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HARDER TO GET THAN HAVANAS! |
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 Special-line Macanudo sold outside the U.S. only
Los Angeles, December 28 – For decades, the holy grail among cigar smokers has been Havana cigars.
When Davidoff quit Cuba in 1990 and moved production to the Dominican Republic, suddenly Cuban Davidoffs were the objects of desire.
Then the Fuentes introduced the Opus X and people are still going crazy for them, paying $30 and up per stick.
Most recently, the folks at Habanos S.A. have gotten clever and have introduced “Edicion Limitada” cigars, made once and once only on an annual basis.
Now comes Macanudo. That’s right, Macanudo.
While General Cigar was tempting U.S. smokers with its new Partagas Cifuentes Seasonal Blend “Fall 2004,” the General factory in Santiago was firing up one of the most limited editions of all, for Macanudo.
It’s hard to believe that one of the most ubiquitous brands of all could offer a “limited edition” cigar. After all, Macanudo is the leading cigar in the U.S. and has a worldwide presence among those who fancy milder blends.
But the British distributor, Hunters & Frankau, debuted the Macanudo Reserva Anual 2004 to a strictly limited audience in the fall. That’s because the blend was made in only three sizes and in only 650 boxes of 24 per size. That’s a grand total of just 46,800 cigars, less than what Macanudo sells in an average day! Of course, it was an immediate sell-out.
The sizes included the Divino (5 inches by 38 ring), the Maximo (5 1/2 x 49) and the Encanto (6 x 49). The blend resembled the normal Macanudo style with Dominican and Mexican filler and a Mexican binder. But the surprise is the twice-aged 1999 Cameroon wrapper, which provided a much-fuller flavor than the famed Connecticut-grown wrapper that graces all other Macanudo lines.
It’s almost as if General’s master blender Daniel Nunez is cross-pollinating the Macanudo base blend with the Partagas wrapper, always from Cameroon. If so, could he in the beginning stages of a new Frankenstein . . . cigar?
British Boys Acting Badly With Cigars:
Not since Monica Lewinsky have cigars dominated national news in Britain, although this time there were no women involved.
Soccer hero Joey Barton, a 22-year-old midfielder for Manchester City, was fined about $116,000 (60,000 British pounds) for pushing a lit cigar into the eye of a teammate at a holiday party last week. Ouch!
The victim of Bartron’s aggression was 20-year-old reserve James Tandy, who had been arguing with Barton throughout the party and ended up with a burnt eyelid as a souvenir of the evening. His part in the action earned him a suspended fine, to be enforced if he’s involved in any further misconduct during the coming year. Apparently, before Barton could shove his cigar into Tandy’s eye, Tandy tried to light Barton’s shirt on fire!
This is not the first run-in with trouble that Barton has had, as he drove his Peugeot into a car showroom window earlier this year.
The head of the British soccer association, Graham Taylor, told the London Times “At times you worry that these occasions are accidents waiting to happen. But I don’t want to be Ebenezer Scrooge. I don’t think we can talk about banning Christmas parties.
“It would be naive to think people wouldn’t drink at Christmas parties, which they do all over the world. The difference with footballers is that, if they step out of line, it’s front-page news.”
In Britain and America both, Graham.
From the Cubador: Pinar del Rio Tobacco Planting Continues:
Planting and harvest of the 2004-05 tobacco crop is already well underway in the Pinar del Rio region, according to Cuba’s state-run news service, Prensa Latina.
By the end of last week, the shade-grown planting areas of about 52,880 acres had nearly been completed and the sun-grown planting was continuing. All planting activity is expected to be completed in January while some early plantings are already being harvested. The entire process from planting to the start of cultivation takes only 6-7 weeks.
Little damage was done to the new crop by September’s Hurricane Ivan, which affected some seedbeds but which passed through well before the major planting effort got started in late October.
Government officials noted that the Pinar del Rio production is responsible for about 70 percent of all tobacco harvested on the island. The 2003-04 season in the Pinar del Rio produced 20.3 metric tons of leaf and a similar total is forecast for this season.
~ Rich Perelman
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