 Specialty cigars have given way to special blends made once and offered once
Los Angeles, January 3 – The buzzword attached to brands during the Cigar Boom was “Reserve.”
Any brand worth its salt had not only a regular line, but a “Reserve” line, maybe also a “Vintage” line or if they had been in business for more than six months, a “Vintage Reserve”!
Now, the watchword is “Limited” in English, Spanish or both. Not as in “Limited Reserve” . . . but in a sought-after “Limited Edition.”
What is a “Limited Edition” anyway?
We define this genre of cigars as a specific blend made in one defined time period and not made after that. So once the run is finished, it isn’t available anymore.
That’s a loose-enough definition to fit the celebrated Cuban “Edicion Limitada” series which debuted in 2000 and the Dominican and Nicaraguan series which have followed.
The concept is an old one and special cigars have been produced in Cuba and elsewhere for more than 100 years. But the recent push to special, limited-edition cigars makes the recent developments worth considering.
In the late 1980s, the Cubans started producing specialty items for specific occasions. There was the 25th anniversary of Cubatabaco humidor in 1987, the 1492 Humidor commemorating the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to the New World five years later, the 1994 Habanos Anniversary Humidor, the 1995 Partagas 150th Anniversary Humidor and others. But none were created to be sold in standard packaging to the public.
That changed in 1996 with the Cohiba 30 Aniversario Jar, produced in a run of 1,000 jars of 25 cigars each. Here was a limited-run cigar of a known brand, available in limited quantity. It sold out quickly.
Then came one of the first such models for the U.S. market, the Davidoff “535" cigar made in 1997 to salute the 10th anniversary of its flagship U.S. store in New York, at 535 Madison Avenue. It was a six-inch by 50-ring beauty with a slightly stronger blend than the regular Davidoff lines. It was hard to come by and it wasn’t cheap.
That opened the floodgates, especially in Cuba:
• A new set of jars, the Millennium Reserve series, debuted in 1999 and offered 6,000 jars each of three different brands in new shapes: Cohiba (Piramides), Cuaba (Distinguidos) and Montecristo (Robustos). This was a total of 150,000 cigars per brand and they sold out quickly.
• In 2000, Habanos S.A. began its “Edicion Limitada” program, issuing single sizes of several brands in special editions featuring aged leaf. Hoyo de Monterrey, Montecristo, Partagas and Romeo y Julieta offered the first “Limitadas” in 2000. There were five brands in the 2001 and 2003 Limitada series (no series in 2002) and four in 2004. The announcement of the new Limitadas is now an almost annual event.
• In 2001, the Habanos marketing gurus came up with an even more limited “Habanos Collection” concept we spotlighted last week, featuring humidor-style boxes shaped like hardbound books holding 20 cigars each. The Habanos Collection features only one brand and size per year, with Cuaba the first to be offered in a run of only 6,000 cigars. Partagas, Hoyo and Romeo y Julieta were featured in this series in 2002-03-04 in groups of only 10,000 cigars (500 humidor boxes) each.
This doesn’t begin to mention the many specialty products still being made for special occasions and for the annual Festival de la Habano each February.
So are American smokers shut out? Hardly, since the “limited edition” concept has come to America.
In the aftermath of the Davidoff 535, the Davidoff of Geneva folks have gotten busy and introduced four true limited-edition cigars in the past four years:
• A special double corona (7 x 50) to honor Avo Uvezian’s 75th birthday was issued in 2001, but became so highly sought after that the blend was continued as the Avo Signature line.
• Davidoff introduced a classic “Limited Edition” program in 2003, with its Panatela Extra (6 1/4 x 40) size made from tobaccos grown in 2000.
• A new Avo special was created for 2004: 6,500 boxes of the Avo Legacy, a box of twelve 5 3/4-inch by 48-ring toto-sized cigars offered with a specially-produced 12-song CD!
• The 2004 Davidoff Limited Edition, this time the “Robusto Real Especiales <<7>>,” a 5 1/2-inch by 48-ring robusto produced in 10,000 boxes of 10.
But they haven’t been alone! Consider:
• The Aurora Cien Anos, a 2003-introduced, one-time creation of the La Aurora factory in the Dominican Republic celebrating the factory’s centennial, produced in four sizes with a total production of just 300,000 cigars.
• General Cigar’s “Limitadas” for the La Gloria Cubana Serie R brand created by Ernesto Perez-Carillo in 2003 (no. 6: 6 1/2 x 64 torpedo) and 2004 (No. 7: 7 1/4 x 60 torpedo) and the wild new Partagas Cifuentes Seasonal Blend Fall 2004, a one-shot blend in three sizes that will never be used again.
• Tabacalera Perdomo’s Edicion de Silvio, a 2003 tribute by Nick Perdomo to his grandfather in a run of just 50,000 cigars, divided among four sizes.
What’s more, the Cubans are now getting their first taste of competition in the Limitada market from American-based manufacturers with General Cigar’s introduction of the Macanudo Reserva Anual 2004. This unusual, special version of the Macanudo blend featured a Cameroon wrapper and production totaled just 46,800 cigars. It was an immediate sell-out in Great Britain, the only market in which it was offered!
Long compared to wine, tobacco in the form of cigars may finally reach a true parallel with the grape in the form of these special “vintages” – not when grown, but when blended, offering a one-time taste that will not be duplicated. It gives a whole new meaning to “smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.”
~ Rich Perelman
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