Cigar Snob Magazine September October 2022

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022

True Grit

The Story of a Tobacco Legend p. 57

New

World Wine p. 23

Super Agent

Leigh Steinberg

p. 78

p. 42

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editorials SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022

23 5 TO TRY: SOUTH AMERICAN REDS Sitting along the same parallel as the celebrated wine regions of Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, these wines from Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are bringing exciting experiences to new and seasoned wine drinkers alike. These winemakers have managed to reimagine and at times re-discover classic French varietals of a time before the Great French Blight. We sought out five of these South American reds and smoked through our stocks to find the best cigar to enjoy with them.

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CATENA ZAPATA MALBEC ARGENTINO / ROCKY PATEL WHITE LABEL

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DOMUS AUREA / EIROA THE FIRST 20 YEARS

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ACHAVAL FERRER FINCA ALTAMIRA / DIAMOND CROWN BLACK DIAMOND

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CARMEN VINTAGES BLEND III / OLIVA SERIE V

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PISANO RPF / AVO SYNCRO NICARAGUA FOGATA

33 TRAVEL SMOKING IN THE TRIANGLE North Carolina’s Capital City is part of a sprawling academic haven. But it’s also a hive of history, interesting eating, and some downright eclectic cigar possibilities. We trekked to Raleigh and walked away with some surprises.

57 TRUE GRIT On the surface Julio Eiroa is a living tobacco legend from a different time, making cigars reminiscent of Cuba’s golden age of tobacco. But that doesn’t begin to tell the story. His journey from an exiled young man living in Tampa, moves along to being part of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. From there to being among the pioneers of the tobacco business in Honduras. When that fell apart, he built it back better. We returned to his tobacco operation for the first time in over 12 years in order to tell his story.

78 HARD BALL WITH LEIGH STEINBERG Sports agent Leigh Steinberg is a respected legend in a field known for its feisty negotiating on behalf of the best athletes among us. At 73 years old, Steinberg has seen a lot of comings and goings in the sports industry. We sat down with him to talk about LIV Golf, sports betting and his dream client.

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features SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022

14 LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

16 FEEDBACK

18 WHAT’S BURNIN’

42 SMOKING HOT CIGAR SNOB AZÚCAR FEATURING ESPINOSA LAS 6 PROVINCIAS

65 RATINGS

80 TWITTER SCOREBOARD

82 INSTAGRAM SCOREBOARD

84 EVENTS 84 HAVANAFEST PA 86 FERIO TEGO AT EMPIRE 88 LATIN BUILDERS FISHING

TOURNAMENT WITH OLIVA CIGAR

90 ASHFEST 92 ROCKY MOUNTAIN CIGAR FESTIVAL 94 BREW CITY CIGAR FESTIVAL 96 KIMPTON SURFCOMBER WOODFORD

RESERVE & OLIVA CIGAR BEACH VIBE EXPERIENCE

98 OLE GRAPEVINE

25 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

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SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022

VO L . 1 4 IS SU E 5 www.cigarsnob.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR Erik Calviño SENIOR EDITOR Steve Miller COPY EDITOR Michael LaRocca SALES & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Oscar M. Calviño PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Ivan Ocampo ART DIRECTOR Andy Astencio ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jamilet Calviño DIGITAL RETOUCHING SPECIALIST Ramón Santana DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGEMENT Gianni D’Alerta Natalia Marie García CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR Florin Safner

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CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS David Benoliel Andy Astencio Chris Hildreth/RoosterMedia Tete Aleman EVENT PHOTOGRAPHERS Jamilet Calviño Greg Corbi Nichole Yatla William Buffington Natalia Marie Garcia BeKah Lustig Cover Photography by David Benoliel www.davidbenolielphotography.com Cover Model - Camila Escribens 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.cigarsnob.com

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I’m finally convinced that we will never see eye to eye on certain things.

Those of you who’ve read this letter over the years know that I am an optimist to a fault, but I may be giving up. The national outrage caused

by Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis sending a plane full of Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard is a new level of hypocrisy that is pushing us further away from a common ground. At the writing of this letter, legal proceedings have been proposed against him alleging that his office misled the migrants in order to get them to board the plane and that he misappropriated funds to pay for the flight. The result of this remains to be seen but the fact that we’re even talking about this is what I take issue with.

The hypocrisy of this national outrage hits on so many levels that we don’t have the space to cover it all but let’s start with the obvious; President Biden’s open borders policy has created a crisis in South and Central America that we as Americans cannot possibly imagine. Type “migrant caravan in Central America” in your favorite search engine and read the stories and see the images; it’ll blow your mind. That is a Biden Administration phenomenon; never have we had such a crisis. In turn that has created a situation in U.S. border states that is untenable and unjust for those states’ taxpayers, law enforcement, and the migrants themselves. The motivation for the policies that have brought about the crisis is strictly political; to say otherwise would be laughable.

2021 saw a record number of border crossings and 2022 is on pace to shatter that record. Again, all of it is for straight up political gain, and if there were a better reason the White House would’ve been transparent about it. As a pressure release valve, the Biden Administration has reportedly been running transportation operations under the cover of darkness to move migrants out of these border towns without an ounce of national outrage. No one asked where the funds for this came from, nobody cared whether the migrants being moved were being coerced or lied to, and perhaps worse nobody cared whether or not the migrants being transported were children, law-abiding citizens or even terrorists. Ron DeSantis did publicly what Biden had been doing under the cover of night.

Both Biden and DeSantis are pulling stunts that use human beings who weren’t blessed with being born in this great country as political pawns.

As such, both plays are dirty, and I am not a fan; but to be outraged over one and not the other shows a blind hypocrisy that will drive a wedge pushing us further and further apart as a country. And for that I am concerned.

In case you are new to my letters, this commentary is not coming from a privileged, silver spoon in mouth, white male. I am brown and born in Cuba, my family entered the US legally when I was a child, and my parents hustled hard for everything we had. If you don’t agree with my view on this, please let me know via feedback@cigarsnobmag.com.

these was a real challenge but I think we nailed it. Then I took off to Honduras to visit for the first time in 12 years and I was able to spend a good deal of time with Julio Eiroa. The man is a legend for good reason, and you can read about it on p. 57. Along with Julio I also spent time with his oldest son and partner in JRE Tobacco, Justo, along with his wife Vivian, their three daughters Vivi, Andrea, and Ari, Andrea’s boyfriend Mateo, and the woman who keeps the wheels turning down there, Sandra Ochoa. It was an absolute pleasure getting to know all of them and I look forward to going back to Honduras soon! While I was down there, our senior editor Steve Miller was smoking his way around the Research Triangle in Raleigh, N.C. Read his travel story on p. 33. Lastly, we shot an epic photo shoot in Little Havana where the stunningly beautiful Camila Escribens enjoyed the latest edition of the Espinosa Las 6 Provincias. Thanks to all who worked hard on that shoot, special shout out to Erik Espinosa Jr. for making it happen. As always there’s much more in the issue so stop wasting time and get into it.

Thank you as always for making Cigar Snob part of your cigar journey.

If you enjoy this magazine, check out our podcast wherever you get your podcasts and stop into our website for the latest cigar news and web-only content.

Keep ‘em lit,

*** We had a helluva time putting this issue together. For starters we drank gallons of excellent South American wine in order to put together the 5 to Try on p. 23 and I’ll be honest, finding a cigar to pair with each of

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Erik Calviño ecalvino@cigarsnobmag.com

The Art, Tradition, and Style of Cuba.

MYFATHERCIGARS.COM

BOOTSTRAPPING IT Hello all, I discovered your podcast earlier this year and have been hooked ever since. Love the content and knowledge for novices like me. I started smoking cigars when I turned 18, so a little over 5 years ago. I cut my teeth so to speak on cheap Cuban Rounds in college, typically spending $3 a stick and just smoking to smoke. Over the last couple of years, I’ve started to develop more of a palate and preferences and am trying to learn what I like. I typically smoke 2 or 3 times a week, usually one cigar but possibly more if I’m with friends. What recommendations do you have for quality “budget” smokes? I say budget meaning in the $8 to $10 range, as I’m 23 with a wife and 10-month-old that occupies most of my finances. What are your recommendations for consistent smokes that don’t break the bank that I can expand my cigar portfolio with?

All the best, Kade F. via email: questions@cigarsnobmag.com Kade, welcome to the family! First of all we appreciate you tuning in to the podcast and sending us a great question. It’s great because so many of our listeners and readers are in the same boat. Everyone asks the same question – how do I deal with inflation and still smoke righteously? That’s why we publish a piece called Inflation Buster where we round up the best cigars of the last three years from our ratings that fall into specific value price points. Go to cigarsnobmag.com/inflationbuster or check out our May/June and July/Aug issues from this year, when we published three different combinations of price/ratings. I’m sure you’ll find something new and exceptional that you’ll love that fits your budget. Congrats on the new baby!

CIGAR PARLAY I particularly like the new section, Inflation Buster. We have a jacket club at work and this provides GOOD, economical options.

Jacket Club: alludes to smoking jacket. Every month a member of the club buys cigars for the group. We enjoy them over a lunch break and share our personal assessments.

William C. via feedback@cigarsnobmag.com William – glad to hear our new section is of use to your club. ‘Round here at Cigar Snob HQ there are two things we love to hear from our readers: 1) That Cigar Snob content is being used as resource material 2) Any private cigar group/club that happens to have a cool name. You guys definitely hit the marks. Cheers!

STICK THAT IN YOUR PIPE In the FEEDBACK section of your July/August 2022 issue (one of the recent best IMHO) you explained how to attempt the repair of a damaged wrapper. What I recommend to my customers if it’s too far gone or flat out broken is that they let it dry just a bit, crush it up, and smoke it in their pipe. It’s the same blend so waste not, want not.

Jay R. 66 Cigar, St Louis, MO. via feedback@cigarsnobmag.com Jay, thank you for reading our publication! You sir, in what may be the first ever recorded incident on the pages of Cigar Snob Magazine to ever give us “Feedback of our Feedback,” have successfully executed a cigar maneuver that we have not performed, nor even attempted, ourselves. Yep, you got us on this one. Truth is, there’s probably a bunch of stuff we haven’t tried but we like to think of ourselves as the cigar alphas anyway. We have certainly never attempted the dried-cigar-ina-pipe-rescue-trick but I will tell you we have put a perfectly good cigar in a pipe and attempted to smoke it that way. That’s close but you know what they say, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

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CITY OF TAMPA DEDICATES HISTORICAL MARKER AT J.C. NEWMAN CIGAR CO. Tampa city officials and Hillsborough County have dedicated a historical marker at the J.C. Newman’s El Reloj cigar factory in Ybor City, honoring the importance of the factory to the city’s cigar heritage.

At its peak in the early 1900s, Tampa had 150 cigar factories that rolled 500 million cigars by hand each year. Tampa was known as the “Fine Cigar Capital of the World.”

When it opened in 1910, El Reloj was reported to be the largest cigar factory in the world.

It was designed for 1,000 cigar makers who could hand roll more than 250,000 cigars daily.

“Beginning in the 1970s, cigar factories across America began to close as companies moved production overseas where labor is cheaper,” Drew Newman, fourth generation owner of J.C. Newman, said in a press release. “Two weeks ago, another cigar factory closed in Pennsylvania, meaning that El Reloj is not only the last cigar factory in Tampa but is now also the last traditional cigar factory still operating in the United States.”

Many Tampa cigar factories had nicknames.

Because of its iconic clock tower, Newman’s factory is known as “El Reloj” or “clock” in Spanish. As few people owned clocks or watches a century ago, Ybor City residents used the bell from El Reloj’s tower to tell time.

El Reloj was built by E. Regensburg & Sons, which operated the factory until 1951. Julius C. Newman bought El Reloj in 1954 when he moved his cigar company from Cleveland to Tampa. Today, El Reloj is the last working cigar factory in Tampa.

PURO SABOR 2023 REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW OPEN

cigar culture of Nicaragua, including factory and farm tours, lunches and evening dinners with cigar celebs.

The last Puro Sabor took place in 2020 and we were there. It included a tour of the Drew Estate factory, a white party at J.C. Newman’s PENSA cigar factory, and a gala dinner hosted

by STG. For this year’s event, the cost is $2,500/single, $4,600/double, and includes lodging, meals, transport, and daily cigars. Attendees pay their own freight.

The festival is produced and presented by the Nicaraguan Chamber of Tobacco, which is composed of various manufacturers in the country.

The festival’s website lays out the details and registration info. nicaraguancigarfestival.com

TAMPA CIGAR BASH RETURNS TO TAMPA OCTOBER 8 The annual Tampa Cigar Bash returns to Tampa this year on October 8, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Presented by Casa de Montecristo, attendees of the Tampa Cigar Bash will have a chance to meet with reps of some of the top names in premium cigar manufacturing, including AJ Fernandez Cigars, Alec Bradley, Altadis U.S.A., Arturo Fuente, Crowned Heads, Drew Estate, JC Newman, Rocky Patel Cigars and more – as well as people from cigar accessory providers, including Boveda.

Tickets for this 21-and-up event start at $175 for general admission and include an event bag loaded with 30 cigars plus access to food and two drink tickets. VIP tickets are $225 and include additional perks including earlyevent entry, upgraded event bag with bonus cigars and swag, and access to a private VIP area, which includes food and an open bar.

It’s on. Registration for the 2023 Puro Sabor, the Nicaraguan Cigar Festival, is now open.

The annual festival, canceled for the past two years, is happening January 23-27 in Granada and Estelí, Nicaragua.

The event begins at 1 p.m. and runs to 5 p.m.

The festival starts with a welcome at the airport and delivers five days of immersion in the

All guests are also welcome to attend the Rocky Patel Pre-Party event at Casa de Monte-

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Tickets are on sale now and seating is limited.

For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.casademontecristo.com.

cristo - SOHO at 510 S Howard Ave in Tampa on Oct. 7 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

GURKHA PURE EVIL NOW SHIPPING Gurkha Cigar Group International announces the Gurkha Pure Evil is on the way to U.S. retailers.

Pure Evil is blended by Damian Tapanes in his American Caribbean Cigars factory and features a Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan filler. Pure Evil comes in boxes of 20, in a 5 x 52 Robusto ($8.95), a 6 x 54 Toro ($9.50) and a 6 x 60 XO ($9.95).

Pure Evil is a regular addition to Gurkha and a re-release of a limited-edition brand the company discontinued 15 years ago.

MEERAPFEL CIGAR LAUNCHES ITS SECOND LINE, THE MEIR MASTER BLEND Meerapfel Cigar will ship its second line, the Meir Master Blend, this fall in four vitolas.

It made its debut at the 2022 InterTabac this week in Dortmund, Germany.

The Meir Master Blend honors Meir Meerapfel and comes in a 5.75 X 52 Double Robusto flagtail ($86), a 4 7/8 x 50 Robusto ($42), 7 x 47 Churchill ($50) and 6 1/8 x 52 Pyramid ($57). The Double Robusto is packaged in a 10-count ornamental container and the others in 25-count wooden boxes. Production is limited to 613 containers for each size.

The Meir Master Blend will ship late October/early November and be available to U.S. retailers.

GENERAL CIGAR AND ESPINOSA CIGARS RELEASE FINAL WARZONE EXPRESSION General Cigar and Espinosa Cigars are shipping the third and final expression of the Warzone trilogy with Warzone Rabito.

The Warzone Rabito uses five-year-aged Cameroon wrapper tobacco from General Cigar, along with Honduran binder and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and Columbia from Espinosa. The 6 x 46 Warzone Rabito is soft box pressed and sold at $9.19 and comes in

20-count boxes.

“Warzone has been a very successful collaboration, so it should come as no surprise that Justin Andrews and I wanted to end the trilogy on a high note, so to speak,” Erik Espinosa said in a press release. “Since Team Espinosa blended our first Cameroon-wrapped cigars with Justin under Warzone, we agreed that we would take Cameroon to another level with our final release.”

Warzone is produced at Espinosa Cigar’s La Zona Factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. The line launched in November 2019 with a Robusto and Toro and was followed up by a Churchill in 2020.

DREW ESTATE SHIPS NICA RUSTICA ADOBE Nica Rustica Adobe, the second expression in Drew Estate’s Nica Rustica line, is shipping

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to retailers. Announced in May, Nica Rustica Adobe comes with a Habano wrapper, Brazilian binder and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos from Estelí and Jalapa.

The medium- to full-bodied cigar is available in a 6 x 52 Toro ($5.76), a 5 x 43 Robusto ($5.20) and a 6 x 60 Gordo ($6.48). It comes in 25-count boxes that are adorned with original artwork designed by Subculture Studios, which features Estelí’s official symbol, El Brujito, an estimated 6,000-year-old petroglyph of a native shaman that was discovered on a rock atop a mountain near the city.

“Nica Rustica Adobe presents a daring adventure into the authentically rugged and rustic countryside surrounding Estelí,” Drew Estate Founder and President, Jonathan Drew, said in a press release. “The spicy and bold Habano, we call ‘Adobe’ offers smokers a glimpse into the distinguished beauty and bold character of Estelí and her people. You don’t need a passport

to experience Estelí, just spark up this sixbuck-chuck and you are magically transported to our proud Nicaraguan home.”

PARTAGAS RELEASES TORO SIZED TUBO The Partagas lineup delivers a new size, expanding the brand’s yellow box portfolio to 11 frontmarks.

A new 6 x 49 Toro size ($10.49) ships in a striking yellow tube and features a Cameroon wrapper, a Mexican San Andrés binder and Dominican and Mexican filler.

“With the release of the Toro frontmark in a tubo, we are bringing another classic size into play and making it convenient for the Partagas fan to transport their favorite smoke wherever the road may take them,” Matt Wilson, senior brand manager of Partagas, said in a press release.

SOUTH AMERICAN REDS

NAVIGATING THE SOUTH AMERICAN WINE LANDSCAPE IS LIKE TAKING A TRIP BACK IN TIME TO PRE-PHYLLOXERA FRANCE. YOU COME ACROSS OLD-VINE MALBECS IN ARGENTINA, THE LONG FORGOTTEN AND OFT-CONFUSED CARMÉNÈRE IN CHILE, AND THE “HEALTHY” TANNAT IN THE UP AND COMING WINE PRODUCING COUNTRY OF URUGUAY.

CATENA ZAPATA MALBEC ARGENTINO MENDOZA, ARGENTINA

in a different direction. One of them is overly simple and it makes you think, “These guys are not worried about any of the marketing, they’re focused exclusively on the quality of the wine.”

You could be right or you could be way off. Then you spot one with an incredibly ornate, welldesigned label printed on expensive paper and you think, “Now these guys really respect the product and want to show it off with killer packaging.” Again you may have hit it out of the park or 15 minutes later you’re cursing yourself for being so gullible. You can’t win.

THE INTENSITY. NONE OF IT REALLY WORKED SO WE CHANGED COURSE AND BROUGHT IN THE ROCKY PATEL WHITE LABEL. THIS IS A CREAMY, CONNECTICUT SHADE-COVERED BLEND WITH A TON OF HONDURAN AND NICARAGUAN TOBACCO UNDER THE HOOD. THE FIRST DRAW AFTER A SIP GETS OVERPOWERED BUT SUBSEQUENT PUFFS BRING A DELICIOUS FRUITINESS TO THE CIGAR.

The Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino has one of the most intricate and interesting labels I’ve ever come across. Using four allegorical females, the label tells the story of the Malbec grape, from Eleanor of Aquitaine’s obsession with its “black wine,” to the varietal’s transport and growth in the New World, to its nonexistence in France after the Phylloxera plague, and finally to its place today as Argentina’s flagship grape varietal. The story is fascinating, the award-winning label is absolutely stunning, but most importantly the wine in the bottle more than lives up to the label.

PLUS ONE ALTALAND MALBEC 2020

TASTING NOTES A quintessential, high-quality Malbec in every way. From the dark, vibrant look of it in the glass to the full-bodied combination of plums and raspberries with silky tannins. Additionally the palate is lively and complex with crushed blueberries accompanied by tart citrus and an ever so delicate touch of spice. Don’t be afraid to let this wine breathe for more than hour; the difference is stark.

Rocky Patel White Label

2019 MALBEC PAIRING NOTES WINE LABELS I’ll admit it’s not easy being a wine consumer these days. You walk the aisles of your local Total Wine & More and every label pulls you

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THE CATENA ZAPATA MALBEC ARGENTINO IS A ROBUST, FLAVORFUL WINE SO NATURALLY WE THREW EVERY FULL-BODIED BLEND AT IT TO MATCH

In an effort to produce a different Malbec than consumers are accustomed to, Catena developed the Altaland brand, which only employs grapes grown at high altitude to make this wine. The result is a Malbec with a lot of the familiar characteristics that made the varietal one of the most popular in the wine world, but with more structured tannins. The wine is superb with grilled meats and dark chocolate.

DOMUS AUREA UPPER MAIPO VALLEY, CHILE

the hillside plot, Clos Quebrada de Macul. The Peña family planted cabernet sauvignon on Clos Quebrada de Macul’s poor, alluvial soil in 1970 when it was unheard of to plant a vineyard on difficult, low-yielding sites such as this. The vineyard’s elevation at almost 3,000 feet above sea level brings a 40-degree swing in temperatures between day and night.

chateaus in St. Emilion while studying economics in Montpelier. He eventually worked as a wine maker for Casa Filguera in Uruguay before returning to St. Emilion for the 2002 harvest. Soon after, his journey took him to Chile where he was pegged to head up the famed Clos Quebrada de Macul and produce its world-renowned Domus Aurea as well as the winery’s other labels, Alba de Domus and Stella Aurea.

TASTING NOTES

Photo Courtesy of Domus Aurea

On the nose the Domus Aurea 2019 delivers a rich, balsamic characteristic along with currant and figs and a touch of subtle oak in the background. The wine shows off an intense ruby color in the glass. It is highly recommended that the wine be decanted for two hours before tasting. It allows for the tannins to round a bit and the flavors to develop. The quality of the wine is evident from the first sip; it’s deep and highly structured with a smooth intensity highlighted by a beautiful combination of wild berries and spice.

Eiroa 20 Years Harvesting is done by hand on the Peña’s 39 organically farmed acres and although 2019 was quite warm, the vintage produced excellent results for cabernet. The winery, Viña Quebrada de Macul, sets out to highlight its vineyard’s unique terroir by not filtering the wine and racking it back to their own barrels after maceration. Domus Aurea is then aged for 18 months in barrels, 80% of which are new French oak with varying degrees of medium to light toast on the barrels.

WINE IN A FEEDING BOTTLE 2019 CABERNET SAUVIGNON HOUSE OF GOLD Named after Emperor Nero’s ambitious palatial complex, this single-vineyard wine hails from

Vineyard management and winemaking for Domus Aurea are the realms of Frenchman Jean Pascal Lacaze, who claims that he developed a taste for wine when his grandfather served him the family’s Bordeaux in his feeding bottle as a baby. Besides feeding him wine as a baby, his grandfather filled young Jean Pascal with his vision for viticulture and vinification. He went on to ply his trade in various

PAIRING NOTES THE EIROA 20 SERIES IS A BEAUTIFULLY SOFT-PRESSED ROBUSTO WITH A BALANCED COMBINATION OF NUTS, CEDAR, CINNAMON, AND CREAM. THE DOMUS AUREA INTRODUCES AN INTERESTING TEXTURE TO THE SMOKE. AS THE TANNINS LINGER ON YOUR PALATE AFTER A SIP, THE FIRST COUPLE OF PUFFS FROM THE EIROA STRUGGLE TO BREAK THROUGH BUT AS THEY DO, THE ORIGINAL FLAVORS OF THE CIGAR START TO COME THROUGH WITH A SWEETER, EXTRA-CREAMY TWIST. EVERY SUBSEQUENT DRAW PRODUCES A NEWLY OPENED FLAVOR BOX.

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ACHAVAL FERRER FINCA ALTAMIRA MENDOZA, ARGENTINA

maker’s list of things NOT to do is longer than the things he’s actually required to do. For wine purists, this is a dream.

Among the list of things the winemaker ought not to do are: no clarification or filtration, no adding sulfites or enzymes, and no corrections for acidity. A more active winemaker could look at this and think, “Yeah right, how can you expect to produce a good wine without managing certain aspects that customers associate with quality?”

To answer those questions, one must only look to Achaval Ferrer’s impressive performance in tastings and more importantly in sales. I’d say they’re onto something.

UNFORGETTABLE HARVEST

NESS ON THE FINISH. AFTER A SIP OF THE ACHAVAL FERRER FINCA ALTAMIRA, THE RAISIN AND COFFEE EXIT STAGE LEFT AND LEAVE BEHIND A RAMPED-UP VERSION OF THE CEDAR AND NUTS. IT ALSO TAKES ON A BIT OF AN OAKY CHARACTERISTIC. THE WINE ON THE OTHER HAND LOSES SOME OF ITS ACIDITY AND BECOMES MUCH MORE JAMMY AND FRUIT FORWARD.

PLUS ONE ACHAVAL FERRER MALBEC MENDOZA 2019

The 2016 harvest in Argentina was a historic one that winemakers still talk about today. A series of factors brought about by the El Niño phenomenon resulted in 27% lower yields. Accountants would look at this as a nightmare scenario but winemakers salivate at the thought of lower yields where the plant pours all of its energy into a small amount of fruit.

TASTING NOTES This high-altitude wine stands out from what you may be accustomed to from a Malbec. The nose is layered and complex with tons of blackberry, plum, leather, and a hint of spice. The palate is assertive and juicy with notes of raspberries, plums, and cherries balanced by a marked acidity and excellent structure.

Diamond Crown Black Diamond

2016 MALBEC PAIRING NOTES LAZY WINEMAKERS From its inception, Achaval Ferrer was founded on the principle of minimal intervention. The idea is to trust the terroir and let it speak as loudly as possible through the wine. To that end, the wine-

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THE DIAMOND CROWN BLACK DIAMOND IS A DARK, THICK ROBUSTO WITH A SMOOTH, FLAVORFUL CORE OF CEDAR, AMERICAN COFFEE, AND NUTS BALANCED BY A NOTE OF RAISIN SWEET-

The winery tells the story of this grape in three distinct lines: The Finca, Quimera, and Mendoza. Finca is meant as the ultimate expression of terroir, Quimera is a Malbec-dominant blend, and Mendoza is sort of an introduction to Mendoza Malbecs. If you’re unsure if you will enjoy this type of wine, the Mendoza line is the perfect place to start. The wine is approachable, affordable, and an excellent representation of the style and grape varietal.

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CARMEN VINTAGES BLEND III MAIPO VALLEY, CHILE

It wasn’t until wealthy Chileans began travelling and being influenced by French wine that the country’s wine culture started changing. The introduction of French grape varietals like cabernet sauvignon, sauvignon blanc, merlot, and, perhaps unknowingly, carménère started around 1850, just before the phylloxera epidemic ravaged many of the vineyards in France. Through confusion, carménère was planted as merlot and although it was clearly different, no one knew any better so it was considered “a Chilean merlot.”

BERRY AND CHERRY THAT CONJURES UP THOUGHTS OF A BLACK FOREST CAKE. THE REVERSE ORDER BRINGS A MORE AUSTERE CHARACTERISTIC TO THE WINE, TEMPORARILY WIPING AWAY THE FRUIT SWEETNESS BEFORE IT BOUNCES BACK WITH GUSTO A SIP OR TWO LATER.

It wasn’t until 1994 that a famous French ampelographer (ampelography: the science of description and identification of grapevine cultivars) was in Chile and noted that this particular grape in one of Viña Carmen’s Maipo Valley vineyards was not merlot at all. After DNA analysis it was determined that it was in fact carménère, one of the original six Bordeaux varietals that was thought to have disappeared in the late 1800s.

CARMEN GRAN RESERVA CARMENERE 2019

PLUS ONE

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The Carmen Vintages Blend III is an interesting blend of vintages as opposed to a blend of grape varietals. It is meant to highlight the varietal’s characteristics by blending out differences from across vintages. The Vintages Blend III has loads of black currant, licorice, and spice with a wellbalanced acidity on the palate.

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Oliva Serie V

VINTAGE BLEND (2017, 2018, 2019, & 2020) CABERNET SAUVIGNON THE LOST GRAPE OF BORDEAUX Chile’s wine history dates back to the 16th century when Spanish monks planted vineyards and noticed that the soils and climate were ideal for grapes. By 1810 when Chile gained its independence, the wine industry had already been established although it was mostly sweet wine made from pais and muscatel grapes.

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PAIRING NOTES THE OLIVA SERIE V CONSISTENTLY PRODUCES AN EXCELLENT SMOKE OUTPUT WITH A BALANCED PROFILE OF SMOOTH PEPPER, COCOA, OAK, AND COFFEE. IT’S NEARLY FULL-STRENGTH BUT THE SMOOTH, WELL-AGED TOBACCO ALLOWS IT TO PAIR WELL WITH THE CARMEN VINTAGES BLEND III’S SILKY TANNINS AND RICH, BLACK CURRANT CORE. THE WINE SEEMS TO COVER THE CIGAR’S COCOA FLAVORS WITH A LAYER OF RASP-

After the re-classification of the grape, Viña Carmen was the first to bottle a carménère as a carménère when they released the Carmen Reserve Carmenere in 1996. It was a unique occurrence in the wine world; the grapes had been harvested in 1994 as a merlot but bottled as carménère in 1996.

On the palate the wine sits somewhere between cabernet sauvignon and merlot but with a flavor similarity to a pinot noir. The wine pairs impressively with a variety of foods as well as cigars. We enjoyed it most with medium-bodied blends from Honduras or Nicaragua.

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PISANO RPF (RESERVA PERSONAL DE LA FAMILIA) PROGRESO, URUGUAY

wine with dinner, smoked a cigar after dinner, followed by a bourbon nightcap, and lived to be 96. But when modern medical research proves that a wine or in this case wine from a particular grape varietal is medically healthy, we celebrate!

In a 2011 article published in Prowein Magazine, the German wine trade association’s magazine, several studies showed that wines made of Tannat grapes had a greater concentration of antioxidants than other reds like Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, Tannat wines were shown to have one of the highest levels of phenolic compounds among all wine grape varietals. Interestingly, the studies also showed that the antioxidant levels were similar regardless of the wine’s age but that once the bottle was opened it could lose 30% of its antioxidant capacity in six hours. It all sounds pretty straightforward to me: get to drinking and make it quick.

PLUS ONE PISANO RÍO DE LOS PÁJAROS TANNAT 2019

TASTING NOTES Pours deep and dark purple in the glass. This bold, full-bodied Uruguayan red takes up residence in your palate thanks to its concentrated tannins and tart blackberry. Flavors develop in the glass incorporating ripe dark fruit jam, persimmons, and plums accompanied by a unique spice note on the finish.

AVO Syncro Nicaragua Fogata

PAIRING NOTES 2017 TANNAT HEALTHY WINE In our world of consistent day drinking and cigar smoking, we consider all wine, whiskey, beer, and especially cigars to be healthy. Not in the modern medical sense but in the way that your grandfather had bacon and a fried egg for breakfast every morning, had a glass or three of

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THE AVO SYNCRO NICARAGUA FOGATA OPENS WITH A SUPER-SMOOTH COMBINATION OF WOOD, NUTMEG, AND WALNUT ALONG WITH A HINT OF FRESH CUT GRASS. THE PISANO RPF CRANKS UP THE JUICY, JAMMY SWEETNESS WHEN FOLLOWING THE CIGAR BUT THE BIG WINNER IN THIS MARRIAGE IS THE AVO, WHICH TAKES ON A CREAMY BUTTERSCOTCH FLAVOR THAT WAS BARELY NOTICEABLE BEFORE THE WINE.

The name Río de los Pájaros is a nod to the country the Pisano family has called home since 1870. Uruguay translates to river of painted birds in the country’s native language of Guarani. Most wine drinkers don’t think of Uruguay when looking for their next bottle but consider that it sits on the same parallel as the most celebrated wine-growing regions in the southern hemisphere – think Argentina, Chile, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand.

EDITOR’S NOTE WE PARTNERED WITH TOTAL WINE & MORE (TOTALWINE.COM) TO PUT THIS FEATURE TOGETHER AND PABLO ESTADES WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN MAKING IT HAPPEN. THANKS, PABLO.

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Photo Credit: Michael Robson

Smoking in the Triangle

NORTH CAROLINA’S CAPITAL CITY IS PART OF A SPRAWLING ACADEMIC HAVEN. BUT IT’S ALSO A HIVE OF HISTORY, INTERESTING EATING, AND SOME DOWNRIGHT ECLECTIC CIGAR POSSIBILITIES. WE TREKKED TO RALEIGH AND WALKED AWAY WITH SOME SURPRISES.

By Steve Miller | Photography by Chris Hildreth/RoosterMedia SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

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avana Deluxe is not Havana nor is it deluxe.

Instead, it is a splendid little bar tucked into a happening spot of the city where bartender Stump, a stocky fellow sporting a ZZ Top-worthy beard, will set you up with a smoke and a drink.

“This place is a bar with cigars” is how he frames the joint, which has served up drink and smoke to Raleigh locals for 25 years.

It’s the perfect antidote to the sometimes-fussy formality of the area, known as the Triangle, best known for academics and research, thanks to three major league research schools in Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Triangle is part of a state weaned on tobacco, and cigarettes made the state wealthy. The paint on some of the old tobacco buildings is still there, and the heritage is still widely noted in the museums and tourism literature.

Cigars, though, were never really part of the deal. That comes now. And Havana Deluxe helps.

You won’t be channeling your inner Bukowski, as Havana Deluxe mixes the best of worlds, high and low: a selection – around 125 varieties – of brown liquors, a small humidor filled

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with greatest hits and a clientele that comes ready to smoke, drink and chat. It’s dark and old-school clubby, with dim yellowish overhead bar lighting that reminds of Pulp Fiction.

There are TVs, but nothing obtrusive, leaving the conversation to create the atmosphere.

The tiny humidor is curated by watching what patrons smoke and then filling that need. It’s not self-serve, so we have Stump pull an Oliva Serie V Melanio for us.

We eye the vast wall of bourbons, then the 11 beer taps, which include Pabst – for the stray college students – and 10 local beers and order up an Endless River Kolsch from Mother Earth Brewing in Kinston.

“My wife’s gonna kill me,” says one customer, a tech employee who is two Old Fashioneds in and ready to experiment with some scotch whiskey that goes for $50 a pop. Another customer seeks a smoke that is “light and short,” which Stump promptly answers with several suggestions.

The place starts getting crowded and then ebbs, then jumps back. It’s clear some people are making the rounds while others make this their first and only destination.

Some bring their own smokes – “that’s fine as long as they just buy a drink,” Stump says.

The crowd is a mix of old and young, novice smokers and whiskey tasters, social and introspective.

The evening ends with the place, a single, open room that holds around 100 people, full and animated. The walk back to the hotel was through streets filled with revelry, as Raleigh gets its night on with open patios filled with beery cheer.

We’d started the day at RCU, the RaleighDurham Airport, about 12 miles out. First travel tip for RDU – take Southwest if you can. The terminal is large enough for the airline’s local growth, which is taking its time, while the other terminals get jammed.

Near the airport is one of the best of the

From Top to Bottom: The Wild Turkey Bar at Angus Barn; The large humidor at Apex Cigar local lounges, the Apex Cigar Lounge, a single-story farmhouse set on two corner acres. It was once a tobacco farm and spanned over 100 acres, and remains relatively remote. Over the years, tracts were sold but today, this patch is just right for what is called for, beckoning the owners of Apex Cigar Lounge five years ago when it moved from its downtown Apex location a few miles away.

The place is staffed by friendlies who are eager to find you what you want and

on display throughout the bar, in glass cases overhead, in corners and around the bend.

The menu is standard issue carnivore.

We pull up a cushy leather bar chair and order a 10-ounce prime rib, some sauteed spinach and a glass of Malbec.

We eat the beef, more rare than medium, and dig into the spinach that is swimming in butter. And we watch everyone else.

One woman orders oysters Rockefeller and a dirty martini with blue cheese olives. The guy across from us orders a mountain of food, with a heap of mashed potatoes obscuring a filet, washing it down with two double gin and tonics.

The fellow next to me orders beef ribs that come stacked and looking like brontosaurus ribs on the Flintstones.

“Looks like I’m going to be here a while,” he says, not without some buyer’s remorse.

From Top to Bottom: Havana Deluxe is Raleigh's "bar with cigars."; One of the bottles of Prohibition era whiskey kept under lock and key at the Wild Turkey Bar. give you plenty of room to stretch out once you’ve found it.

“People often get off the plane and are looking for a place to go and see us as a place to smoke and head over,” general manager Shawn Simmonds says.

They no doubt see the cigar store Indian in front, freshly repainted and proudly announcing that haters are not welcome – no one has complained to anyone’s face – “just one person on Yelp,” says Manny, a retired American Airlines employee who now spends a couple days a week pulling a shift at the lounge.

Inside, the spacious humidor is filled with the same thing most others are – “whatever we can get and when we can get it,” Shawn says. “We’ve got the space and we can sell much more. We just need more product.”

The main lounge is narrow and lounge chairs line the perimeter and a smaller lounge – the quiet room, someone notes – is toward the back of the house. Out the back door is the real attraction when the weather is decent, which is much of the time here.

The showpiece is an $8,000 all-weather big screen TV with a heavy-duty sound bar beneath it, a setup that can be heard and seen from 50 feet away.

Tables, chairs, and ashtrays are at the

ready and active during any sports event. More seating underneath the magnolias and oaks, which form a small gazebo around the side of the house and then, to the back, wide open space that is used for events – at Apex, that means live music, in-stores and most recently, wrestling, as one of the lounge employees is a professional wrestler.

In the 95-degree Southern heat, a ring was set up and the place was filled with heartily smoking fans.

to get directed to something righteous.

But the Angus was once a nowhere place on a nowhere slice of 50 rural acres, picked up for a tidy fee of $6,750 in 1959. The restaurant opened the next year, and the legend began. The place burned to the ground in 1964, though, and the rebuild proved to be even more popular than the original.

We fire up a Crossfire Habano, a boutique that’s been given a spot on the humidor shelf thanks to the dearth of more prominent names.

“This is their chance,” Shawn says.

“That’s the upside of the shortage of product – the boutiques can all say they have an opportunity.”

Angus Barn is legendary in foodie circles for its prominence in wine circles – its 1,650-selection wine list has landed it on Wine Spectator’s annual Grand Award list for decades. With 28 sommeliers at Angus Barn, you’re going

“Oh, sure, I’ll take you to the Meat Locker,” drawls an agreeable hostess.

And we make the trek, through the main kitchen right in the middle of dinner rush – oysters are being shucked over here, ribs are being sliced over there, busy hands are plating salads and dishing soups everywhere.

We’re led to a literal meat locker, and she peels open the steel door to reveal a beautiful little space, with tables, TVs, all set up for smoking. We choose the sidecar, an outdoor patio extension of the Meat Locker, to sit and enjoy the humid summer night air. One couple is out there. He’s clearly had a meal and is having a post-feast smoke. It’s allowed at the Meat Locker.

Sitting on the front porch, traffic zips by on the nearby highway, and the flow of movement takes hold. We’re here.

For anyone in a hurry, nearby RJ Tobacco boasts a fine, small humidor, with mostly mainstream premiums.

Travelers looking to stock up for their visit will find something they like there.

We pluck a couple. We haven’t even checked into our hotel but we’re hungry and we go where anyone who loves smokes and steak should head. And it’s literally around the corner.

After the feed, we wander downstairs and look at the cigar list. They are kept in a small humidor at the entrance and the list is sitting on a nearby table. More of the hits, but also the Angus Barn, a barber pole Robusto produced by Gurkha and featuring the face of founder Thad Eure Jr. on the label. We buy one in the Angus Barn general store, which includes meats, shirts, and other Angusrelated goods, and ask about where we smoke this feisty looking cigar.

The Angus Barn seats nearly 700 people, and with a main building, a huge parking lot and a pavilion for special events, the Angus Barn is one of the most happening culinary places in town.

We head to the upstairs of Angus to the Wild Turkey Bar & Lounge to grab some dinner. It’s named for the 600-plus Wild Turkey decanter collection that is

On our way to the Meat Locker, we saw a little winding stairway leading down and our interest is piqued. Torture chamber? We ask the hostess for more information. She finds a guide, who leads us down the narrow stone stairs to the musty, 55-degree wine cellar and we are in full tour mode – there are 25,000 bottles, some collectables under lock and key. Two private rooms downstairs are used for private events and wine training for the servers, and they look positively medieval in a good way.

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in Richmond, Virginia.

What a happy accident. We entered a head shop that had a masterfully underappreciated humidor attached.

The selection of bongs and pipes alone is staggering, as if Seth Rogan and Cheech and Chong decided to pool resources.

It’s set in an urban strip of stores but stands out on the aural noise of its neon sign, a bright beacon among semi-blight.

Photo Credit: The Casso, Raleigh, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel

Inside, the smoking area is two antique couches and a chair, all stained and worn, set on a similarly weathered rug.

These scraps sit in the middle of the store, so the folks buying Delta 9, vapes and smoking accessories can wonder what the hell these crazy people are smoking.

The sensory overload is in effect – we have to get to the hotel and stash the bags.

We stay at The Casso, formerly Hotel 83, formerly the Original. Marriott bought the 126-room property about three weeks before we arrive, as one of its Tribute Portfolio line.

As can be expected, the transition is a mess, as they almost always are. It would be easy to say they are taking defeat from the jaws of victory, as the hotel is nicely laid out, but the basics are being overlooked – check-in is confusing, parking even more so. But the design, from the concrete floors to the lobby bar, is perfectly contemporary and, at least to this guest, welcoming.

The move to Marriott, though, bodes poorly for guests – read the various travel blogs for the Marriott move from pleasing guests to pleasing investors – full disclosure, we are both. We’ll take a dividend cut in exchange for some basic frills. The rooms are small enough to ensure you’ll want to get out and see the town, which is filled with opportunities.

These are micro but well-done, with new flooring, fresh bathroom tile and platform beds.

The Casso is set in midtown and close to everything, so the slight inefficiencies are workable and, as we know, travel is not, and should not be, smooth. Being in

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a location that makes for easy access to the town is a blessing.

One of the perks is that it is set on the rail line, and we love the sound of trains in the night. We take it as a good sign.

The next day, we are ready to tackle Raleigh on foot. It’s a walkable downtown, filled with a mix of shops, eateries, and grab-and-go food places.

We could spend a day consuming and perusing.

But we’re history buffs and landing in the capitol city, which Raleigh is, means a walk to the statehouse. State capitols are often a trove of history and ambitious architecture, and Raleigh is exhibit one, with its original capitol building, a stone edifice done in a Greek style, fully intact. The building is surrounded by various monuments and tributes, including a statue of the three U.S. presidents that were born in North Carolina – Andrew Jackson (18291937) James Knox Polk (1845-1849) and Andrew Johnson (1865-1869). The grounds are overhung with oaks, elms, and magnolias and while the building is relatively small, the insides are a look at how efficient the construction process was in 1831, when the capitol was rebuilt following a fire.

The three-floor building features stone floors and steps, generous use of hardwood and a cantilevered gallery on the rotunda’s second floor. The legislative galleries are redone immaculately, down to the maroon carpet with yellow stars.

Every room has a fireplace, and it took 28 of these stone behemoths to heat

the building. The outhouses have been removed from the grounds, but man, that must have been inconvenient.

The state’s General Assembly no longer meets there, having moved in 1961 to a larger, less ornate building at the end

Photo Credit: Michael Robson

From Top to Bottom: The lobby at The Casso, Raleigh; Raleigh skyline at night

But the humidor is perfectly maintained, and the stock is beyond anything we’ve seen in town, an abundance of premium inventory that indicates that perhaps the locals are distracted by the stoner possibilities and aren’t convinced of the goodness of this trove. We’re tempted by the Rocky Patel Gary Sheffield 500 Home Runs cigar, but we pull an Alec Bradley Blind Faith Robusto and sit down on the stained chair to watch the show. A guy comes in and offers some free, just pulled green beans (!) to whoever wants them. Another woman eyes the pipes and asks manager Luke

of the state complex quad, which also includes a nice-looking North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the North Carolina Museum of History.

We spent a couple of hours wandering the grounds, taking in the building, talking with the security. Time to find another place for a smoke. Capitol Smoke was half a mile away, with two other locations around the state and one

Titus if they have an ATM. “It’s outside,” Titus says. “It doesn’t look like it works but it does.”

Still another guy comes in, suit and tie, and orders up some Delta 9, a cannabis edible that offers the same effect as a legal marijuana gummy.

Titus is a devoted cigar smoker of six years who wants to learn more. He just started the job this summer and

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nonetheless gleams in the sun like a new dime, surrounded by big companies that entertain clients on decks overlooking the field. The gastro gem in this outlay is the Tobacco Road Sports Café.

Photo Credit: Brian Strickland

Tobacco Road dishes out high-quality bar food to folks who sit on a terrace overlooking the ball field. We had a fine Caesar salad with shrimp, but the showpiece was a dish of spicy coleslaw.

It was the vinegar-based slaw that we love so much, and the heat was just right from a tabasco infusion. The bar itself is a gem, with the obligatory TV screens all around but also a small bullpen area of cushy lounge chairs with personal screens and drink holders that would not be out of place at any reasonable cigar lounge.

In North Carolina, most lounges are BYOB, but not this place. No booze allowed.

“That would go wrong real fast,” Titus says.

Make no mistake – this is a place to score some good smokes in Raleigh.

For lunch, we wander back toward the Casso and check into the Roast Grill, a joint that has been serving since 1940, and looks it. Roast Grill offers one thing – hot dogs. And it’s cooler for what it doesn’t have than what it does – no ketchup, no cheese, no mayo, no kraut, no chips, no fries, no relish. You order a hot dog and it comes with yellow mustard, onions, slaw, and chili. The end. To drink there are icy Cokes in the 6 ½ or 16-ounce glass bottles. It’s cash only. To consume your order, you sit at one of seven stools at a counter or one of two tables behind that. And it’s great.

The guy next to us ate his in a bite and got on his phone to someone, likely someone else who knew the good stuff: “I just devoured one, you need to get over here. It’s a hole in the wall.”

It’s a five-minute walk to Raleigh’s Union Station, a quietly reimagined terminal that is an excellent representation of modern redesign.

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While it cost us, the taxpayers, $100 million, it’s a wonderful place and similar to some of the finer rail stations in Europe.

From Top to Bottom: Raleigh Union Station; The Bull Durham Bar at Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club

The station is as big as a Boeing airplane hangar, a wide and tall expanse that features iron beams across the ceiling, polished concrete floors and seating of all kinds, from wooden benches to cushioned chairs and sofas and tables with chairs in between. The east wall is all windows, allowing daytime light to illuminate the finely coiffed interior.

of a massive corporate development, Aloft Hotel included, a few blocks from the original Bulls ballpark, which is now a community ball field.

We check and are surprised to find that for $14 round trip, we can hop an Amtrak train to Durham and check out the home of the Durham Bulls, a team Hollywood turned into a national treasure in the 1988 movie Bull Durham, starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. The AAA minor league Bulls still play in a new park that is part

A ticket to a Duke University basketball game is hard to come by, given that the NCAA powerhouse is legendary in victory circles. The team still plays in Cameron Indoor Stadium, built in 1940. The building is pleasingly rustic and well-maintained, and, if you are in town and lucky enough to snag a seat, pre-game at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club on the campus. The Bull Durham Bar serves a great Ahi Tuna appetizer and features a selection of booze, from top shelf unoaked French white wines to local beers.

We’re in, and the 30-minute ride through mostly railroad-track type stuff – wrecking yards, impoverished living, car lots and industrial parks – is oddly relaxing.

The terminal in Durham is small and welldone, with some museum-style history boards, modern design with exposed ceiling beams, concrete floors and simple benches.

It’s a terrific perk to have Durham, which is still developing, as a place to hit up.

The town, home to Duke University, offers a generous variety of restaurants and small shops, although it has a way to go before catching up to Raleigh.

Plus, we got hit up twice for money by street dudes in our two hours there versus zero times in Raleigh.

It’s a five-minute walk to the Bulls’ new park, creatively named the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, a generic ballfield that

While we’re on sports, Raleigh’s Carolina Hurricanes have a rabid local following, unlikely as it seems. But the city’s only pro sports team won a division championship last year and is enjoying that ride.

Photo Credit: Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club

is already excited to put the humidor in order. Right now, there are facings that go nowhere or are too high on the shelves to read. He has regulars who buy premiums, but he acknowledges the other goods represent the bulk of his sales. And he sits on this large stock of Drew Estate, Padron, My Father, Oliva, and Alec Bradley.

As we noted, the Triangle area has colleges – we’re reminded because we saw Bluto Blutarsky walking down the street with the word on his shirt – which means…nope, not education, but sports.

Raleigh is a pleasant place – surely benign praise, but sometimes low-key is good and you won’t find yourself striving to see something Raleighcentric or leaving the place thinking that you missed a crucial part of that city’s heart. A good smoke on the porch of the Apex Cigar Lounge, some fine food and another cigar at the Angus Barn, and time spent at Havana Deluxe watching the life is about a perfect day, done easy.

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CIGARS

4. Capitol Smoke Raleigh

havanadeluxe.com

11. Humble Pie

HOTELS

1 E Edenton St, Raleigh

1. Apex Cigar Lounge

215 W Martin St, Raleigh

RESTAURANTS

317 S Harrington St, Raleigh

capitolsmoke.com

8. Angus Barn

humblepierestaurant.com

14. The Casso, Raleigh, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel

historicsites.nc.gov

1510 N Salem St, Apex apexcigarlounge.com

5. Smoker Friendly

9401 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh

BARS

603 W Morgan St, Raleigh,

17. North Carolina Museum of History

2. Virgin Cigars 8601 Glenwood Ave R, Raleigh virgincigarsnc.com

6300 Creedmoor Rd STE 106, Raleigh

angusbarn.com

12. Dram & Draught

marriott.com

5 E Edenton St, Raleigh ncmuseumofhistory.org

15. Raleigh Union Station

18. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

3. RJ Tobacco 7854 Alexander Promenade PI #110, Raleigh rjtobacco.com

6. Joker Smoker Shop

9. Morgan Street Food Hall

1 Glenwood Ave Suite 101, Raleigh

ATTRACTIONS

6111 Capital Blvd, Raleigh

411 W Morgan St, Raleigh

dramanddraught.com

510 W Martin St, Raleigh

jokersmokershop.com

morganfoodhall.com

13. Raleigh Beer Garden

amtrak.com

7. Havana Deluxe

10. The Roast Grill

614 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh

437 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh

7 S West St, Raleigh

theraleighbeergarden.com

16. North Carolina State Capitol

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11 W Jones St, Raleigh naturalsciences.org

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Featuring

espinosa Las 6 provincias

LOCATION CUBAOCHO MUSEUM & PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

JEWELRY ROBERTO COIN JUMPSUIT SAINT LAURENT

JEWELRY ROBERTO COIN DRESS DOLCE & GABBANA PURSE VALENTINO

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JEWELRY ROBERTO COIN DRESS DOLCE & GABBANA SHOES SAINT LAURENT

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CIGAR

ESPINOSA LAS 6 PROVINCIAS espinosacigars.com

JULIO EIROA

BY ERIK CALVIÑO PHOTOGRAPHY BY TETE ALEMÁN

rolls out of his room bright-eyed and cleanshaven at 7 AM although he’s reportedly been up since 5 AM. Efficiently he enjoys coffee and a sufficient breakfast chased with a couple of vitamin supplements and is out of the dining room before the clock hits 7:30. He rolls his wheelchair close to his beater SUV equipped with mud tires, opens the door, gets close enough to get one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the grab handle, and at 84 years old and without much use of his legs, pulls himself onto the seat of the small SUV. With the car door still open, he starts the engine and pulls it up far enough to be able to close the car door, which he does, then looks over at me with an expression of, “Are you going to get in so I can get to work or do you plan to walk down the hill?”

Julio Rafael Eiroa is the 84-year-old founder of JRE Tobacco Co. A plane crash in 1977 left him semi-paraplegic and temporarily forced him to retire from his life-long passion of growing premium cigar tobacco. That didn’t last long and he came back with a vengeance, eventually acquiring Camacho Cigars in 1995 and bringing on his youngest son, Christian Eiroa, to help run the sales and distribution for the brand in the US. Together they made Camacho a household name in the cigar business until 2008 when they sold the brand and the cigar factory to Oettinger Davidoff.

No longer worried about making or selling cigars, Julio poured all of his energy back into his tobacco growing and processing operation, which was not part of the sale. He supplied Camacho with tobacco until the purchase agreement ended.

In 2016 he launched JRE Tobacco Co. and the Aladino, Rancho Luna, and Tatascan cigar brands, this time with his oldest son Justo Eiroa handling sales and distribution. I visited their operation in Las Lomas in the Jamastran Valley in Honduras for several days in August. It was my first time back in the complex that was once known as Camp Camacho but has been Camp Aladino since 2010.

I am well versed in Julio’s Cuban guajiro (farmer) manner of communicating.

It’s a no-nonsense approach that brings back a vivid nostalgia that for me is hard to shake. When he speaks it’s as if I am listening to an uncle or family friend from my youth. I hope

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this vantage point allows me to share insights about Julio that shine a fresh light on his journey, his brands, and most importantly to him, his tobacco.

All of the quotes from Julio were translated by me and gleaned over hours of conversations mostly in car rides, on his terrace, in his office, and his tobacco warehouses.

MAKING FACES For as long as Julio Rafael Eiroa can remember he has wanted to be in the tobacco business. It even says so in his Admiral Farragut Academy (St. Petersburg, Florida) high school yearbook from 1954. Although the yearbook staff said that the young man nicknamed “Viejo” (old man) was a “good man on the dance floor as well as on the baseball diamond,” he listed his ambitions as “Attend Spring Hill College and go into tobacco business.”

Coincidentally, the yearbook listed his most characteristic action as “Making faces,” which is exactly how he’s communicating with me on this fine Jamastran morning from the inside of the SUV. I can be excused for needing a moment to process the feat that I had just witnessed as this 84-year-old living legend of the tobacco business pulled himself unassisted into an SUV from a wheelchair. Entirely too late for his liking, I eventually jumped into the passenger seat and went for the ride down from his hilltop home inside the Camp Aladino complex. We passed the guest rooms building where I had stayed on my previous visit and a team of workers is putting up the walls of a structure destined to be a tobacco warehouse. He’s constantly building, incessantly adding room. One day it’s a tobacco warehouse, the next it’s a curing barn; he does not stop building.

“I love to build stuff myself,” he tells me after I marvel again at another structure that has gone up since my last visit. “But I’m not building because I love to do it. We need the room for more tobacco!” His eyes light up as he rattles off numbers from his latest crop proving that he needs more room. On the 700-acre farm, he has 53 curing barns including the oldest tobacco barn in Central America, and 26 greenhouses. While in tobacco processing (tobacco fermentation, aging, and sorting) I counted about 13 structures plus another for the box factory and another for the cigar factory. Additionally the complex has its own machine shop where

workers make or repair everything from tobacco presses to homemade evaporative cooler units. There is also a water treatment plant, and a mechanic’s garage – anything that will help the complex run self-sufficiently.

Julio speaks English well enough but we converse only in Spanish of the rapid-fire Cuban variety replete with double entendre. His is a unique argot shared exclusively with other members of his generation of Cuban tobacco growers, most of whom are gone but all of whom spent more time in Central America than in their homeland. These are men who were born on tobacco plantations in Cuba, worked as kids in tobacco to help their families, then fled the island when Fidel Castro’s diabolical dictatorship began stripping away freedoms and nationalizing businesses. Many of them, Eiroa included, eventually made their way to Central America where the Honduran and Nicaraguan governments sought to develop a tobacco and cigar industry through grants and loans, hoping to create jobs by filling the void left by Cuban tobacco. Although Julio left Cuba for good as a college-age young man, he speaks with a distinct Pinareño (a person from Pinar del Rio, Cuba) accent sprinkled with Honduran Spanish words absorbed over almost 60 years in the country.

THE JOURNEY Self-reliance and resourcefulness are recurring themes in Julio’s life. After his father Generoso passed away circa 1951, it was up to 12-year-old Julio and his older brother Generoso Jr. to continue operating the family’s La Victoria farm. And they managed to do it; the farm produced tobacco exclusively for the venerable Perfecto Garcia factory in Tampa from the 1920s until La Victoria was nationalized by Castro’s regime. When the whole family left Cuba in 1960 and moved to Tampa, Julio got a job at Perfecto Garcia, the factory that his family had been supplying with tobacco. He did everything at the factory, referring to his position as un mil usos, a Cuban-slang term used to describe someone that does anything and everything that he’s asked to do without an official position. The job allowed young Julio to get up close and personal with every aspect of this major cigar making operation, at times a little closer than he would

have liked. He tells stories of cleaning bathrooms, washing dishes, and doing everything in between in the very manner I mentioned earlier and without a trace of shame or indignity; it had to be done and he did it.

“In 1963 I had just returned from military service in Korea and was quickly hired

by Oliva Tobacco Co. (Tampa-based tobacco grower/broker),” he said. “To review a tobacco sample sent by a supplier.” The tobacco sample came from piloto Cubano seeds smuggled out of Cuba by the legendary Jacinto ‘Tino’ Argudín and grown in Argelia, Honduras. “When Oliva purchased the crop, they sent Gerencio Cura (a Cuban tobacco farmer) and I to sort the tobacco and finish processing it in Honduras.” He says this part of the story with no greater emphasis than the one about cleaning bathrooms at Perfecto Garcia but this is a turning point.

He was just 25 years old and although he was born on a tobacco farm and worked it from a young age, he hadn’t directed a tobacco sorting and processing operation before.

He had just returned from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and a US Army tour of duty in Korea, and was about to touch down in a country he had never seen, to manage a tobacco operation for the first time. If you did this today you’d find no shortage of experienced local tobacco workers with a solid foundational knowledge of the tasks at hand, but in 1963 Honduras, the tobacco business was in its infancy. For most people this would be considered a difficult, if not impossible undertaking. But to Julio, this was exactly the opportunity he’d been dreaming of since leaving Cuba.

It wasn’t all wins and success however. Upon completing the sorting operation for Oliva, he proposed a growing test in another part of the valley. He picked out a five-acre plot and set out to test-grow tobacco for Oliva. “I was not aware of how hard the wind blows in certain parts of the valley.” In spite of his best efforts, the 20 to 30 knot wind wreaked havoc on his test.

“It was a complete disaster,” he says with an embarrassed chuckle. He harvested and cured what tobacco he could but it failed to cover costs.

He was now alone in Honduras and no longer employed by Oliva Tobacco, but something that founder Angel Oliva

like; I wanted to know if he could recall the flavors and aromas of that Cuban seed tobacco grown on virgin Honduran land. His answer sent me reeling. “I don’t know, I didn’t smoke in those days.” I couldn’t let that go.

It didn’t add up that he did all of this at great personal risk and investment without knowing if it was any good.

“Naturally I had a lot of help.” He had developed a close friendship with Tino Argudín. “Tino and his men would come by and give me pointers constantly, in fact the first seedbeds that I used were Tino’s and he had to teach me how to use them, we didn’t do that in Cuba.” He went on to explain how back then in Cuba, the farms would buy the posturas (young tobacco plants) ready to go in the ground. In contrast, every major tobacco farm that I have visited throughout my travels in this business has grown their own posturas by way of their own seedbeds.

“Within three years, we were producing practically all of the wrapper, binder, and filler for Corral Wodiska’s cigar factory.”

Although the relationship soured after some time, the experience proved that he was now a bona-fide tobacco man. He was living his dream and he proved to be quite good at it.

He went about methodically acquiring land and installations including the prized 700-acre farm in Argelia and before long he was the largest supplier of candela wrapper in the world.

“Then I had the accident.” said during a visit to Danli, Honduras stayed with Julio and in a way inspired him. During a conversation over lunch with Argudín, Oliva’s assistant Pepín González, and Julio, Angel Oliva stated that the crop that he had purchased was “As good or better than Cuba.”

Oliva was rightly considered an authority on Cuban tobacco; his company had been supplying Cuban leaf to cigar manufacturers since 1934. His praise for Honduran tobacco would drive the young and ambitious Julio Eiroa to better days.

“The lady I rented from owned land that she was struggling to protect.

Squatters would invade and she could do nothing about it.” Julio asked the elderly woman to allow him to test-grow on her land if he kept the squatters out but she worried that this young man would get himself killed. “She was a very sweet old lady,

the daughter of a famed writer. I was a friend of her nephew and when he would visit her, she’d invite me over for dinner.” It took persistence on his part but eventually he convinced her to let him grow on a quarter-acre of her land.” He was back in the game.

To call this quarter-acre “land” seems like a stretch. I asked Julio what kind of land it was and he couldn’t help but laugh at my question. “Land? It was thick jungle! There was nothing but monkeys, mountain lions, and leopards in there. The only land in the Jamastran Valley that you would consider good for planting at that time was the plot in Argelia that Argudín was growing in.” Allow me to fast forward. That land in Argelia is where Julio’s Finca Corojo is located on today.

cure about 4,000 plants on the lady’s quarter-acre and as soon as it was ready, he set off for Tampa, tobacco samples in hand. He dreamed of coming full circle and securing Perfecto Garcia as a customer, just as his father had once done. But he needed more than a customer to make this work. He offered Manuel García a partnership stake in his tobacco-growing venture. García promised to buy all of the tobacco he could produce but was not interested in partnering. Undeterred he visited Corral Wodiska, at the time one of the largest cigar factories in Tampa and makers of the popular Bering brand of cigars. It didn’t take long for them to see the quality of the tobacco. “Within 30 minutes of tasting it, we shook hands and had a deal.” It was time to get to work.

He managed to plant, harvest, and

I asked Julio what that tobacco was

LA FABRICA All of the buildings in the complex are wheelchair accessible and when we arrive at the bottom of the hill, where the Fabrica de Puros Aladino (cigar factory) is located, Julio abandons the SUV and transfers himself over to a scooter that was brought out for him. He waits for no one, doesn’t bother with niceties and definitely doesn’t wait for anyone to open the door; before I’d finished saying hello to people I vaguely remember from over 10 years ago, Julio was at his desk firing up samples from a private label blend that they are working on.

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, he’s a jovial, well-mannered man who is beyond welcoming and generous, but this is his workday and we are burning daylight. He works with the diligence of someone whose boss

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has it out for him and understandably so. He has a limited amount of time in his workday and he’s involved in every aspect of growing, processing, and aging tobacco as well as cigar production and blend development and maintenance. When I finally made it into the office, he and Justo were poring over production numbers. I decided to give them some privacy and wandered over to the factory floor. This entire building did not exist in 2010 so this was all new to me. It was impeccably clean and well organized with about 40 pairs making cigars. Central American cigar factories typically work in pairs; one person bunches and the other applies the wrapper. I walked into the packaging area and noticed a neat stack of paper-wrapped cigar boxes sporting Cuba Aliados markings. It turns out that during my visit the factory was finalizing a shipment of the Aladino-made Cuba Aliados that was unveiled by Oliva Cigars at the trade show earlier in the year.

Julio doesn’t mince words. When I asked him what it was like to work with his sons he stopped me dead in my tracks and clarified, “They work for me. Let’s be clear, we work together on this but I’m the boss.”

He went on, “It was that way when I owned Camacho and Christian joined me and it’s that way now with Justo.” As you can imagine, that is not what I was asking about. As someone who runs a business with my dad, I wanted to know what it was like for him and his sons to work together, I just didn’t word it right. When we finally got down to the question: “They are both affable, hard-working, and natural born salesmen. The difference is that Christian learned over a number of years from one of the best salesmen to ever work in the cigar business – Sal Fontana. Justo has had to figure this out on his own but I’m happy with how we’re growing.” At 56 years old, Justo is no stranger to running sales operations of different sizes and scopes. He owned and operated a water bottling plant that went toe to toe against Pepsico in Central America, and then managed export sales for Campbell Soup Co. in Coral Gables, Florida before joining his father at JRE in 2016. Couple that with his agriculture education at El Zamorano, perhaps the most prestigious agriculture school in Latin America. It’s as if he had been training for this opportunity all of his life.

CIGAR MAKING I returned to the office and this time found the father and son tasting and comparing three blends. Each unbanded sample had a handwritten identification code on the wrapper.

This is a common practice when comparing unbanded blends in a factory setting. I was handed the same three and given instructions about what they, and now we, were looking for. I watched these two men go back and forth about the tiniest details and offered my tie-breaking opinions until they settled on the final blend. I am a firm believer in the adage that how you do anything is how you do everything, so for me, this was a positive sign of where this company is headed.

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Julio crashed his Cessna 185 in 1977 and had to be away from his farms for an entire year. His operation had grown to 1,200 acres of tobacco plantations producing 1.5 million pounds of premium cigar tobacco per year, a hefty sum by any measure.

“Before the accident, I had focused all of my energy into producing excellent tobacco to meet the demands of the most important factories in the cigar business.” As it relates to the tobacco business, this is true but this wasn’t the only thing he had going on. He was a powerful businessman in his prime with deep contacts in military, government, and finance. He brokered the sale of jets, he advised US military officials in Honduras, and he hosted lavish parties where he’d fly in guests from all over Central America to liven

up the scene in rural Danli.

While reminiscing with me over cigars on his terrace overlooking the Jamastran Valley he tells me, “Just about everywhere I had to go, I just flew there. It was a wonderful time,.

If I had to visit one of our farms that was a 30- to 45-minute drive by car, I’d just fly and get there in 5 minutes.”

I get the sense that he jam-packed a lifetime’s worth of living into a decade during those years.

After the accident, he dipped his toe into cigar making when he purchased the Perfecto Garcia cigar factory in 1980. “Their sales had dropped tremendously from about 50 million cigars per year at their peak to about 7 million cigars when I purchased it.”

He managed the factory, supplied it with tobacco, and after two years he’d brought sales back up to over 8 million cigars. “And we did it without any salesmen,” he proudly points out.

The U.S. Tobacco Co., who had tried to acquire Perfecto Garcia in the past, came calling and he sold it.

He had not only overcome his physical setback but also proven to himself that not only could he grow world-class, Cuban seed tobacco in Honduras and do so successfully, he’d also gained valuable experience in cigar making. The latter would soon come in handy.

A deal gone sideways in 1987 left him holding the bag with 400,000 pounds of tobacco and a farm full of employees counting on him for work. He decided to take cigar manufacturing into his own hands and along with three partners, established Agroindustrias Laepe. They started mostly making private labels for US wholesalers, and then acquired the Baccarat and La Fontana brands.

After Simón Camacho passed away, he was offered an opportunity to purchase the brand and he jumped at the chance. By now he’d bought out his partners and brought in his youngest son Christian to manage Caribe Imported Cigars (their US sales and distribution operation) under the tutelage of Sal Fontana. “With Sal’s help, the excellent quality of the cigars we were making, and Christian’s gift as a salesman, the business took off. By the time we sold to Davidoff in 2008, we were operating at a net profit of over 30%.”

He sold and went into retirement in the Bahamas.

It wasn’t growing season during my visit but there was plenty of tobacco in the warehouses. “Do you want to see the Cameroon crop?” asked Julio who was obviously dying to show off the fruit of his labor. As he zoomed out of the office I could hear the excitement in his voice. Justo was equally pumped and we made a quick left out of the factory and into a large warehouse about half full of pilones (an organized pile of tobacco in fermentation). A group of men was working the pile and when Julio, Justo, and a supervisor pull up to it, they know the routine. The supervisor nods at one of the men, the man reaches into the pile and hands the supervisor a sample of the tobacco, the supervisor confirms the seed variety and priming then jams his face in between the leaves and approvingly hands it over to Julio for inspection, followed by Justo, then the visitor.

There’s a palpable respect and deference for Julio, the kind that comes from admiration and trust. It’s not my first rodeo in a tobacco-processing warehouse and I’ve witnessed this scene play out many times before.

I’ve seen just about every flavor of this boss-to-supervisor to low-level worker interaction. I observe the way that the men greet Justo; it’s been about a month or so since his last visit and they tease him about it. They make fun of his weight gain and his father eggs them on every chance he gets.

Past the pilones is another large room; this one is well lit and full of women sorting tobacco into little piles by grade, size, color, and thickness.

Tobacco sorting is usually done by women; their delicate hands are perfect for handling the leaves, which at this stage can be delicate and their eyes are said to see more shades than men’s. We come up to one of the tables where Cameroon wrapper is being sorted and it is a thing of beauty.

The tobacco is reddish and clean looking and smells like something you’d want to eat. “Are you sure this is Cameroon?” I had to ask to make sure that we were in fact looking at Cameroon tobacco. The leaves were not nearly as toothy and delicate as most of the Cameroon tobacco I’ve seen being sorted. Julio responds, “When you feed and nurture a baby and give it lots of love what happens?

The baby gets fat, healthy, and happy right? The same thing happens with tobacco.”

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sure the harvests were going as planned. He couldn’t stay away.

For someone in Julio’s condition, the flight and transportation from the airport to the farm is excruciating.

In 2014 he’d had enough and moved back for good, taking over 100% of the growing operation again. At this point Davidoff had already stopped purchasing tobacco from him so he put together a small cigar factory and started training rollers to make the kinds of cigars that reminded him of the Cuban cigars of what he considers “Cuba’s golden era,” 1947 to 1961. You can see those dates on every Aladino label and box as homage to the glorious tobacco of that time.

Cameroon is the name given to this tobacco seed varietal often sought after for its qualities as wrapper tobacco. But Cameroon wrappers are usually broken down into two basic groups, African Cameroon and New World Cameroon.

African Cameroon literally comes from the west central African country and is usually the realm of the Meerapfel family who essentially saved the varietal from extinction. New World Cameroon uses the same seed varietal as African but is grown in places like Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and in this case Honduras. Most of the Cameroon wrapper grown by JRE goes into their Aladino Cameroon line.

We made our way out of the sorting room and into a warehouse that was about three-quarters filled with tobacco. Then another and yet another that was similarly less than full. I asked Justo about the nature of these partly empty warehouses. “My father believes in spreading the risk. If a warehouse catches fire or anything like that you minimize the loss. It also allows plenty of room between pilónes for his scooter.” Spending time with Julio, Justo, and their team, you get the sense that everything is done with intention and an abundance of common sense. While Julio and Justo were preoccupied with one of the tobacco piles, I asked one of the supervisors, “Who’s really the boss around here?”

62 | CIGAR SNOB | SEPT / OCT 2022

“It isn’t Don Julio or Don Justo,” he said, “the real boss here is Sandra.”

To understand this answer, you have to know a bit of the history. Sandra Ochoa has been working with Julio Eiroa for more than 31 years. She was a young woman, fresh out of college where she studied to be an elementary school teacher. She started working as an administrative assistant for Mr. Eiroa while attending law school. As she gained experience and tenure, her influence within the company began to spread and today she’s the general manager of the entire Honduras operation. From an operations standpoint, she oversees the day to day for the tobacco plantations, tobacco processing, box factory, and the cigar factory. If that isn’t enough, she also runs the operation for CLE Cigars, Christian Eiroa’s cigar factory in nearby Danlí.

Perhaps more relevant to why she’s considered the boss is the fact that when Christian and Julio sold Camacho and Julio “retired” to the Bahamas, Sandra stayed behind making it all work. The workload and stress level during the transition almost broke her will but throughout the process she led the workforce with grace and a steady hand.

Later that evening speaking privately with Julio, he echoed the sentiments of the supervisor saying, “The workers respect me, but they fear Sandra. They call her ‘La Comandanta’ (female commander). She runs everything here.”

While Sandra is “the boss” of everything, her baby is the company’s box factory. Consumers don’t see this but the reality is that the supply of well-made cigar boxes can either make or break a cigar making operation. You can imagine if the cigars are made and ready to ship but there are no boxes for it, you have a problem. Conversely if you have too many boxes of a particular brand or shape but the cigars are not ready, storage space becomes a problem.

When running smoothly, the two separate factories perform a wellchoreographed dance that isn’t seen by anyone other than those at the very top of the organization.

To date Aladino has kept the profile of their boxes pretty classic and standardized to make them “shelffriendly” for their retail partners but you get the sense that Sandra wouldn’t mind flexing a little every now and then. “We can make boxes to compete with anyone,” she says, “and we’ve proven it.” She rattles off complicated boxes they’ve made for customers with gusto, showing me pictures from her phone as if she’d expected me to doubt her. I’ve never doubted this amazing woman’s abilities since the first time I met her back in 2010.

COMING OUT OF RETIREMENT From his home in the Bahamas Julio would call and check in on the tobacco but it wasn’t enough. He started flying back down more and more, making

He named the small factory and brand Aladino after a popular movie theater in Danlí that had closed. The name has always struck me as odd; for a man and a company that does everything so intentional, why Aladino?

“I remember from the old days how important it was for a brand to have a name that was easy to remember and pronounce,” he explained during one of our conversations. “Aladino reminds people of the old story and is easy for English speakers to pronounce.” It’s as simple as that. As usual he’s right; it works.

In recent months the company has started to bring on the next generation of Eiroas into the fold. In addition to Julio, Justo, and Justo’s wife Vivian Flefil Eiroa, who runs the company’s Miami-based sales and distribution office, two of their three daughters have joined the company full-time. Their oldest, Vivi Eiroa, runs the company’s marketing and international business development, and Andrea Eiroa runs the company’s accounting department.

On my last night in Camp Aladino, the family had left and it was just Julio, Sandra, and me smoking rechasos (rejects) in Julio’s room. Not surprisingly, he only smokes rejects rather than taking grade A cigars from the production. I’d managed to ask every question about his personal history, the tobacco and cigar operations, and everything in between.

I asked him one final question: How does it feel to have the next generation be part of the company. He let a smile creep into his face just a little and said, “It’s a joy to have them be part of the business.”

FEEL THE PASSION, TASTE THE QUALITY

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CHURCHILL Manolo Quesada 75 Anniversary

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AJ Fernandez New World Cameroon

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Churchill 7 52 Nicaragua Brazil Nicaragua

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

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TORO Plasencia Cosecha 149

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$ 15.95

90

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

Toro 6 52 USA/Connecticut Mexico Honduras & Nicaragua

West Tampa Tobacco Company Black

90

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

N I CA R AG UA A potent toro covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper with an oily feel. Opens with a flavorpacked core of smooth pepper, cinnamon, roasted nuts, sweet cedar, and tanned leather accompanied by deep earth notes. Firmly packed, this blend leaves behind a solid, compact ash.

$ 9.99 Toro 6 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

CAO BX3

N I CA R AG UA Opens with tons of pepper and earth accompanied by notes of raisin, oak, and espresso. Covered with a dark, toothy wrapper, this medium plus strength blend leaves behind a solid, compact ash.

$ 9.49

89 68 | CIGAR SNOB | SEPT / OCT 2022

H O N D UR AS

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

Toro 6 54 Brazil Brazil Brazil, Honduras, Mexico & Nicaragua

N I CA R AG UA Covered with a dark, oily wrapper with a toothy feel, this medium bodied maduro boasts a combination of ripe fruit, smooth pepper, and bittersweet cocoa joined by a touch of oak and earth. Provides an open draw with a wavy burn line.

TORO AJ Fernandez Dias de Gloria

$ 11.00

N I CAR AGUA A smooth and flavorful box-pressed toro finished with a clean, reddish brown wrapper with beautiful oils. This impeccably constructed blend provides a perfect draw and delivers a core of red pepper, roasted nuts, and cocoa powder balanced by a sweet note of caramel cream.

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

Toro (Box-Pressed) 6 56 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

92 Nica Rustica Adobe

$ 5.76

N I CAR AGUA A rich and creamy toro with a profile of raw almond, smooth pepper, and cocoa complemented by a touch of savory wood on the finish. Firmly packed and covered with a clean, light brown wrapper. Produces an excellent output of medium strength smoke.

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

Toro 6 52 Nicaragua Brazil Nicaragua

Guardian of the Farm Cerberus

$ 10.50

N I CAR AGUA A flavorful and creamy blend covered with a clean, reddish brown wrapper with excellent oils. Produces an excellent smoke output loaded with notes of cedar, almond cream, and spice accompanied by a lingering sweetness.

Medium plus strength.

91

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

Toro 6 1/4 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

91 Gurkha Pure Evil

$ 9.50

N I CAR AGUA Intense and flavorful with a core of pepper, roasted nuts, grilled meats, and hickory complemented by a sweet creaminess on the finish. This thick toro is covered with an inviting, reddish brown wrapper with excellent oils. Medium to full strength.

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

Toro 6 54 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Macanudo Inspirado Jamao

$ 10.49

D OM I NI CA N REPUBLIC Covered with a thin, light brown wrapper with a slight discoloration and bumpiness. Provides an easy draw while producing an excellent output of mild to medium strength smoke with notes of honey, cinnamon, unsalted peanuts, and a hint of spice.

90

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

Toro 5 3/4 52 Dominican Republic Honduras Honduras, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

90 Pichardo Clasico Natural

$ 9.95

N I CAR AGUA A savory blend with a profile highlighted by notes of wood, black pepper, and black American coffee accompanied by dried fruit. Produces an excellent smoke output along a perfect draw and an even burn. Medium bodied.

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

Toro 6 1/2 50 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

89 SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

69

ROBUSTO Padrón 1926 Serie Maduro

93

$ 15.22 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

No. 6 4 3/4 50 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

The Wise Man Maduro

An impeccably constructed blend covered with a tasty, dark brown wrapper. Draws and burns perfectly while producing an excellent output of thick, aromatic smoke with a profile of dark chocolate, espresso, and sweet spice accompanied by a subtle note of earth and a hint of dark fruit.

$ 11.20

92

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

Robusto 5 1/2 50 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua

EP Carrillo Pledge Prequel

91

N I CA R AG UA A beautifully soft-pressed robusto with a balanced and flavorful profile highlighted by notes of cocoa powder, smooth pepper, roasted nuts, and sweet earth accompanied by a rich, leather aroma. Superb construction provides a flawless draw and burn.

$ 11.35 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 USA Ecuador Nicaragua

Asylum PCA Exclusive

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A flavorful and balanced robusto covered with a dark, oily wrapper finished with a neat boxpress. Delivers a core of dark chocolate, ripe fruit, and earth complemented by a combination of smooth spice, cedar, and a touch of sweet cream. Medium plus strength.

$ 16.00

90

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

50X5 5 50 Honduras Honduras Honduras

Sancho Panza Double Maduro

88

H O N D UR AS A beautifully box-pressed robusto covered with a clean, dark brown wrapper with a velvet feel.

Draws well and produces a profile of black pepper, earth, and charred oak accompanied by a bit of extra dark chocolate.

$ 7.49 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Blackbird Crow

H O N D UR AS Covered with a toothy, dark brown wrapper with sheen, this medium strength robusto has a core of earth, dark chocolate, and sweet spice accompanied by a touch of sour fruit on the finish.

$ 8.86

88 70 | CIGAR SNOB | SEPT / OCT 2022

N I CA R AG UA

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

Robusto 5 50 Mexico Dominican Republic Nicaragua & USA

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Opens with tons of intense black pepper and charred oak, which settle to incorporate notes of bittersweet chocolate and espresso. This medium plus strength robusto is covered with a dark, oily wrapper with a coarse feel.

CUM LAUDE

VF 1998 is a cigar with distinction.

This sophisticated blend utilizes an aging process that provides the cigar with a unique and balanced character. Its intense aroma and refined rich flavor full of nuances represent a step forward in the complexity level of the brand.

SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

71

ROBUSTO Espinosa Knuckle Sandwich Habano

92

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

$ 12.50 Robusto-J 5 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Villiger Miami

An ultra-flavorful blend that delivers a core of roasted nuts, smooth pepper, and heavy cream complemented by subtle hints of cocoa, citrus, and baking spice. Consistently well made and covered with a velvety, light brown wrapper with beautiful sheen.

$ 15.00

92

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

Robusto 5 50 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Aladino

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C An impeccably balanced blend with a profile of sweet cedar, nuts, and baking spice complemented by a creamy sweetness and a clean finish. Consistently well-constructed, this robusto draws and burns perfectly while producing an excellent smoke output.

$ 8.50

91

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

Rothschild 4 1/2 48 Honduras Honduras Honduras

Ferio Tego Timeless Prestige

91 90

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

Robusto 4 3/4 50 Honduras Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Flawlessly constructed and covered with a thin, well-aged wrapper with a light brown color.

Draws and burns exceptionally well while producing an output of medium strength smoke with a core of sweet spice, nuts, and oak accompanied by a touch of tanned leather with a clean finish.

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a clean, reddish brown wrapper with sheen, this flavorful robusto delivers a good output of medium bodied smoke highlighted by notes of cedar, dried fruit, and pepper complemented by a honey-like sweetness on the finish.

$ 8.57 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 52 Ecuador Ecuador Nicaragua & USA

Maya Selva Villa Zamorano Reserva

90

H O N D UR AS

$ 9.50

La Rosa de San Diego Natural

72 | CIGAR SNOB | SEPT / OCT 2022

N I CA R AG UA

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

N I CA R AG UA A firmly packed robusto covered with a neatly applied, reddish brown wrapper with a velvet feel.

This beautifully constructed blend draws perfectly while producing an excellent output of medium bodied smoke with notes of red pepper, earth, and nuts complemented by a touch of cedar.

$ 6.40 Robusto 5 50 Honduras Honduras Honduras

H O N D UR AS Delivers a smooth core of cedar, nuts, earth, and a touch of pepper complemented by a hint of cream. A medium bodied blend covered with a clean, milk chocolate colored wrapper with minimal veins.

SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

73

CORONA Oscar Valladares Super Fly

91

$ 9.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona 5 1/4 45 Mexico Honduras Honduras, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Tatuaje 7th Tuxtla

An ultra-flavorful short corona with a well-balanced combination of smooth earth, cedar, dark cherry, and sweet pepper. This impeccably constructed smoke is covered with a dark, toothy wrapper and produces an excellent output of medium strength smoke.

$ 9.50

91

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

Corona 5 5/8 46 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua

HVC Hot Cake

N I CA R AG UA Opens with an intense combination of sweet red pepper, cedar, and earth. More nuanced flavors of grilled meats, cocoa, and toasted almonds join the profile of this medium to full strength corona.

Draws and burns exceptionally well while leaving behind a solid, compact ash.

$ 7.80

90

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

Corona Gorda 5 5/8 46 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua

Tabernacle Havana Seed CT #142

90

N I CA R AG UA Delivers a core of earth, red pepper, cedar, and cocoa accompanied by a ripe fruit sweetness with a rich, creamy texture. This medium plus strength blend provides a firm draw and leaves behind a dark gray ash. Covered with a goodlooking, dark brown wrapper with a velvet feel.

$ 10.33 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona 5 1/4 46 USA/Connecticut Mexico Nicaragua

Crux Epicure Maduro

N I CA R AG UA A flavorful and complex corona that opens with notes of dark fruit, smooth pepper, and almond cream later joined by a heavy dose of earth, black coffee, and a pronounced black pepper.

The strength builds to a solid medium to full along a perfect draw.

$ 9.25

90

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

Corona Gorda 5 3/8 46 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua

Alec & Bradley Gatekeeper

88 74 | CIGAR SNOB | SEPT / OCT 2022

H O N D UR AS

N I CA R AG UA A beautifully constructed blend covered with a clean, dark brown wrapper with excellent oils.

Produces a balanced, medium plus strength smoke output with a profile of smooth pepper, molasses, and bittersweet cocoa complemented by a touch of espresso.

$ 8.75 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona 5 1/8 42 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

H O N D UR AS A balanced blend delivering a combination of black pepper, espresso, and roasted nuts accompanied by subtle notes of currant, tanned leather, and a touch of clove. Produces a wavy burn requiring occasional touchups. Medium bodied.

SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

75

CORONA My Father La Antiguedad

$ 8.70

93

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

Corona Grande 6 3/8 47 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Arturo Fuente The Unnamed Reserve 21

92

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

Impeccably balanced with a core of rich, creamy notes of roasted almond, vanilla, and cocoa complemented by soft pepper, cedar, and baking spice. Impeccably pressed and finished with an inviting dark brown wrapper with excellent oils.

Medium plus strength.

$ 18.00 Grand Corona 5 3/4 48 Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Davidoff Escurio

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A well-balanced blend with a profile of cedar, cinnamon, almond, and dried fruit complemented by an ultra-smooth white pepper note and a clean finish. Draws perfectly while producing an excellent output of medium bodied smoke.

$ 1 7.70

92

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

Corona Gorda 6 46 Ecuador Brazil Brazil & Dominican Republic

Mi Querida Triqui Traca

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A nuanced combination of cream, cedar, and sweet spice complemented by cocoa, raw almonds, and a touch of lemongrass. This wellconstructed corona draws well and produces an excellent output of highly aromatic, medium strength smoke.

$ 12.25

91

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

No. 648 6 48 USA/Connecticut Nicaragua Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

7-20-4 Factory 57

N I CA R AG UA An ultra-flavorful blend covered with an impeccable, dark brown wrapper with an oily texture.

Produces an abundance of highly aromatic, medium plus strength smoke with a core of bittersweet cocoa, espresso, and deep pepper joined by notes of raisin and almond cream.

$ 7.75

91

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

Corona 6 46 Nicaragua Costa Rica Honduras, Mexico, Colombia & Nicaragua

Illusione Allegria

H O N D UR AS A powerful corona covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper with excellent oils. The blend opens with a core of black pepper, espresso, and earth complemented by notes of roasted almonds and ripe fruit sweetness. Delivers tons of medium to full strength smoke.

$ 9.85

91 76 | CIGAR SNOB | SEPT / OCT 2022

N I CA R AG UA

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

Corona 5 1/8 42 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

N I CA R AG UA Delivers a highly nuanced profile accompanied by a heavy dose of strength. This well-made corona opens with cedar, roasted nuts, and brown sugar complemented by a rich creaminess on the finish. Covered with an oily milk chocolate colored wrapper topped with a triple cap.

SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

77

HARD BALL LEIGH STEINBERG with

Sports agent Leigh Steinberg is a respected legend in a field known for its feisty negotiating on behalf of the best athletes among us. At 73 years old, Steinberg has seen a lot of comings and goings in the sports industry and we sit down with him to talk about LIV Golf, sports betting and his dream client.

who allegedly gave the go-ahead to the murder of journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

President Joe Biden greeted Crown Prince Salman with a bro-friendly fist bump at the outset of a summer meeting between the two statesmen after promising during his election campaign in 2020 to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” over its human rights record.

While the Saudis fund an annual Formula One event in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, an international soccer team and world championship boxing,

years old. “The killing of Khashoggi was horrific and the potential involvement of the Saudis in the 9/11 attacks is also repulsive. What makes it difficult is that there are so many countries that violate human rights, yet we do commerce with them.”

He points first to China, where the current administration has opted to look the other way on complaints of forced labor in the making of solar panels, a key component of an avowed conversion to renewable energy in the U.S. “The NBA is there,” Steinberg says. “Yet

he debate surrounding the squabble between the PGA and some of its members over defections to the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf tour came to a standstill during Kenny Easley’s July GTA Celebrity Golf Classic at the White Horse Golf Club in Kingston, Washington.

Along the way, he has encouraged his charges to create a way to thank the people that helped on the way up. Sponsoring scholarships, making donations, and community engagement have been part of the work his clients perform, fostering a charitable image for the athlete while ideally benefiting others along the way.

While the PGA threatened its renegade members and lawsuits flew, the cigars came out and took everyone away from the unpleasant conundrum of professional golf, the money, and the divisive arguments.

LIV Golf is criticized by some as a way for the Saudis and its monarchy government to give it some positive public image after being disparaged for decades by foes who insist the country is a hotbed of oppression, from denying women the right to drive until 2018 to the repression of free speech and the politically motivated arrest of individuals determined by leadership to be enemies of the state.

“They passed out the cigars, and there’s something communal about sitting with a group and talking about things,” veteran sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who was among the dignitaries in attendance, tells Cigar Snob. “Everyone enjoyed the bonding that can bring.”

A month later, back at his desk in Southern California, Steinberg looks at the hullabaloo over the LIV Golf tour, currently challenging the PGA with some high-profile acquisitions of key golfers: “How do you tell an athlete who watches the president fist bump the head of a country and beg for oil that he should not play a sport in a league that country funds?” Steinberg says.

For four-plus decades, Steinberg has represented major athletes and coaches across the sports spectrum, securing deals worth over $4 billion, according to his PR team.

78 | CIGAR SNOB | SEPT / OCT 2022

“Why is this group spending so much money — billions of dollars — recruiting players and chasing a concept with no possibility of a return?” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan posited in a June interview with NBC’s Golf Channel.

LIV Golf is a form of perceived good will hunting that is being met with a barrage of resistance from not only Monahan and the PGA but also observers who insist the LIV endeavor is an effort to “sports wash,” or create an atmosphere that could distract from a dismal human rights record.

The LIV is funded by the Saudis’ Public Investment Fund, a $620 billion bottomless pit controlled by Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman, a man

Photo provided by Leigh Steinberg

BY STEVE MILLER

the challenge to the established order of professional golf is taking it a little far for the PGA, which in June suspended 17 players for playing in the inaugural LIV Golf International Series.

Steinberg, though, considers the flap over the new circuit more of a competition issue with a side dish of sports washing.

“Had I been running the PGA, I would have taken it easy and not created more controversy by banning players,” says Steinberg, a youthful looking 73

Uyghurs are being put into relocation camps and there is no freedom of speech. And what makes this situation challenging is that [Biden] went to Saudi Arabia after excoriating them during his campaign and fist bumped the prince. Where does one draw the line?”

If he were representing a PGA golfer, Steinberg says he would “have them do an internal inventory on how important human rights is as an issue, and whether it is more important than short-term financial gain or long-term

But is the LIV an example of sports washing?

“Definitely,” Steinberg says. “The Saudis want to have a positive image in the United States, and some of their actions make that difficult. To the extent that they will be able to lure more golfers – and they will – the economics are there, as they have inexhaustible resources and chances are that they can make this work.”

Professional sports have survived competition in the past and while the stakes are higher now – major sports are worth an estimated $80 billion today – things are also more territorial.

When you put billions on the line, people start to act funny. And the PGA, tax-exempt like the NFL and the NHL, brought in an estimated $1.1 billion in revenue 2020, and is acting like anyone else who is threatened with a theft of the gravy train – it filed a lawsuit.

problems that included a battle with booze and financial woes.

He grew up in the Los Angeles area, attending Pacific Coast League junior circuit baseball games at Gilmour Field, then major league baseball when the Dodgers moved west and played initially at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

It was a time that Hollywood was blossoming as a lifestyle mecca. The entertainment world as well as the sports industry was recognizing that palm trees and sunshine were good for business.

“It conjures up good memories, the smell of cigar smoke, and I still associate an occasional cigar with male bonding and sitting with friends,” Steinberg says.

And in hockey, the NHL took several teams from its rival World Hockey Association in 1979 as part of an expansion agreement.

He adds that his warm feeling about cigars is widely shared among the ranks of pro athletes. Witness Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers smoking a Perdomo Champagne during his appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in August – taped and presented also on video – and numerous other athletes who dare celebrate with a cigar after a victory.

“THERE IS NOTHING CONTROVERSIAL ABOUT STARTING A NEW LEAGUE OTHER THAN THE INCUMBENT LEAGUE ALWAYS TRASHES THE NEW LEAGUE.” Steinberg, on the other hand, has nothing but blue skies on his landscape, both figuratively and literally.

His flourishing business is headquartered in a Newport Beach, California office that overlooks a small bay, a peaceful setting for a placid life. Steinberg went through some well-documented years of personal

line. But on performance, Rose should be in [the HOF]. Maybe you use an asterisk.”

But he adds that the steroid use alleged by Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens and other stars of the 90s is different.

“Gambling is a moral and ethical issue, but steroids are cheating because it really does enhance performance,” Steinberg says. “What’s not clear is what the standard was for whether

His first live baseball experience featured cigars. It had to, as he was part of a group that included George Burns, a friend of Steinberg’s grandfather, a local restaurateur. He attended his first game as a young boy with Burns, who was reported to smoke 10-15 El Producto Queens a day, among his party.

While the NFL and the AFL co-existed relatively peacefully in the 1960s, they eventually joined schedules in 1970.

The ABA and the NBA did the same in 1976.

“History is replete with new leagues that have made it,” Steinberg says. “A number of them have made it.”

line to having parimutuel-type betting at stadiums and arenas. You will be able to bet at the football game who wins the coin toss and scores the first touchdown. When teams started accepting Indian casinos as advertisers and started buying into fantasy sports, the line that was once impregnable was crossed. For years, the greatest fear of professional sports was that the fans would think that games were not played on an even playing field. The thought that an athlete

“The number of athletes who smoke cigars has no relationship to the number of pictures of athletes smoking cigars,” Steinberg says. “It tends to be because athletes understand that they are role models and don’t want to be seen as influencing younger people to smoke.

They avoid those pictures. But there is a long tradition of cigars in sports.”

Steinberg is now a sought-after speaker as well as a regarded agent.

He’s represented over 300 pro athletes including eight No. 1 NFL draft picks.

And he still attends sports events routinely, forming candid views of how sports have evolved and how it is perceived.

Sports betting, the domain of besuited, shady underworld guys clenching cheap cigars in the 50s, is now routine at casinos around the U.S. “That horse is out of the barn,” Steinberg says. “We’re on a direct

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons- JazzyJoeyD- Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

financial security.”

Dustin Johnson hoists the championship trophy following his victory in the LIV Golf Invitational Boston tournament.

gambled on games, got in trouble with bookies, that they might be tempted to shave their performance, kept sports out of Las Vegas.”

But that, he says, “was yesteryear,” when NFL stars including Green Bay running back Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras were suspended for betting on NFL games and consorting with bookies. Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain was suspended from baseball for similar alleged infractions, just 17 months after he won his 30th game in 1968. Pete Rose was banned from baseball in 1989 for life after it was discovered he bet on his own team, the Cincinnati Reds.

Now the NFL’s Raiders play football within eyesight of the Las Vegas Strip and betting on college sports is part of the fabric of the game.

So, should Rose be allowed back into baseball? If he were allowed, he would be in the game’s Hall of Fame already based on a career of modern-day greatness.

“That’s a hard question,” Steinberg says. “It’s sort of like the argument over steroids. It’s where you draw the

people used steroids, was the testing clear.

“I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision.”

Steinberg has represented a legendary roster of sports heroes – footballers Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, and Steve Bartkowski, boxers Oscar de la Hoya and Lennox Lewis, and baseball stars Eric Karros and Dusty Baker.

It’s hardly the end of the road for the vibrant Steinberg. But his history allows for some reflection. Among such a rumination would doubtless be: What about that one dream client?

Who would he represent if he could rearrange the furniture of history?

Steinberg doesn’t take more than five seconds to answer.

“It would be Sandy Koufax,” he says.

“He was a Dodger, he didn’t pitch on Yom Kippur, which made him a role model, and he was the most dominant player I ever saw in any sport. He had the potential to pitch a perfect game every time out, had record-breaking strikeouts, a minuscule ERA. He was so much better than his competition, and off the field he was a real gentleman.”

SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

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TWITTER SCOREBOARD 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 3 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 ) Drew Estate Cigars @DrewEstateCigar ....................................

Rocky Patel @RockyPatelCigar ...............................................

Padron Cigar @PadronCigars ..................................................

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

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

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

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

Jonathan Drew @JonathanDrewArt .........................................

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

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

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

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

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

Davidoff Cigars @Davidoff_Cigars ...........................................

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

E. Perez-Carillo @EPCarrillo ....................................................

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

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

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

JC Newman Cigar @JCNewmanCigars .......................................

TOP CIGAR ORGANIZATIONS

46921 38418 29117 27626 21509 20902 20664 17867 17792 16044 15853 15082 14044 13515 13080 12942 12897 12785 12717 12589

TOP CIGAR RETAILERS & REPS Famous Smoke Shop @FamousSmokeShop .............................

Slippery Rock Cigars @SlipperyRockCig ....................................

Mulberry St. Cigars @MulberryStCigar ....................................

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

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

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

Barry – Two Guys Smoke Shop @Barry2Guys ...........................

Michael Herklots @MichaelHerklots .........................................

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

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

17645 15949 12653 10496 7756 7364 6264 6200 4910 4810

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

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

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

Blind Man’s Puff @BlindMansPuff ............................................

Cigar Federation @CigarFederation .........................................

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

Cigar Dojo @CigarDojo ............................................................

CigarHustler.com @CigarHustler .............................................

Cigar Vixen @CigarVixen .........................................................

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

80 | CIGAR SNOB | SEPT / OCT 2022

139181 18655 16736 15034 11427 11403 10761 10497 8461 7934

Cigar Rights of America @cigarrights ...................................... 14502 Premium Cigar Association @PCA1933 .................................... 9311 Tobacconist University @tobacconistU ................................... 4331

TOP CIGAR RADIO Cigar Dave Show @CigarDaveShow ........................................ 10232 KMA Talk Radio @KMATalkRadio ............................................. 2104 Cigars and Scotch @CigarScotch ............................................ 2042

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

@purotastiing Have a great week my friends!

Time for the traditional Monday special time…

Let’s enjoy some Melanio Motivation with the Oliva Serie V Melanio Robusto #olivacigars #cigarworld #cigarlife #cigarsmoker #cigarsociety #cigarsnob #cigarphotography

@clarkshaun Chilling outside with the family on this lovely evening why I enjoy Fuente Friday with a nice pour. Stay smoky and keep it cloudy family! #fuentefriday #opusx #arturofuentecigars #glenfiddichdistillery #perfectpair #cigarsnob

SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

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INSTAGRAM SCOREBOARD Since its launch in October of 2010, the cigar world has become enamored with Instagram. Today the ‘Gram is unquestionably the most popular platform on which to share snaps of what you’re smoking and drinking. This scoreboard is sorted by number of followers and broken into groups: Top 20 Cigar & Cigar Accessory Companies, Top 10 Retailers & Reps, Top 10 Cigar Influencers, Top 3 Cigar Organizations, and Top 3 Cigar Radio accounts. If you have the numbers and belong in one of these groups, stand up and be counted! Set us straight via Instagram @cigarsnobmag.

TOP CIGAR & ACCESSORY COMPANIES ( sorted by Instagram followers ) Padron Cigar @padroncigars ...................................................

Davidoff Cigars @davidoffcigars .............................................

Drew Estate Cigars @drewestatecigar .....................................

Rocky Patel Premium Cigars @rockypatelcigar ........................

Arturo Fuente @arturofuentecigars .........................................

Epic Cigars @epiccigars .........................................................

Boveda @BovedaInc ...............................................................

Gurkha Cigars @gurkhacigars .................................................

Xikar Inc @xikar .....................................................................

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

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

My Father Cigars @myfathercigars ..........................................

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

Oliva Cigar Co. @olivacigar .....................................................

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

Raquel Quesada @raquelquesadaofficial .................................

Alec Bradley Cigars @alecbradleycigar ....................................

Nick Perdomo @Perdomocigars ..............................................

Plasencia Cigars @plasenciacigars .........................................

Joya de Nicaragua @joyacigars ...............................................

160417 135145 133514 103951 96901 89570 79054 76378 76115 71521 67186 65175 62115 62046 61540 60685 56302 54343 53160 51147

TOP CIGAR RETAILERS & REPS Privada Cigar Club @privadacigarclub .....................................

Famous Smoke Shop @famoussmokeshop ...............................

Mulberry St. Cigars @mulberrystcigars ...................................

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

The Cigar Culture @thecigarculture .........................................

Michael Herklots @michaelherklots .........................................

Master Sensei @cigardojo ......................................................

Angela Yue @angela_yue .........................................................

La Casa Cigars & Lounge Vegas @lacasavegas ........................

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

56346 54534 46109 29478 28637 27573 27093 24526 24356 19698

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Premium Cigar Association @PCA1933 .................................... 17008 Total Product Expo @totalproductexpo ..................................... 6429 Cigar Rights of America @cigarrightsofamerica ......................... 3996

TOP CIGAR RADIO Cigar Dave Show @cigardave ................................................. 3423 KMA Talk Radio @KMATalkRadio ............................................. 1582 Eat Drink Smoke @eatdrinksmokepodcast ................................. 1200

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

@thecigarmadame

It’s only right that rare blends smoke them dahling! #treatyoselfwednesday #beautiful #poolday #positivevibes Davidoff Limited Edition 2022 with my flame @ sistersinsmoke

@thecigarparlor

TOP ONLINE CIGAR INFLUENCERS ON INSTAGRAM Liz Cigar Life Style @remarkable_liz ........................................

Whiskey Girl Josie @whiskeygirl_josie .....................................

Delicia-Creator-Influencer @cigarvixen ...................................

Cigar Lover @cigarlover12 ......................................................

Nikki @cigarpassionista ..........................................................

Melanie Sisco @lilsiscokidd21 .................................................

Cigars / Smoke.Laugh.Live @world.of.cigars ............................

Angela, CCST & IACS CCS @cigarsmokingchick .......................

HERficinado / Cigar Lifestyle @herficionado .............................

Elaine Lilley @elainelilleyhawaii ...............................................

TOP CIGAR ORGANIZATIONS

115097 89862 88450 66439 43186 39996 37100 33739 29971 28945

Stop by and get one of them delicious cigars, OLMEC #olmeccigar #cigar #cigars #cigarlife #cigarsociety #cigarlounge #cigarsmoker #cigarsnob

d o O w D a e d

NEw!

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love is for suckers - cigars are for lovers love is for suckers - cigars are for lovers l

WElc0Me to deaDwoOd

EVENTS HavanaFest PA

State College, Pa. We told you about this one starting a month in advance because we knew it would be this kind of blowout, a street festival celebrating the heritage of the Caribbean. HavanaFest, which was hosted by Your Cigar Den Premium Cigars and Accessories, featured Cuban cuisine - think roast pork, grilled chicken, rice, beans, yucca, plantains, and of course coffee - live music, costumed dancers, DJs and plenty of libations. Free cigars and a lucky raffle number came with the price of entry.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Nichole Yatta

SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

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EVENTS FERIO TEGO AT EMPIRE SOCIAL LOUNGE

Miami Ferio Tego hosted separate, member-only events at Empire Social Lounge’s locations in Brickell and Dadeland featuring Michael Herklots from Ferio Tego Cigars and Luis Santana from Flor de Caña, maker of premium rums.

The two paired Flor de Caña’s 12-, 18- and 25-year-old rums with Ferio Tego’s Timeless Supreme 652T. The two took questions from attendees after the pairings, and attendees were able to purchase boxes from the Ferio Tego line.

Mike and Betty González

Michael Herklots, Karl Martínez and Luis Santana

Andrew Abreu, Clara Marín and Body Shot

Ranfys Butka, Javier Soto and Karl Hayden

Angel Castrillo from Miami Cigar Club and Terry Lana

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Ashley Camps, Priscilla Arango and Megan Rodríguez

Wilber Aguirre and Aracelis Prieto

Matt Fusinato and Gabriel Piñeres

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EVENTS LATIN BUILDERS 35TH ANNUAL FISHING TOURNAMENT WITH OLIVA CIGARS Key Largo, Fla.

Fish were caught, cigars were smoked, and food and drink were in abundance at this family-friendly, three-day celebration, where Oliva Cigars provided the stogies. The event at Playa Largo Resort came complete with a luau and Hawaiian dancers, capped with an awards dinner and a last blast party that went late. First place went to National Truck Center, which received prizes that included award-winning smokes and cool accessories.

Tico Gutiérrez, Albert Sosa, José "Pepe" Díaz and Gus Cabrera

Yadira Creighton, Fidel Valdés and Denia Pedreira

Carlos Sr. and Carlos Salazar Jr.

Eduardo and Anet Blasco

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Claudia Trejos

Barbie and Eddy González

Tony Gestido, Ernie Díaz and Joe Avetarni

Roland Lugo and Samantha Arrebola

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EVENTS ASHFEST

Rochester, N.Y. The annual festival put on by Nice Ash Cigar and Lounge benefits veterans through the locally based Veteran’s Outreach Center. Sponsored by several cigar producers led by Tampa’s J.C. Newman Cigar, over 200 people attended and received 20-25 cigars as part of the price of admission, while swag bags included branded pint glasses, a shirt and a complimentary copy of the latest issue of Cigar Snob Magazine.

The pig roast dinner was handled by Hot Pig on Wheels, local beer came from Wicked Warren’s Brewery, and a raffle kicked out $4,000 worth of giveaway goodies.

Christian and Krystal Jackson

Maria Santos, Mike Godici and Mame Achter Kendall

Rob Roth and Drew Erlandson

Sue and Michelle

Chris Ercole and Bobby Newman

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PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Corbi

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EVENTS ROCKY MOUNTAIN CIGAR FESTIVAL Broomfield, Colo.

Smoker Friendly’s 12th annual cigar festival in the Denver area brought people from all over to the Omni Interlocken Hotel for a day of craft beers and spirits from local producers, cigars from all the favorites, and live music. Attendees received a swag bag filled with over 40 premium cigars, cutter, lighter, festival glass, t-shirt and drink tickets. The pregame party was hosted by Drew Estate and Rocky Patel. The post-party was held poolside and hosted by Espinosa Cigars.

Cigar Fanatics

Brian Johnson, Joseph Pérez and José Ortega

Scott Welch and Ryan Roth

Ryan Ward, Nick Melillo, Eduardo Aguila and James Elliott

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Justin Rose and Michael Sanguinetti

Dawn Mickens and Cigar_Mick

Nish Patel, Curt Diebel, Jeremy Weiner, David Bullock and Nimish Desai

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EVENTS BREW CITY CIGAR FESTIVAL Milwaukee

The 10th annual Brew City Cigar Festival drew over 600 people from around the U.S. to the Bavarian Bierhaus, where VIP attendees dug into steak dinners, a premium bar and bonus swag. Everyone, though, enjoyed cigars from the 20 premium cigar companies there, as well as over 60 varieties of spirits, wines and beers. Entertainment came from the Jenny Thiel Trio. Money was raised through a raffle and auction to benefit the Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Initiative.

Tameeka and Kevin Crump and Laurel Tilley

Paul and Jennifer Groh and Nimish Desai Dr. Dave, with Mia Marzion, Corinna Butowski and Jess Schwamb

Glen Case and Beth Borst

Tom Peters and Kristy Fish

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Jordan and Beth Borst

PHOTO CREDIT: BeKah Lustig

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EVENTS KIMPTON SURFCOMBER WOODFORD RESERVE & OLIVA CIGAR BEACH CLUB Miami Beach

The Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel on Miami Beach hosted an event sponsored by Woodford Reserve and Oliva Cigars. Guests who bought a raffle ticket were also able to enjoy a private tasting of Woodford Reserve, while the raffle's grand prize was a basket of Oliva Cigar gear and Woodford Reserve. A selection of cocktails for attendees included Woodford Reserve whiskey along with food.

Oliva’s full selection of cigars were available for purchase and entertainment was provided by musical duo Los Complices.

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www.procigar.org SEPT / OCT 2022 | CIGAR SNOB |

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EVENTS OLE GRAPEVINE CIGAR 25TH YEAR CELEBRATION Grapevine, Tex.

Tommy Snider, Thomas Herd, Kenny Wiles and Norberto Barberiz

PHOTO CREDIT: Wlliam Buffington

Old Grapevine Cigar & Tobacco Shop celebrated its 25th anniversary with deals on Drew Estate and Nica Rustica products, including boxes and new Rustica swag. The event also marked the premier of the Nica Rustica Adobe.

It was hosted by Ryan Rayford and featured the Limited H99 Phineas Gage Lancero, which is available only at Drew Estate events, including this one.

Reggie Hamlin, Cesar Remond and Norberto Barberiz

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