This large, thick cigar is impeccably constructed and covered with a dark, toothy wrapper. Delivers a flavorful core of earth and sweet pepper balanced by notes of cocoa powder, coffee bean, and spice. Draws and burns perfectly.

$ 8.30 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Gigante 6 60 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

N I CA R AG UA Sticky sweet with notes of ripe banana and earth accompanied by pepper and mocha. This medium to full strength cigar draws well and leaves behind a compact, chalk colored ash that falls off in chunks.

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73

TORO

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La Historia by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo

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92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

$ 10.50 Doña Elena 6 1/8 50 Mexico Ecuador Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Kristoff Ligero Maduro

Beautifully balanced and flavorful, this medium strength blend is consistently well-constructed and finished with a dark, toothy wrapper. Consistently delivers a profile of dark chocolate, coffee, and earth complemented by notes of wood and leather.

)

$ 10.1 4

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Matador 6 1/2 56 Brazil Dominican Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Matilde Renacer

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C An ultra-flavorful blend with a profile of dark roast coffee, charred oak, molasses, and soft pepper complemented by a hint of ripe berry sweetness. Covered with a neatly applied dark brown wrapper and topped with a pigtail. Medium strength.

)

$ 8.50

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro Bravo 6 1/2 54 Ecuador Domincan Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Case Study 03

D O M I N CA N R E P UBLI C Well-balanced and flavorful, this medium plus strength thick toro delivers a profile of cedar and spice complemented by notes of cinnamon, cocoa, and a touch of honey. Consistently well-constructed and finished with a nearly flawless wrapper.

$ 1 4.2 9

)

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

)

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 50 Mexico Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

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Gran Habano Maduro No. 5 Limitado 2011

)

89

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Covered with a toothy, dark brown wrapper with excellent oils, this medium plus strength blend has a core of charred oak, spice, and ripe berry accompanied by a touch of leather.

Medium plus strength with a perfect draw.

$ 7.10

H O N D UR AS Gran Robusto 6 54 Nicaragua Costa Rica Nicaragua & Costa Rica

Recluse Iconic OTG

A flavorful blend with notes of dark chocolate, oak, molasses, and soft pepper. This medium plus strength blend produces an excellent output of thick, aromatic smoke that leaves behind a slightly flaky, dark gray ash.

)

$ 7.7 9

)

88

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D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 1/4 50 Brazil Cameroon Dominican Republic

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Box-pressed and finished with a dark brown wrapper with a somewhat rough texture, this medium to full strength blend delivers a profile of sharp pepper, earth, and charred oak balanced by a touch of cocoa and leather.

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

75

TORO HVC La Rosa 520

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$ 9.60

)

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

N I CA R AG UA Toro 5 1/2 54 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

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Espinosa Laranja Reserva Caixa

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92

$ 11.50

N I CA R AG UA VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 1/2 48 Brazil Nicaragua Nicaragua

)

AJ Fernandez Bellas Artes

)

91

A beautifully produced, pressed cigar covered with a nearly flawless, light brown wrapper.

This medium strength blend has a balanced profile of nuts, wood, and soft spice complemented by cinnamon and cream.

$ 9.50 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 54 Nicaragua Nicaragua Brazil, Honduras & Nicaragua

Debonaire Habano

N I CA R AG UA Produces an excellent output of thick, aromatic smoke with a balanced profile of pepper, wood, cinnamon, and sweet coffee. This medium bodied blend exhibits superb construction and is finished with an exquisite, golden brown wrapper with sheen.

)

$ 1 4.00

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 54 Nicaragua Dominican Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Sindicato Particulares

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A flavorful and balanced profile with notes of charred oak, nuts, and pepper complemented by a rich, creamy caramel flavor. This medium strength blend is consistently well-constructed and finished with a light brown wrapper with a velvet feel.

$ 8.50

)

N I CA R AG UA

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Delicioso Toro 6 54 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

)

Montecristo Artisan Series

)

90

76 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

Impeccably constructed and finished with a neat pigtail, this flavorful and well-balanced blend has a core of cedar, sweet espresso, and soft spice accompanied by a hint of caramel.

This medium plus strength toro produces an excellent output of aromatic smoke.

A soft-pressed toro covered with an impeccable, golden brown wrapper with sheen. This medium strength blend has a core of soft spice, cedar, and nuts complemented by a rich, sweet cream on the finish.

$ 18.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 54 Ecuador Dominican Republic Honduras & Dominican Republic

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a supple, milk chocolate colored wrapper with sheen, this thick toro delivers a balanced profile of nuts, baker’s spice, and cedar complemented by a rich, leather aroma.

This well-made cigar leaves behind a solid, compact ash.

SCORE SOME BLONDIE AND KUBA KUBA FOR YOUR NIGHT TIME RAIDS IN THE CIT Y DRE WE S TATE.COM NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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TORO

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Pappy Van Winkle Tradition

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92

$ 23.60 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 50 Ecuador Indonesia Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Southern Draw Firethorn

Covered with a pristine, reddish brown wrapper, this medium plus strength blend delivers a complex and balanced profile with notes of earth, pepper, oak, and sweet spice complemented by a rich, creamy texture. Leaves behind an ultracompact ash.

$ 9.7 7

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N I CA R AG UA

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92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 52 Nicaragua Mexico Nicaragua

Ambos Mundos

Impeccably constructed and finished with a covered foot, this flavorful and balanced blend has a core of sweet cedar, almond cream, and vanilla accompanied by notes of soft pepper and leather. Medium strength.

$ 5.25

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N I CA R AG UA

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91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

No. 1 Toro Habano 6 50 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Oliva Serie G

Well-constructed and covered with a clean, neatly applied wrapper. This medium strength blend delivers a core of creamy pepper, nuts, and wood complemented by a touch of earthy spice. Draws and burns perfectly.

$ 6.12

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N I CA R AG UA

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91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 50 Cameroon Nicaragua Nicaragua

Yayabo Cirion

Producing tons of thick, aromatic smoke, this medium strength blend delivers a consistent profile of earth, espresso, and pepper complemented by a hint of sweet cream and a tanned leather note on the finish.

)

$ 8.36

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90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 50 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Victor Calvo Cincuenta

N I CA R AG UA Consistently well-constructed and finished with a clean, even-colored wrapper with sheen. This medium strength toro has a core of oak, pepper, and cocoa powder accompanied by a touch of cream.

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$ 9.00

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90

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N I CA R AG UA

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Sublime 6 1/2 54 Ecuador USA Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

N I CA R AG UA Beautifully soft-pressed and covered with a nearly flawless, reddish brown wrapper with a supple feel. Flavors of wood and white pepper are accompanied by a creamy texture and a hint of sweetness. Draws perfectly, producing an excellent smoke output.

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

79

ROBUSTO

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Nat Sherman Timeless Dominican

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91

$ 7.95 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Divinos 4 3/4 50 Honduras Dominican Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

AJ Fernandez Last Call

Covered with a clean, reddish brown wrapper with excellent oils, this medium strength blend delivers a balanced profile of nuts, cedar, spice, and a healthy dose of cream on the finish. Draws well and produces an abundant smoke output.

$ 5.00

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N I CA R AG UA

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91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Geniales 4 1/2 48 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Pulita 60 Aniversario

A flavorful blend with a beautiful, reddish brown wrapper finished with a covered foot.

This medium strength robusto has a core of nuts, caramel, cinnamon, and earth complemented by a touch of sweet pepper.

)

$ 12.20

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90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Colombia, USA, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

The Oscar Habano

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Impeccably constructed and covered with a dark brown wrapper with sheen. This medium strength blend delivers a smooth profile of wood, bittersweet cocoa, and soft pepper complemented by a rich, leather aroma.

Leaves behind a perfect, compact ash.

$ 11.00

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H O N D UR AS

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90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 Ecuador Honduras Nicaragua & Honduras

Padilla 1932

A medium strength smoke featuring superb construction and an earthy profile accompanied by oak, spice, and a touch of mocha.

This robusto is covered with a neatly applied, good-looking wrapper with only thin veins showing.

$ 10.00

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N I CA R AG UA

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90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua

Cuban Aristocrat

Delivers a profile of sharp pepper and earth accompanied by charred wood, leather, and a light floral note. This medium to full strength blend is consistently well-constructed, providing an excellent draw and a good smoke output.

$ 3.50

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D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

)

89

80 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

A straightforward, medium bodied blend with a profile of cedar, soft pepper, and cinnamon complemented by a hint of cream. This well-constructed blend produces an excellent smoke output along a perfect draw.

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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PETIT ROBUSTO My Father La Opulencia

$ 7.10

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N I CA R AG UA

)

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Petite 4 1/2 48 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua

Davidoff Yamasa

)

$ 12.90

)

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Petit Churchill 4 48 Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

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Intemperance Whiskey Rebellion 1794

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91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Flavorful and beautifully balanced, this medium plus strength blend delivers a core of cedar, leather, coffee, smooth pepper, and cream.

Produces an excellent output of rich, aromatic smoke. Consistently well constructed.

$ 6.15 Hamilton 4 46 Ecuador Indonesia Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

La Galera Maduro

N I CA R AG UA This short robusto delivers a core of earth, smooth pepper, and charred oak complemented by a heavy dose of espresso and a hint of sweet cream. Medium plus strength with a perfect draw and an even burn.

)

$ 4.00

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91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

No. 1 3 1/2 50 Mexico Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Byron Reserva 4 Años

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a dark and toothy wrapper, this short but flavorful smoke has a profile of cedar, sweet earth, black coffee, and a touch of cinnamon roasted almonds. Features superb construction and leaves behind a solid, compact ash.

$ 19.99

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C O STA R I CA

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90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Petit Poema 4 50 Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica

PDR El Criollito

Covered with an oily, deep brown wrapper with good oils, this flavorful blend opens with a salty, peppery mix of flavors that settles to incorporate notes of wood, leather, and cream. Produces an excellent output of aromatic smoke.

)

$ 4.25

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89

82 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

A complex and powerful box-pressed cigar covered with an impeccable, dark brown wrapper with excellent oils. This full strength blend delivers a core of pepper, mocha, and hazelnut complemented by a rich, earthy sweetness on the finish.

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Half Corona 3 1/2 50 Ecuador Mexico Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A short and beautifully produced cigar covered with a clean wrapper and topped with a neatly applied cap. Delivers a sharp profile of wood and pepper accompanied by spice and a touch of leather. Draws well and produces an abundant smoke output.

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

83

CORONA Herrera Esteli

$ 9.28

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N I CA R AG UA

)

93

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Lonsdale Deluxe 6 44 Ecuador Honduras Nicaragua

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Warped Flor del Valle Sky Flower

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92

$ 13.50

N I CA R AG UA VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Gran Corona 5 5/8 48 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

Rocky Patel Royale

Beautifully balanced and smooth, this medium to full strength blend delivers a profile of molasses, charred oak, and pepper accompanied by a rich, vanilla cream flavor. This thick corona is consistently well constructed providing a perfect draw and burn.

$ 8.45

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N I CA R AG UA

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona 5 1/4 42 Ecuador USA Nicaragua

Padrรณn Natural

Box-pressed and covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper. This corona delivers a core of earth and sweet pepper on the palate complemented by cocoa powder, cinnamon, and wood. Medium bodied.

$ 4.70

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N I CA R AG UA

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Londres 5 1/2 42 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

Davidoff 702 Series

Smooth and flavorful, this medium strength blend is loaded with milk chocolate, earth, and a touch of smooth pepper complemented by almond cream on the finish. This rustic-looking cigar consistently draws and burns perfectly.

$ 15.80

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D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

)

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

2000 5 1/6 43 Ecuador Ecuador Dominican Republic

)

Nestor Miranda Collection Habano

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90

84 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

Delivers a clean and superbly balanced profile of sweet cedar, nuts, cinnamon, and light pepper. This medium strength corona produces a high volume of thick and highly aromatic smoke. Consistently well constructed.

Covered with a medium to dark brown wrapper with beautiful oils, this consistently wellmade cigar has a core of sweet cedar, pepper, and coffee complemented by notes of currant and spice on the finish.

$ 8.25 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona Gorda 6 46 Nicaragua Nicaragua Brazil, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

N I CA R AG UA This balanced blend opens with a healthy dose of earth and smooth pepper that settles to incorporate notes of walnut, cocoa powder, and cedar. Produces an excellent output of thick smoke with a rich, leather aroma.

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

85

PETIT CORONA Ashton VSG

$ 10.00

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D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

)

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Tres Mystique 4 3/8 44 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Warped Don Reynaldo

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$ 13.7 9

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Regalos 5 46 Dominican Republic Nicaragua Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

J Grotto Silk

USA Creamy and smooth from the onset, this superbly balanced blend delivers a core of almond, cedar, and soft pepper complemented by a floral sweetness in the aroma. Construction is consistently impeccable. Medium bodied.

$ 5.99

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H O N D UR AS

)

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Petit Corona 4 1/4 41 Ecuador Indonesia & Honduras Nicaragua & Honduras

Guerrilla Warfare

Covered with an impeccable, golden brown wrapper with sheen, this medium bodied blend has flavors of wood, soft pepper, and black coffee complemented by a subtle fruit note on the finish. Provides a perfect draw and burn.

)

$ 4.20

)

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Petit Corona 4 41 Ecuador Mexico & Dominican Republic Brazil, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

SAGA Short Tales

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A flavorful blend with a core of cedar, sweet pepper, molasses, and tanned leather. This medium plus strength blend is consistently well-constructed and covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper with a velvet feel.

)

$ 5.99

)

89

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Tomo 3 L.I.V. 4 1/2 42 Ecuador Dominican Republic Brazil & Dominican Republic

Juan Clemente

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a reddish brown wrapper with a supple feel, this medium bodied blend delivers a core of wood, spice, and hazelnut balanced by a touch of sweetness. Produces a good smoke output along a perfect draw and an even burn.

$ 4.90

)

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

)

89

86 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

An ultra-flavorful short cigar with a balanced profile of dark chocolate, baker’s spice, and cedar complemented by a rich, roasted almond note on the finish. Draws perfectly and leaves behind a solid, compact ash.

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Demi Corona 4 1/2 40 USA/Connecticut Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

A consistently well-constructed petite corona covered with a clean, golden colored wrapper with only the slightest veins. This mild blend produces tons of smoke with a profile of wood, spice, and a touch of leather.

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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A.J. FERNANDEZ

IN THE SPOTLIGHT - BY NICOLÁS ANTONIO JIMÉNEZ / PHOTOS BY MARK BYRON NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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Fernandez doesn’t get out much. At least not out of Nicaragua, where his tobacco growing and cigar making operations keep him plenty busy, not only because of his business’ rapid climb to the top of the tobacco heap, but also because of his maniacal obsession with detail. Unlike so many other cigar makers whose brands are so closely tied to their names, A.J. says he’s only able to get to the states for promotional events about 10 times a year.

“My time is very limited,” he told me as he ate a steak at an Italian restaurant in Newport, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

“When I decide to come to a place like this, it’s because your clients have to get to know you and what you do. And they have to know that you want to know them too. That’s a secondary part of the business, but you can never forget it. They want to know who is making the cigar. Why are they smoking it? If they have a question about a cigar, they want to be able to ask you personally. Why is it strong? Why is it mild? Why is it like this? Why did you make it like that? Because every cigar has its story, you know?”

IT ALMOST NEVER HAPPENED A.J. came startlingly close to taking a radically different path in life. He grew up in San Luis, a small rural town in Cuba’s Pinar del Río province, which is the epicenter of tobacco farming on the island.

“Brother, I missed Cuba,” said A.J. as he recalled what it was like to transition from his life in Cuba to Nicaragua at 22 years old. “In my town, I was a king, but in Nicaragua I was just another guy.”

See, back in Cuba, A.J. had a pretty clear path to a career in tobacco. He learned the business from his father Ismael, who — together with A.J.’s uncle — worked for the government in the tobacco growing sector. By 13, A.J. was working after school on a farm called Finca La China, where he got early hands-on experience with the process of growing, curing and sorting tobacco.

Like many Cubans, the Fernándezes had family abroad; Ismael is the cousin of Nestor Plasencia, the legendary grower whose Central American tobacco is ubiquitous in American retail tobacconists’ humidors. Ismael went to work with the Plasencias and, eight years later in 2003, A.J. got permission to visit his father (Cuba required citizens to obtain “exit visas” before leaving the island at the time), and stayed in Nicaragua for good.

But about a year after his arrival in Nicaragua — tired of working on family farms and not quite sure how to move forward into a new, uncertain future

90 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2017

A.J. Fernández (right) was convinced to stay in Nicaragua by his father Ismael (left). Today, they’re working together from this factory in Estelí.

— A.J. was on the verge of reversing course and heading back to the comfort of the routines and culture he knew back home.

“I told my father, ‘I’m going back to Cuba,’” A.J. said. Ismael came back saying that life is about work and sacrifice. In A.J.’s mind, there was no need for any of that. He had his house and his life in tobacco in Cuba.

“My father said, ‘If you want to be somebody in your life, you have to stay here. If you want to be just another person, go back.’ I thought about it all night and the next day I said, ‘Never mind. I’m going to work at the factory with you. And I’m going to see the whole process.’”

A.J. rented a house in Estelí and put a roof over the driveway. Under the roof, he put two rolling tables.

“I sanded them down and my wife painted them.

Then I went to Nestor and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to make cigars.’ This is just after the boom. Selling cigars in Nicaragua was hard because nobody was buying. He said, ‘That’s a hard world to get into.’

I said, ‘They say if you do things well, there are always opportunities.’”

Probably thanks to ties, A.J. was able to work out a deal. But those ties only got him so far. The Plasencias paid A.J. 10 bucks for every thousand cigars he made them. That’s $200 for every 20,000 sticks. Barely enough to even make rent with the cigars, A.J. says, but it was a start.

Most importantly, it gave A.J. an opportunity to start building his reputation as a cigar maker. Tony Alvarez, who was looking to close his Estelí factory, came calling about having A.J. make his cigars

instead. Before long, A.J. was making a decent living, producing around 5,000 cigars a day, bringing in up to $3,000 a month and reinvesting as much profit as he could into buying tobacco, which he’d ferment right in his house.

“Rocky Patel showed up where I was working. He saw the love I had for this and said, ‘Hey, I want you to make a brand for me.’ Imagine that! Rocky, for me, was a God back then,” A.J. said. “I started making two or three brands for Rocky. Cigars International followed.”

Taking on clients like Rocky Patel and Cigars International meant that when A.J. continued to reinvest his profits, he could look beyond just adding new bales of tobacco to his small fermentation room. He could buy farms.

“I felt like a king because never in my life did I think I would be making those cigars,” A.J. said. “And the better and bigger your reputation, the more disciplined you have to be because there’s a lot of competition out there. Playing triple-A ball is nothing like playing in the big leagues.”

By 2009, A.J. added his own brands to the mix. He started with what remains his high-end offering, San Lotano, which is named for the small brand his own grandfather used to make in San Luís.

Kind of.

“My father told me, ‘Why don’t you revive the old man’s brand?’ I asked, ‘What was it called?’ And he said, ‘San Lutano.’ But you know that in English, Os are pronounced like Us, right?” said A.J., explaining the revival’s unusual name.

I reluctantly nod my head, opting not to question this O-as-U thing. Whatever the reasoning, who the hell am I to say A.J. did it wrong? San Lotano and its extensions — Oval, The Bull, Requiem, etc.

— remain sought-after, critically acclaimed cigars.

That he built that reputation so fast is made more impressive by the fact that A.J. was largely ignorant of the materials he had at his disposal at first.

“I arrived in Nicaragua with a veil over my eyes,” he said. “I didn’t know the difference between one fertilizer and another, you know what I mean? I didn’t know anything. In Cuba, it was like there was one formula. Not [in Nicaragua]; you have different processing methods, a lot of things that you do to analyze the soil. You learn that in this area you need more nitrogen, over there you need potassium, and in another spot you might need magnesium. That, in Cuba, I didn’t know. I came to learn those things [in Nicaragua]. After all the years of work and the experience I was able to pick up, I was able to become who I am now.”

It’s been less than 10 years since the 2009 release of San Lotano. That launch was the foundation for a business that has since grown by leaps and bounds. The business that started with a reluctant young Cuban rolling cigars on tables he made himself in his driveway now comprises two factories and 18 farms spanning more than a thousand acres, not to mention all the people A.J. employs (who benefit from on-campus services like a daycare and clinic provided by the company) to keep it all humming along.

“Brother, about a year and a half ago, I couldn’t meet all the demand and fulfill all my orders on time, you know?” A.J. said. Most people see this as a problem — a sign that something’s not right. “And even today, I have two factories, I make 21 million cigars a year, and I can’t meet all my obligations.

That, for me, is the greatest happiness because I at least know that I have a way to pay my 2,500 employees, you know?”

ON TOP OF HIS GAME After our chat, we made our way to Beer Sellar, a bar and restaurant in Newport, Kentucky that sits on a barge on the Ohio River. The people from The Party Source, one of the area’s largest retailers of beer, wine, spirits and cigars host a cigar event at Beer Sellar every Tuesday. This week’s event was different, of course; there’d be a rare appearance from A.J. Fernandez, whose cigars guests could try in $15 samplers or full boxes.

To say that the place was packed is putting it mildly. Even before business hours were over, the turnout was impressive. All told, A.J.’s appearance drew more than 300 people who bought about as many boxes of cigars, along with all the sampler bags the Party Source staff were able to put to-

gether, in about four hours. All the while, A.J. was posing for photos, autographing boxes and smiling ear to ear.

“We are the longest running weekly cigar tasting in the country, as far as we know,” said The Party Source’s assistant humidor manager, Nick Douglas, who was working the event. “Bringing in a guy like A.J. is obviously going to change the game, especially at this point, considering the meteoric rise he’s had over the last few years. It’s like having one of the biggest stars in the cigar industry coming to town.”

“AND THE BETTER AND BIGGER YOUR REPUTATION, THE MORE DISCIPLINED YOU HAVE TO BE BECAUSE THERE’S A LOT OF COMPETITION OUT THERE.” Everybody in the room was smoking A.J., buying cigars, and trying to get a piece of a relatively shy guajiro who barely speaks English beyond the enthusiastic “Thank you, my friend!” he offered everyone he shook hands with. Between autographs and poses, he’d look over at me and shrug his shoulders or point around as if to say, “Can you believe it? How crazy is this?” A.J. is still not used to the status he’s achieved in the cigar world.

“Can you imagine something like this in Miami?” he asked, leaning in so I could hear him over the music and the customers yelling their orders at The Party Source staff who were fetching the boxes of cigars. Cigars play a different role in the Latindominated culture in Miami. This kind of celebrity treatment — let alone from a crowd this size — just doesn’t happen in Miami, where A.J. spends most of his time when he’s not in Nicaragua.

Some of that celebrity man-of-the-people status that A.J. has achieved might have something to do with the fact that, over the last several years, he’s focused his efforts on cigars that he can sell at man-of-the-people prices without compromising on quality. Think New World, Enclave, and Last Call. All of these cigars are tremendous values and consistently earn high ratings and rankings.

Value isn’t the only reason people know A.J.’s name.

Lately, it feels like it’s impossible to get away from his cigars. Whether you’re at a trade show, a festival, an online store or your neighborhood humidor, his name is everywhere. After a walk through the 2017 IPCPR trade show in Las Vegas this past July, Cigar Snob staff all came to the same conclusion: this is the year of A.J. Yes, his own brands are hot. But what really drove this home for me was the number of other companies with which he’s launched co-branded collaboration cigars lately. For example, General Cigar Company’s got the Hoyo La Amistad by AJ Fernandez, among others. And Altadis USA has added the Monte by Montecristo AJ Fernandez and H. Upmann by AJ Fernandez to its portfolio. Then there are the cigars available exclusively through JR Cigars and its distribution arm: Montecristo Crafted

by AJ Fernandez, Romeo y Julieta Crafted by AJ Fernandez.

“First, for me it’s a point of pride to work with those companies and brands, which have more than 180 years of history. And for one to come out of Cuba and legally be able to make a brand like a Punch, Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo, Hoyo … Brother, that for me is something incredible. It’s more sentimental than simply making any cigar. You can make a cigar any time. But making a brand like that is something you can’t do every day.”

The idea of a putting super-premium prices on super-premium cigars seems to make A.J. uncomfortable. And maybe that’s because A.J. is not and never has been of that super-premium world.

Watching the spectacle of this event take place, it’s hard to imagine that people bringing humidors and cigar boxes to A.J., dressed in a coat and matching black hat, so that he can sign them realize that he still has the humble sensibilities he does.

“What I love most in my life is to arrive at land full of brush and rocks and shit, and to get in there hacking away with a machete and discover, ‘I can put a farm here.’ That pride of knowing that you created something is the most satisfying thing in my life.”

A.J. goes on, explaining that he prefers horseback riding, raising chickens and tending to his hogs to luxuries like “boats and helicopters.” And then his eyes light up when he remembers another part of his routine in Nicaragua.

“Oh! And on Sundays from about 1 p.m. to midnight, I’m in front of my TV watching football.”

That’s football. As in American football, not fútbol.

“You have to put a price on things that gives the smoker a great value,” said A.J. “I think I have a responsibility to run my factory in a way that I am able to pay all the employees who depend on me. If I sold a cigar for $12, but sold less of it, I might end up having to let go of 500 people. That hurts much more than any margin is worth.”

It might surprise you to learn that a guy who left Cuba to head straight for rural Nicaragua and still spends most of his time working fields and overseeing cigar production is an NFL fanatic. As it turns out, A.J.’s good friend Carlos Oliva (Oliva Cigar Co.) used to have A.J. over to watch games

NOV / DEC 2017 | CIGAR SNOB |

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every weekend. He got hooked.

“I like contact sports. I’m not into the idea of sitting for hours to watch a soccer match where they score one goal and run over here and run over there and that’s it. I don’t like that shit. I like the idea of one guy telling another, ‘You’re not crossing this line for a first down.’ That adrenaline really appealed to me. Three months in I knew the rules better than the referees, as Carlos likes to say.”

He doesn’t hesitate when I ask whether he has a favorite NFL team.

“Of course! I’m a New England Patriots fan until I die. The coach they have — every time I see him make a decision, he’s a beast, you know? That quarterback at 40, brother, to do what that guy does, brother … when someone is successful, you have to support and applaud the fact that they’re so good.”

As a sports fan, A.J. is drawn to and roots for not only excellence, but those athletes and teams that he sees as exemplifying excellence and all it takes to achieve it. He likes watching Mayweather fight and continues to pull for LeBron James despite the hurt of being a Miami Heat fan and watching James leave for Cleveland.

While he finds inspiration in world-class athletes, A.J.’s strongest influence is the man who convinced him to be excellent in the first place: his father Ismael. They’ve been working together since at least 2014, when AJ Fernandez Cigars released New World, the first brand blended by the fatherand-son duo working as a team.

“My father has a lot of experience in tobacco. He worked almost 20 years, building the world’s largest processing operation, which is the one in Ocotal that belongs to his nephew Nestor Plasencia.

And when my father came to work with me, that was a great blessing. Aside from his professional experience and wisdom, he guides us and helps us avoid errors in our personal lives because he has so much life experience. So that’s been a great blessing.”

IT’S NOT WHERE YOU’RE BORN...

The last 10 years have been good to A.J. and his flame is burning bright, but there is one thing that clearly worries him.

“What makes me saddest was when I heard about the FDA regulations that would force brands out of the market if they were created after 2007,” he said. “Everything we have earned, everything we have done in our lives, we have invested it into our name and our brand and into making a legacy for our children and families. And for the fact that we registered a name a year after a deadline to mean we have to exit the market was the most disap-

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It’s rare for A.J. to make appearances at cigar events, which just makes fans all the more appreciative of opportunities for meet-and-greets.

pointing thing that I’d heard [in my career].”

“We’ll just have to see how all that pans out.”

A.J. isn’t alone, of course. In an industry characterized by turnover, news that only older brands would be completely safe from the FDA’s new regulatory regime was devastating to many. But few got the news while riding the kind of high that A.J. and his company have been on.

In the end, though, A.J. and his company have one key strength working in their favor: he’s managed to very quickly build a brand around himself and his name while garnering loyalty through his obsession over product rather than building a personality-based brand.

The new FDA rules are especially difficult for a company like AJ Fernandez, which has thrived not only by churning out new blends for its own portfolio, but also by taking on a number of projects for third parties (which account for a sizeable chunk of the 21 million cigars that come out of his factory each year).

“Brother, in the next five years we’ll be very limited by the new regulations from the FDA,” he said.

“You can’t take initiative and create new varieties of tobacco because you have to wait and see what the situation is going to be with that regulation. If they tell you ‘These are the blends you can make,’ now you can’t go and tweak it with a new hybrid.

We have a lot of hybrids we have made over the years and now we don’t know what we’re going to do with them.”

Much work has already gone into that kind of hybridization and the development of new tobaccos.

But there’s a chance you’ll have a hard time getting your hands on any of that. A.J. speculates that some of the tobaccos he’s been developing might end up having to go into limited edition products destined for Europe rather than ever making their way into regular production blends that can be made available and sold in greater numbers in the U.S. market.

“You don’t have to speak the same language to appreciate a great cigar. He knows how much you appreciate the product he’s putting out and these customers make a personal connection around that. They say, ‘I shook his hand at Beer Sellar that night.’ He’s got a smile on his face, he’s genuine in whatever it is he’s saying. He is quiet and reserved, but the name carries a lot of weight because of the quality of the cigars,” said Nick from The Party Source, comparing the standing A.J. has achieved with loyal smokers to that of Pepín García of My Father Cigars. “That flavor combination is the same thing you tasted at your graduation or when your first child was born or when you’re celebrating a life that has ended. You make that personal connection. People like A.J. and Pepín have gotten me through good and bad times, so I want to shake his hand.”

Having built that kind of reputation, A.J. can at least know that his best shot at sustaining this high, expanding his legacy and weathering whatever storms might come is in his adoptive home of Nicaragua.

“Brother, my aunt Felicita says that your life isn’t where you’re born, but where you do,” said A.J. “And so Nicaragua is my homeland too because it has given me opportunities I never thought I would have.”

Cigar Snob

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RATING CS2/ROBUSTO

CS/02 Belicoso

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IVAN OCAMPO iocampo@cigarsnobmag.com WARDROBE STYLIST

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The cigar world is on Twitter and we aim to keep track of who’s leading who. The following is a scoreboard of the cigar world’s most relevant Tweeples. The list is sorted by number of followers and broken into groups: Top 20 Twitter Cigar Companies & Reps, Top 10 Twitter Retailers, Top 10 Online Cigar Tweeps, Top 3 Twitter Cigar Organizations, and Top 2 Cigar Radio Twitter accounts. If you have the numbers and belong in one of these groups, stand up and be counted! Set us straight via Twitter @cigarsnobmag.

TOP CIGAR COMPANIES (sorted by Twitter followers) Rocky Patel @RockyPatelCigar.........................................

Drew Estate Cigars @DrewEstateCigar.............................

Padron Cigar @PADRONCIGAR.........................................

CAO International @CAOCigars.........................................

Alec Bradley Cigars @AlecBradley....................................

Jonathan Drew @JonathanDrew1.....................................

Camacho Cigars @camachocigars...................................

La Flor Dominicana @LFDCigars.......................................

Pete Johnson @TatuajeCigars...........................................

Ashton Cigars @ashtoncigar.............................................

Xikar Inc @XIKARinc.........................................................

La Gloria Cubana @lagloriacubana....................................

Miami Cigar Co @miamicigar.............................................

Nick Perdomo @PerdomoCigars.......................................

Punch Cigars @punchcigars.............................................

Nat Sherman Intl. @Nat42nd.............................................

Ernesto Padilla @PadillaCigars.........................................

La Palina Cigars @La PalinaCigars....................................

AJ Fernandez Cigars @ajfcigars........................................

Ezra Zion Cigars @EzraZionCigars.....................................

29309 28561 24303 23690 21771 18618 18012 17928 16504 16014 13935 13639 13469 12873 12697 12550 11983 11750 11668 11109

TOP CIGAR ORGANIZATIONS CRA @cigarrights............................................................. 13890 IPCPR Staff @theIPCPR.................................................. 7470 Tobacconist University @tobacconistU............................. 4632

TOP CIGAR RADIO Cigar Dave Show @CigarDaveShow................................. 11471 KMA Talk Radio @KMATalkRadio...................................... 6591 Smooth Draws @SmoothDraws....................................... 4397

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE TWEETS, MENTIONS, AND RANDOM SOCIAL MEDIA GOODNESS.

TOP CIGAR RETAILERS & REPS Mulberry St. Cigars @MulberryStCigar.............................

Cigar Hustler @cigarhustler..............................................

Famous Smoke Shop @FamousSmokeShop......................

Cigar Row @CigarRow.....................................................

Jeff Borysiewicz – Corona Cigar Co @CoronaCigarCo.......

Michael Herklots–Nat Sherman @MichaelHerklots............

Cigar Inn @CIGARINN.......................................................

Cheap Humidors @cheaphumidors...................................

Palm Desert Tobacco @palmdsrttobacco.........................

Lindsay Siddiqi @TheCigarChick.......................................

14504 12608 11637 9096 7144 6955 6937 6143 5740 5568

@perezcarrilloernesto via Instagram Daddy’s little princess

TOP ONLINE CIGAR TWEEPLES David Voth–Sex, Cigars, & Booze @SexCigarsBooze.........

Cigar News @CigaRSS ....................................................

The Smoking Hot Cigar Chick @CigarChick........................

Cigar Events @CigarEvents...............................................

Cigar Evaluations @CigarEvaluation.................................

Stogie Boys @StogieBoys ...............................................

Robusto Cigar Babe @RobustoBabe.................................

Cigar Inspector @CigarInspector .....................................

The Stogie Guys @stogieguys...........................................

Tom Ufer @cigarsmonkingman..........................................

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163864 14603 14500 14313 10021 10007 9361 8692 8610 6908

@michaelherklots via Instagram Positive thinking is powerful thinking. If you want happiness, fulfillment, success and inner peace, start thinking you have the power to achieve those things. Focus on the bright side of life and expect positive results.

- @GermanyKent

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WITH

I use wine as an example to compare with cigars. Most people are more familiar with wine than with cigars. The weather, the region, the land, the sunshine, the fermentation, how you collect grapes and leaves, how you store them, how you combine them. That makes it easy to get to the goal, which is to introduce people to cigars.

How did you end up with Rocky Patel Premium Cigars?

When I got to the point where I decided, “That’s it, I have to get out of Cuba,” I talked to these two very good friends of mine. They’re like brothers. One is the owner of J.J. Fox in London and the other is a Cuban cigar distributor in Australia.

I told them, “I’m going to trust you with my life. You need to help me. I want to be free. I want to get out of here.” They looked at each other, they looked at me, and they said, “Well, there’s only one country where you can do that very quickly and it’s very good for cigars. It’s the United States. Let us make some phone calls and we’ll call you back.” They called me two weeks later and said, “We made calls. Good news.” I’m like, “Hold on. Who was the first guy who called back and said, ‘I want Hamlet’?” They said it was Rocky Patel. I said, “Well, that’s the guy.”

What was that initial interview like for you?

Thanks to these people and mainly Rocky, I never felt like a fish out of water. I was just moving from one SeaWorld to another SeaWorld. I remember when I walked into [Burn, Rocky’s Naples Cigar club] for the first time after we finished the interview, he said, “How do you like it?” and I told him, “I’m at home.” That makes it so much easier to adjust to a new life, new city, new tobacco, new cigars.

Some Cuban-born cigar makers talk about the hurdle of familiarizing themselves with non-Cuban tobaccos. Had your travel exposed you to many non-Cuban cigars?

I’d been traveling a long time, but I’d never had a chance to try a non-Cuban cigar.

I’d never touched non-Cuban tobacco until I came here. That was my biggest [professional] concern when I was crossing the border.

I remember when I made my first cigar with Nicaraguan tobacco and smoked it, I was like, “Oh God, thank you so much.” But I was freaking out before that point came.

When I first came here, I had no clue about who was who. I smoked Norteño, AJ Fernandez, Padrón — although I knew who Padrón was. I learned later on that they were all Cubans. Now I had the chance to meet them and tell them personally, “Good job, man!”

How long after starting with Rocky Patel did you create Tabaquero by Hamlet?

I blended that cigar in six and a half months. I did 127 blends, and ironically, we picked the first blend I did. I came here January 20, and the release was October 1, so it was almost a year.

When you were living in Cuba, you did a lot of traveling around the world representing Cuban brands. What was the path you took to that role?

I was born and raised in Havana and have been making cigars for 25 years. Normally you go into cigars when it’s family tradition. My family was more doctors and teachers. So I went to the university to try to become a doctor, but I realized very soon that that wasn’t for me. I just didn’t like having my head in a book 24/7. And I knew that would be my whole life if I decided to keep going with that.

I had no idea at that point that I wanted to do cigars. But it so happened that in my building there lived an old guy who was one of the best cigar rollers at that point.

So my mom talked to him and he introduced me to the factory. I knew I was almost obligated to get a job, so that was my job.

The day that I got my job in the factory, I came back home and my mom was like, “You got a job? Step number one is done. Here’s step number two.” She handed me a piece of paper with a phone number and a female’s name. I was like, “Wow! This is the prize you get when you get a job?” She said, “No, that’s not a girl’s phone number.

That’s your English teacher’s number.”

She obligated me to go to class twice a week for a year, and that was what changed my life. So after I became a roller — a good one — I was at that point the only Cuban roller in Havana that was able to do good cigars and speak in English at the same time. I’ve been traveling all over the world for the last 15 years.

What were the lessons you learned about how to talk to novice smokers about cigars?

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Tabaquero I did with all Nicaraguan fillers and a double binder. Half of the binder is Mexican San Andrés, the other half is Brazilian Mata Fina, and the wrapper is Mexican San Andrés maduro. So it’s a medium-to full-bodied cigar, but it has a lot of complexity, aroma, a little bit of sweetness.

The new one, the 25th Year, is mild to medium. What I did here was a combination of Honduran tobaccos in the fillers, with one leaf of Nicaraguan. The binder is Pennsylvania broadleaf and the wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano Rosado. The trick of this cigar is it has the bite but it’s not crazy. The beauty is that this cigar has no ligero inside. That strong leaf is not there. So what I used to keep it from being boring is one leaf of viso from Nicaragua. It is really enjoyable, sweet, and smokeable.

So the first, Tabaquero, was 127 blends. How many blends for this one?

This one I did in three and a half months with 87 blends. Now it was so much easier for me because I’m so much more familiar now with all the tobaccos.

Do you have pairing recommendations?

The Tabaquero you can pair with whatever you want. You can drink Scotch, rum, even beers. That cigar has the strength to overcome any kind of drink.

The 25th I would say goes well with Scotch whiskies. I would not recommend a heavy, hoppy IPA, because it’s going to just clean all this beautiful aroma and complexity. But rum, whisky, Scotch, and red wine go really well.

THIS INTERVIEW WAS CUT FOR LENGTH. LISTEN TO THE WHOLE CONVERSATION AT CIGARSNOBMAG.COM/PODCAST

PHOTO BY: Zack Ramsey

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BELT KNIFE WINKLER KNIVES II winklerknives.com

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This will cut through all kinds of stuff, and the feeling of holding it in your hands is enough to know it is a durable workhorse.

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EVENTS TAMPA CIGAR BASH Tampa

Tampa Humidor’s marquee cigar event — hosted at Pepin Distributing’s hospitality center — drew smokers to the Tampa area for cigars, booze, food, and opportunities to rub elbows with people from some of the biggest brands in premium cigars. VIPs in attendance included Cynthia Fuente Suárez, Jack Toraño, Nish Patel and Bill Paley. The Bobby Friss Band provided live music.

Ramon Adato, Cynthia Fuente Suarez and Mike Howe

Richie Otero and Michael Peña

Lisa Draves, Keith and Heather Lorenz

Adam Beale, John Watson and Gene Tipton

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Rex Snyder, Tammy and John Crabtree, Zev Kaminetsky, Jennylynn Hunter, K.D. Abraham and Courtney Oliver

Joel Phillips and Christine Brown

Jack and Cecilia Toraño

Jim Bekas and Bob Livernois

Kevin Casey, Kayleen Rooney and Nikkole Voluck

Pedro Galvez, David Spirt and Joaquín Saladrigas

Armando Breton, Gabriel Álvarez, Luís and Denise Cuevas

Nish Patel and Dave Bullock

Zack Moore, Susan and Rick Rodríguez

Peter Hernandez and Jeff Groover

Nelson Boronat

Dave Anderson and Mark Mackley

Erick Torres, Erik Espinosa and Victor Vanpelt

Craig Hosmer and Harrison Clark

Patrick Vivalo, Sam Phillips and Bill Paley

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EVENTS LITTLE SMOKE Spokane, Wash.

This eighth annual Little Smoke was held at the Northern Quest Resort & Casino just outside Spokane. It’s the area’s premier cigar event, and it featured top-shelf beer, wine and spirits as well as live music and, of course, cigars. Swag bags were loaded with cigars, accessories and raffle tickets. The event also included a pig roast and live music by Left Over Soul.

Ken Reynolds, Ken Pickens, Dale Piper and Aaron Riley

Where are your stogies!?

Romeo Mendoza, Raleigh Brown and Matty Davenny

Mathew Harrison and Chris Stone

Sean Williams

Matt Booth is really into that smoke.

Vicki Manry and Lonnie Wills

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PHOTO CREDIT: Katherine Hartwig

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EVENTS THE PARTY SOURCE TASTING FEATURING AJ FERNANDEZ Newport, Ky.

The Party Source — one of the largest sellers of alcohol and cigars in the Cincinnati area — puts on regular tastings at Beer Sellar, a bar that sits on a barge on the Ohio River, right up against the banks on the Kentucky side. This time around, A.J. Fernandez made a rare appearance to sign boxes and mingle with some of his fans. For hours, attendees puffed away at cigars, stocked up on boxes, and picked A.J.’s brain on what goes into making some of their favorite stogies.

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The AJ Fernandez and Party Source crews put on a stellar event

PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Byron

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EVENTS NESTOR MIRANDA MEET & GREET AT CASA DE MONTECRISTO BY PRIME Miami

Nestor Miranda of Miami Cigar & Co. made an appearance and did a meet-and-greet event at Casa de Montecristo by Prime Cigar & Whisky Bar in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. There was a pop-up barber shop and samples of Buchanan’s whisky.

Meeting the “most interesting man” in cigars over whiskey and leaving with a fresh cut… What more could you ask for?

Tony Guerra getting a haircut

Cesar and Sofía Álvarez, Nestor Miranda, Tatiana and Jason Wood

Tony Guerra, Willy Marante, Ray Granja, Nestor Miranda, Danny Delgado and Joel Capin

Luís Reyes, Andy Marrero and Mike Díaz

Willy Marante and Massiel Prieto

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Danny Delgado, Gervasio Baez, Ibis Lu and Adrián Miguel

Liz Borlado, Ramón Adato and Ileana Borlado

Alexandra Rojas and Amanda Ferreira

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EVENTS BLACK SMOKE MIAMI Miami

Over Labor Day weekend, smokers came to Miami from far and wide for five days of cigar events, including a rooftop pool party, and visits to several South Florida tobacconists (Cuenca Cigars, Cuban Crafters, Prime Cigar & Whiskey Bar, Top Notch Cigars).

Naturally, you wouldn’t take time off to go to Miami and not hit area nightlife. The event stopped at Café Iguana Pines and Voodoo Lounge.

Trevor and Mary Swales

Carlos Escalona, Tony Pichs and Cesar Gabino

Deanar Herrah and Karel Martínez

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Tawana Brown, Kennedy Achilles, Shaunta Marshall, Valdy Alba, Lenessa Terry and Bernadette Simmis

Michael Pugh, Lui Moran and Leonard Herring

Francine and Josep Williams

Cigar Mike, Jack Toraño, Diany Perez and Charles Lopez

Misty Brown and Lynda Harris

Natasha Minzie and Walt Frazier

Jack Toraño and Sean Williams

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EVENTS VILLIGER CIGARS AT NEPTUNE Miami

Villiger Cigars was on hand at Miamiarea tobacconist Neptune Cigars and was offering specials on their products as well as opportunities to sample Zafra Rum, a Panamanian brand that makes regular appearances in the South Florida cigar scene.

Jorge León and René Castañeda

Hector Pires, Tony Cabrera and Tony Guerra

Gina Cofiño and Queque Zimeri

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Rick Delgado, Miriam Egusquiza, Liza Santana-Piñeres and Gabriel Piñeres

Gardner Blandon, Enrique Martin, Gabriel Piñeres, Tony Guerra and René Castañeda

Luís Delgado and René Castañeda

Monish Luthra and Pramod Nagano

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EVENTS EAT, PUFF, JAZZ AT NEME GASTRO BAR Miami

The Eat, Puff, Jazz dinner featured Debonaire Cigars and raised money for Help Havana, and organization that assisted in Hurricane Irma relief efforts. The $150 admission included cocktails, cigars, and a meal (tapas, entrées, dessert). Actor and model Tyson Beckford was among the noteworthy attendees, and music was provided by a live jazz band.

Denrick Rolle and Robert Penafiel

Jared Ingrisano, Amy Foster, Peter Bernsten and Beatriz Dorta Calis

Enrique Dorta and Janette Seijido

Tyson Beckford and Beatriz Dorta Calis

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A Good Day, Starts with...

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