Also in this issue:

• Miscellaneous
  Editor's Note: The President Celebrates With Cigars
• Celebrities
  A Gentleman of History
• Celebrities
  Goodfella
• Celebrities
  The Time Between
• Celebrities
  The Guardian of Liberalism
• More from this Issue

Cigar News

Published in: September 1, 1995

Published Autumn 1995

A 150th Anniversary

General Cigar is introducing a special edition Partagas to commemorate the brand's 150th anniversary. The one-time release, called the Partagas 150 Signature Series, will be manufactured using unique 18-year-old Cameroon wrapper tobacco. The company will produce a maximum of 1 million cigars with this rare wrapper leaf, and there will be eight different sizes, including a Don Ramon cigar in a 7 inch by 52 ring gauge size. As General Cigar president Austin McNamara says, "When these cigars are gone, there won't be any more."

The cache of old Cameroon wrapper was discovered by Alphonse Mayer, a senior vice-president of leaf-buying at General Cigar, a job he has held for nearly 50 years. The tobacco was originally cured and baled by Tabacalera SA, the Spanish government tobacco monopoly. It was warehoused in Madrid because the company had plans to revive its own hand-rolled cigar operations. "In all my years of buying cigar leaf, I have never seen conditions anything like this," says Mayer. "The bales had been in one of their smaller storage facilities in Madrid. The minute I opened the first bale, I could see this was like gold."

The Partagas Signature series will use Dominican Republic and Mexican tobaccos in the binder and in the filler blend, but the leaves will have been aged four months longer than a normal Partagas cigar. The signature series sizes include the Don Ramon, the Partagas AA (7 1/2" x 49), a Figurado (6" x 50), a Partagas A (6 3/4" x 43), a Partagas B (6 1/4" x 47), a Partagas C (5 1/2" x 49), a Robusto (4 1/2" x 38) and a Partagas D (5" x 38). The largest quantity of any single size will be the Partagas A, with 300,000 cigars planned, and the smallest production will be of the Don Ramon, with only 10,000 cigars slated. Prices for the special edition cigars will range from $5.50 to $12.00, according to size. The Don Ramon will have a higher retail price to support the special packaging--a specially designed mahogany case in the shape of a large book, with a humidifier. The other cigars will come in special boxes of 25 and 50.

The Astral Launch

U.S. Tobacco officially launched its Astral cigar on June 19th at Morton's of Chicago steakhouse in New York City. The cigars are manufactured at U.S. Tobacco's factory in Danli, Honduras. The cigars, priced in the $6 to $8 range, are currently being sold in five sizes: Maestro (7 1/2" x 52), Favorito (7" x 48), Perfección (7" x 48), Lujos (6 1/2" x 44) and Besos (5" x 52).