 Plus: Alberta Premier calls smoking bans “useless”
Los Angeles, January 28 – It’s not every year that can celebrate the birth of some of the greatest names in cigars. But 2005 can. It’s the home to at least seven major anniversaries, four of which will be saluted at the upcoming Festival del Habano in Havana next month:
• The 160th anniversary of Partagas, started in 1845 by Jaime Partagas, although there is evidence that he began producing cigars as early as 1827.
• The 140th birthday of Hoyo de Monterrey, created in 1865 by Jose Gener, although he introduced the La Escepcion brand first, in the 1850s.
• The 130th anniversary of Romeo y Julieta dating to 1875, although the brand was actually created in the 1850s and registered in 1873 rather than 1875. Details, details.
• The 70th anniversary of Montecristo, which, according to Min Ron Nee’s An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars, was actually created by Alonso Menendez in July, 1935 when he purchased the Particulares Factory and started this new brand. It was only after the brand’s immediate success that Menendez and his partners were able to purchase the H. Upmann factory in 1937, to which production of Montecristo was transferred.
But there are also three other anniversaries which should not go unnoticed in 2005, as each significantly impacted American smokers:
• 1910: The Birth of Bering:
From a tiny factory in the Ybor City section of Tampa, Florida came one of America’s top brands in the middle of the 20th Century.
U.S. trademark records date the introduction of Bering – honoring the Danish explorer Vitus Bering for whom the Bering Strait is named – as November of 1910, making the brand 95 years old on November 1. It wasn’t registered until June 10, 1924 by the famed Tampa firm of Corral, Wodiska & Co., which made the brand until it and the company were sold to Swisher International in 1986.
In his 1999 memoir, Cigar Family, Stanford Newman recalled his efforts to try and make space for his newly-acquired Cuesta-Rey line in 1959. “My goal was to establish Cuesta-Rey firmly as a leading premium cigar. My first tactic was to introduce the Cuesta-Rey Palma Supreme at twenty-six cents to compete with the four leading twenty-six-cent brands: Bering, Gold Label, Garcia Vega and Perfecto Garcia. This didn’t work because it was a ‘me-too’ strategy. People would not buy Cuesta-Rey at twenty-six cents when there was nothing to differentiate it from the competition.”
Newman’s brand has zoomed to prominence, but Bering has faded. Despite strong efforts to promote it, it never regained its stature and was passed by other brands during the Cigar Boom of the late 1990s. The brand left Tampa many years ago and is now controlled by Cigars by Santa Clara and made in Honduras.
• 1975: Cuban names, Dominican made:
Some 15 years after the Cuban cigar industry was nationalized by the Castro government and many prominent cigar makers left the island, a United States judge decreed that despite the confiscation of their property, their ownership of their famed Havana brands was still theirs . . . at least to sell in the U.S.
The decision was a landmark that freed the use of the name H. Upmann on cigars to be sold in the United States and led to the development of other Havana brands in non-Havana versions to be made outside of Cuba and sold in the U.S. including Partagas, Ramon Allones, Montecristo and many others.
That decision – 30 years ago this year – created new energies in cigar manufacturing first in the Canary Islands, where the first non-Cuban version of H. Upmann was developed. Soon after, a non-Havana Partagas was created in Jamaica, but both moved to the Dominican Republic in 1982 as it became the dominant producer of premium cigars for the American market between 1977 and 1981. The rest, as they say, is history.
• 1990: Davidoff Goes Dominican:
Although there are many claims to the genesis of the Cigar Boom of the 1990s, one of the seminal events which signaled the elevation of non-Havana cigars toward equality with the Cubans – and awoke new passions over cigars – was the move from Cuba to the Dominican Republic of the Davidoff brand.
Practically sainted, the Havana-made Davidoff brand was introduced in 1970 to resounding approval and was unchallenged as the top Cuban brand until the international debut of Cohiba in 1982. Within five years, concerns were being voiced about the quality of the Davidoff product and charged and countercharges began flying between Zino Davidoff and the senior executives of Cubatabaco. In March 1990, Davidoff announced that production of the Davidoff brand would be relocated to the Dominican Republic “due to the declining quality and worker productivity at the Havana plant.”
Distribution of Havana-made Davidoffs ended in 1992 and the new, Dominican-made Davidoffs have earned a worldwide reputation for quality, elegance, subtlety and class. Legendary Dominican factories like the Tabacalera A. Fuente, the massive Tabacalera de Garcia and the General Cigar facility in Santiago made that island’s reputation for quality, but the Davidoff move placed the final stamp of approval on it. The old master satisfied his desire for quality, and lit a critical match in what became the explosive Cigar Boom of the 1990s
Let’s see how the Davidoff team marks this milestone; we hope it’s with a new cigar!
Alberta Premier says Smoking Bans are Useless:
Anti-smoking forces in Canada are boiling after being rebuffed by Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, who has refused to enact a province-wide ban against smoking in workplaces.
The Edmonton Journal reported Klein’s remarks in Calgary, where he called smoking bans “useless” and noted:
“I don’t know if [bans have] done that much good. I was in Ontario and I didn’t see a healthier Ontarian than I saw in Quebec, where they don’t have smoking bans at all.”
Klein feels that municipalities within Alberta should decide the issue for themselves and was clear that he is acutely aware of the impact that such bans have on business.
Naturally, his comments were assailed by the anti-smoking lobby in Canada, but Klein is not someone to be trifled with. When Mayor of Calgary, he pushed through an ambitious light-rail (LRT) program derided as “Little Ralph’s Train.” Today, it’s the indispensable backbone of the city’s transit system. Uniquely popular, his aversion to smoking bans – Klein is a smoker himself – is worth watching to see whether his opposition can be overcome. I doubt it, but he won’t be in office forever.
Last Chance for our January Combo Offer:
The end of the month is coming on Monday, so it’s your last chance to take advantage of our special offer if you’d like to enjoy the new, 2005 Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars, along with our value-packed CigarWire service for just $32. It includes:
• A one-year subscription to the CigarWire and
• A copy of the new 2005 Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars!
That’s normally a $41.95 value, but we’re offering this special price from now through Monday at 9 p.m. Pacific time.
Your subscription will also include our “Week in Review” newsletter sent each Thursday with a summary of our top stories of the week!
~ Rich Perelman
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