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Armed with a Humidipak bag holding the four cigars respective to the featured speakers - Macanudo Gold Label, H. Upmann Cameroon, Camacho Corojo and Fuente Fuente OpusX. Gordon Mott, executive editor of Cigar Aficionado with European editor James Suckling introduced this year's speakers. The first stop of the wrapper world tour was in Connecticut, and Mott said the first speaker's cigar history "could take up the entire program." It was Benjamin "Benji" Menendez, the senior vice president of premium cigars at General Cigar Co. Menendez hails from a rich cigar tradition: his family owned the Montecristo and H. Upmann brands prior to the nationalization of the industry in Cuba by Fidel Castro. He talked about the Macanudo Gold Label Shakespeare and its Connecticut-shade wrapper. Attendees slid their Mac Golds from their bags and puffed along as Menendez described the art of growing wrapper. Menendez explained in detail the different cycles of production, including the three-step fermentation process that is essential to crafting wrapper tobacco. "You have to spend your days with the tobacco to look at each individual leaf," said Menendez. "There are no two crops alike."
"The wrapper is sweet," said Seijas. "It will give you a lot of saliva, not that chalky dryness, not bitter or peppery according to most people. Instead, you get a woody sensation in your palate, elements of softness that make it easy to blend with other tobaccos." Seijas observed that the small size of a Cameroon wrapper leaf means most Cameroon wrapped cigars are limited to smaller sizes. He finished by giving smokers a helpful piece of advice, predicting the 2003 crop will be a very good one. "The Cameroon wrapper we are getting now is as good as the best we have ever had," he said.
Eiroa explained how his father started making cheap sticks in the '70s, which he described as "green sticky stuff." When Christian entered the industry in 1995, his father was experimenting with growing Corojo-seed tobacco in Honduras. Christian shared his father's belief in the Cuban seed, saying it was had long been used to wrap Cuban cigars. "What is going to be invented already has been invented," said Eiroa. Listeners sampled the fruits of his labor in the Camacho Corojo Nacionales included in the cigar packs.
Following the seminars, the guests and the cigarmakers moved to a hearty lunch, sharing tables with members of the cigar industry and writers and editors of Cigar Aficionado to continue the discussion of the morning. There was no non-smoking section. Filed by Michael Moretti |
Saturday kicked off early with the first of several morning seminars, the Wrappers Around the World Tasting, in which guests paired cigars with a litany of knowledge delivered personally by some of the greatest minds in the industry. Benjamin Menendez, José Seijas, Christian Eiroa and Carlos Fuente Jr. spoke about the history and production of their most treasured cigars, and the audience had a real treat by smoking the cigars while listening to their stories.
José Seijas, the vice president and general manager of Tabacalera de Garcia Ltd., part of Altadis U.S.A. and one of the largest cigar factories in the world, spoke next as listeners began smoking the H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon that he makes. The soft-spoken Seijas discussed the history of Cameroon tobacco in West Africa and the characteristics that make it a very good wrapper.
Christian Eiroa, of Tabacos Rancho Jamastran, the maker of Camacho cigars, is a relative newcomer to the industry compared to the speakers who preceded him, but he has made his mark in a short time working off the family tradition and knowledge passed down by his father, Julio. He began by thanking the men sitting in the audience and his fellow speakers for building the cigar business into what it is today.
The final speaker was Carlos Fuente Jr., president of Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia., maker of the Fuente Fuente OpusX Super Belicoso that the audience lit up. He gave an emotional recounting of his family's struggle and risk in producing Dominican wrapper tobacco, which was based on the dream of his grandfather, Arturo, he said. He remarked that his strong cigars were the opposite of what most people were smoking 10 years ago. "People were smoking medium-light cigars. OpusX was an explosion of flavor," he said. "From the heart, not from a book; from the heart, not the pocket."