Russ Ouellette
You can build a brand any number of ways. Lots of advertising and/or promotion is one way to get name recognition. So is product presentation, like flashy packaging. You could develop a “rock star” image for yourself or your company to be a bit more edgy. But, for long term growth and success, the best way is to make a quality product at a fair price, and that seems to be the approach that Alan Rubin has taken in building the Alec Bradley brand (named for his sons).
I remember the first couple of cigars that we carried from AB, the Occidental Reserve bundles (still in production), and the Trilogy triangularly pressed cigars. I was pleased with both, and looked forward to future products. I became a fan of the Maxx cigars which offer a lot of flavor, larger sizes and a reasonable price. Since then, there has been a string of solid entries from them, and one notable example is the Family Blend.
Ocean State Cigars haven’t been around all that long, and I remember being pleased with the original J. Grotto, but it didn’t make it into my favorites. When I received samples of the new J. Grotto Series Reserve to review, I was surprised by how attractive the cigar was. An oily chestnut colored wrapper with only a couple of noticeable veins covers a nice, firm 6 x 52 cigar with a small pigtail cap. The elaborate main band sits above a secondary band with "Reserve" to differentiate it from the original. The tawny wrapper is Honduran Criollo as is the binder, and the filler is a blend of Honduran and Nicaraguan Ligero.
A while back, Altadis USA brought out a line of Dominican handmades that were smooth, creamy and well constructed at a very reasonable price, and they quickly became a best seller in our store. That cigar was Vega Fina, which I understand has done very well for Altadis in the European market. So when I heard that José Seijas, the master blender for Tabacalera de Garcia (Altadis’ Dominican factory) was going to do a limited edition version, I was interested to see what they had in mind.
Gunning for a full-bodied smoke, Pride Cigars Founder/President/Blender Ares Contreras nailed a bulls eye with his husky Bandolero line. I sampled several of the toros in a lineup that also includes a robusto "Billy the Kid" (5 ¼ x 50), torpedo "Jesse James" (6 1/8×52) and super toro "Pancho Villa" (6×60). The Bandolero tobaccos are predominately Dominican, with the addition of some Nicaraguan in the filler. The leaf is aged three years before being completed at Pride Cigar’s Dominican Republic facility. If you want a hearty, yet smooth, cigar, the Bandolero delivers.
As a rule, I dislike the proclamation of any product as "Best Something of the Year". It’s especially annoying when it regards something that has to be judged as subjectively as a cigar. If I have any knowledge of the subject, I usually find fault in these kinds of selections. Well, Cigar Aficionado just picked the Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill as Cigar of the Year for 2011, so it’s my duty to take another look at this award-winner.
In recent years, the Alec Bradley line of cigars has carved out a solid niche in the market, starting with the Maxx and Tempus series and building through the Family Blend, SCR and American. They now have an intriguing new entry called the Black Market.
I have seen and smoked an awful lot of cigars over the years, but I’ve never encountered a band quite like one on this new offering from Achievement Cigar Company (ACC). The cigar is a 50 ring and about 6 inches, and the four-inch band covers most of the cigar. Just viewing it, I felt like I was watching a 1930s fan dance by Sally Rand: lots of tease, but what’s underneath? The reason I don’t like big cigar bands is that they can hide a lot of wrapper flaws, or try to "wow" you with elegance when there is nothing underneath.
Bossner offers a variety of lines that include Dominican product and Nicaraguan leaf in the filler and binder, and a Brazilian wrapper. The Cleopatra features the most beautiful Brazilian Colorado wrapper I’ve ever seen. It’s lightly oily, and so free of large veins that it’s nearly seamless. Brazilian leaf is extensively used in filler tobacco blends to add its characteristic sweetness and body. While cultivation of Brazilian-grown leaf has made great strides in the past two decades, it is still an extremely difficult leaf to work with as a wrapper. It tends to be thick, tough and not particularly attractive. Bossner’s ability to incorporate this leaf into an attractive wrapper is a coup. While wrapper leaves fluctuate in how much they contribute to the cigar’s flavor based on several variables, this one showed the potential of offering even more flavor than usual.
In these days of corporate anonymity, I admit I’m partial to family owned and managed businesses. My favorite smoking pipe to collect is one made by a five-generation family-run company. And there are a number of multi-generational success stories in the pipe making, tobacco store and cigar manufacturing worlds.
