 Plus: Cubans look to U.S. Supreme Court for help on Cohiba
Los Angeles, June 8 – No one does limited editions like Davidoff.
They were one of the originators of the limited-edition concept with their Davidoff “535" cigar to mark the 10th anniversary of the first U.S. store, at 535 Madison Avenue in New York. A mere 10,000 cigars were issued in boxes of 10 in late 1997.
Following the Davidoff lead, the Avo line began a limited-edition line in 2001 with the 75th Anniversary Avo. This year, the fifth limited-edition Avo – the LE5 – appeared.
So it’s time to get The Griffin’s involved . . . again.
The newest is The Griffin’s Special XXI Edition, which debuted on Monday. Only 65,000 of these cigars were made, offered in distinctive black boxes of 10 and just 2,500 boxes are slated for U.S. distribution at a suggested retail price of $100 each.
The cigar itself is unique in The Griffin’s line, showcased in glass tubes with a double band and a cork stopper. It’s a 5 1/2-inch by 50-ring robusto that features an Ecuadorian-grown, Connecticut-seed wrapper, Mexican-grown, Sumatra-seed binder and Dominican filler leaves.
It promises to be a spicy cigar with some power behind it, like its 2004 predecessor, The Griffin’s Special XX Edition, a celebration of the brand’s 20th anniversary. Only 60,000 of those cigars were made, offered in boxes of 20, in the robusto format at 5 1/4 inches long and 52 ring.
Perhaps the least celebrated of the Davidoff brand family, The Griffin’s was started in 1984 by Bernard H. Grobet, a Swiss nightclub owner and cigar connoisseur, to sell in his club, also called The Griffin’s. It became popular enough to sell throughout Switzerland and came to the U.S. in 1989. Davidoff took over the distribution of the brand and eventually bought it in 1992.
Passed in popularity by other brands during the Cigar Boom, The Griffin’s first line extension, The Griffin’s Fuerte re-energized the brand with a fuller, more forthright taste in 2002. The Special XX Edition pumped even more flavor into the brand and we’ll see if the Special XXI Edition will do the same.
Cubans playing for The Supremes on Cohiba:
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rehear Empresa Cubana del Tabaco v. General Cigar, so the Cubans are now left with the interesting prospect of petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to try and get the rights to the Cohiba trademark in the U.S.
However, their chance to get a hearing at the Supreme Court level is probably better than their chance to get the Second Circuit to re-hear the case. That’s because the Second Circuit decision was based on the concept that the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba shields any potential trademark claim. This conflict of laws problem is likely only resolvable at the Supreme Court level.
Cubatabaco has until August 1 to file a petition with the Supreme Court in the case and then it will take some months before a decision on whether the Court will hear the case will be made. How the ill health of Chief Justice William Rehnquist will affect the decision is unknown; it takes five justices to agree to take a case. With Rehnquist ailing, only eight are left.
Hong Kong Cigar Bars may have to close:
The large and devoted cigar community in Hong Kong may be facing a calamity if the imposition of a new anti-smoking law takes effect next year without amendment.
The Standard, a well-known Hong Kong business journal reported that if the law is implemented, it would eliminate smoking in 20 cigar shops and 40 cigar bars in Hong Kong and all but wreck the Hong Kong business of Pacific Cigar Co., distributor of Cuban cigars in the territory.
Kenneth Wong, Pacific’s general manager was quoted as stating that “if smoking is banned in all indoor places, our whole operation must then be discontinued.”
The anti-smoking bill is estimated to impact more than 10,000 bars, restaurants and entertainment venues and the Chinese Health, Welfare and Food Ministry did not respond to the reporter’s questions about the economic impact of the ban.
According to the government, about 15% of the adult population of Hong Kong consumes tobacco products, but the total cigar and pipe-smoking population is set at 0.3%, which would be only 2,300. Smokers interviewed in cigar bars for the article think the total is perhaps as large as 30,000.
Baseball cards? How about cigar cards?
The looming problems in Hong Kong are a stark contrast to a nearly-lost promotional program of intricately-detailed “cigar cards” which were included in packs of British or American-made cigars sold in China.
Like their cousins, the baseball card, cigar cards were issued in series to add value in competition with cigars offered by local Chinese manufacturers. An exhibition now on display at the Richmond (Virginia) Cultural Centre showcases the collection of Desheng Li of more than 20,000 cards from 1888 to 1946. He told the Richmond News that the western tobacco companies stopped producing such premiums in the 1960s and then many of the existing cards in circulation were destroyed by government order.
Such cards are quite rare, but occasionally show up in auctions or on eBay. A particularly rare set issued about 1900 by the Partagas Factory in Havana came up a few weeks ago, picturing young women of the day in various states of undress. Maybe they mistook a box of Partagas with an order they were expecting from Victoria’s Secret?
~ Rich Perelman
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