Cigar Aficionado

Following a hearty brunch with Oliva Cigars and Bacardi on Saturday morning, it was time for the seminars at the Big Smoke Las Vegas to formally begin. As the guests walked in to find their seats, members of the Cigar Aficionado staff were at the ready to hand out Boveda bags containing four cigars for the seminars to come, three of them straight from the upper echelons of Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 Cigars of 2022.

Executive editor David Savona took to the stage to greet the crowd of more than 600 cigar smokers who traveled from all four corners of the globe to not only receive a large selection of premium cigars, but to also hear leading names in the cigar industry talk about their craft and what it means to be a cigarmaker. 

The first panelist to join him on stage was Rocky Patel, the maker of the No. 2 Cigar of 2022, the Rocky Patel Sixty Sixty, which scored 96 points and is the top-rated cigar from this year’s Top 25 that can be legally obtained in the United States. The Rocky Patel Sixty line was released in 2021 to celebrate the cigarmaker turning 60.

“It’s amazing that I’ve been around for so long that I’m one of the older guys now in the cigar business—I never thought that would happen,” Patel joked.
Savona asked Patel about the reaction to being named the No. 2 cigar and how supply had kept up following the announcement.

“Let’s put it this way, in the first hour I think we had $650,000 in sales. First hour after the rating came out, the phones rang off the hook,” Patel said. He explained that while the Sixty size (which measures 6 inches long by 60 ring gauge) is part of the regular line, his factory was producing more Toros and Robustos. Due to the unexpected demand, the Sixty size was back ordered for more than three months, but he has slowly been catching up. While the cigars feature aged tobaccos, they also require two years of additional aging after rolling. “The thing is you can’t sacrifice quality,” he said. “It’s about aging and aging and we had no idea, absolutely no idea, that this particular size of this cigar would get that rating.”

Patel began making cigars in 1995, in the early years of what is known as the 1990s cigar boom when milder, thinner cigars clad in lighter Connecticut wrappers reigned supreme. At that time, his cigars, which were stronger than what was typical of the market, were made under contract. Today, Patel has many aspects of his production vertically integrated with his cigars made at his own factory in Nicaragua where he can ensure his specific standards, such as the fermentation being done correctly, draw testing and rejecting cigars that don’t meet his demands for wrapper color. According to Patel 18.3 percent of perfectly-constructed cigars are rejected due to the color not meeting the right criteria.

Savona noted Patel has been in the cigar industry for 28 years, and has seen many changes since he joined, and asked what the market would say if he brought such a thick, strong cigar with him in a time machine back to 1995. Patel responded by telling how he had once given Litto Gomez one of his Indian Tabac cigars back then and was told he was crazy for making such a strong cigar and now today Gomez makes very strong cigars of his own.

Citing improvements in methods of fermentation, harvesting and growing, Patel said, “I think there’s better cigars made today in the history of all the cigarmakers than ever before.”

After the Three Faces of Connecticut seminar, Cigar Aficionado’s senior contributing editor Gordon Mott and Alex Weghorn, brand ambassador for Davidoff, took to the stage to discuss the No. 3 Cigar of 2022, the Davidoff Nicaragua Diadema, which rated 95 points.

Mott started the panel off mentioning how he had the unique privilege of being probably one of the first to smoke a Davidoff Nicaragua which was given to him by former Davidoff executive Jim Young during a round of golf a little over 10 years ago. He said it made a distinct impression even then.

For many years, Davidoff had been a mainstay of the industry with milder cigars, sold with their signature white oval bands, which were made with Dominican tobaccos and Connecticut-seed wrappers. With the launch of the Davidoff Nicaragua Toro in 2013 (the Diadema was released in 2014) featuring a black band and an all-Nicaraguan blend, it was a drastic departure from the status quo.

“There was a significant part of the market that I feel really wasn’t exposed to Davidoff because that white band was associated with smooth, but also milder,” Weghorn said. “Something that wasn’t necessarily the expectation of the American market, [but] very much satisfied the European palate.”

The conversation homed in on the Nicaraguan island of Ometepe, which produces one of the fillers. Measuring approximately 160 square miles and home to two active volcanoes, Ometepe produces tobacco that is as prized for its scarcity as its flavor. Weghorn described the other regions of Nicaragua (including Jalapa, Estelí and Condega) which are present in the blend, noting how each tobacco region brings a unique component to the overall blend. “Those microclimates and those different growing territories are immensely important to the qualities,” Weghorn said. “So, yeah, if you don’t have that Ometepe then this a completely different blend and it’s probably not going to get the same accolades.”

Weghorn also explained how the blend changes among the sizes in the Davidoff Nicaragua line as it features both parejo and box-pressed versions of its sizes, which is a unique aspect in the Davidoff portfolio. With the box-pressing, it isn’t merely placing a cigar in a mold to attain its shape; the amount of tobacco has to be reduced for the shape and a little bit of extra ligero is added to the filler to increase the blend’s spice and strength.

While the tobaccos used for Davidoff Nicaragua are grown in Nicaragua, the cigars are rolled in the Dominican Republic. Davidoff has the tobaccos shipped directly to its facilities in the Dominican Republic where the company oversees the treatment of the tobacco before rolling. “We want to make sure, because we are vertically integrated, we are as ‘crop to shop’ as possible,” said Weghorn. “That way when you get a fresh box from your retailer… you pull that cigar out of the box, there’s 300 hands that are going into the production of that cigar. You’re that 301st set of hands and it’s just ready to go.”

The third cigar of the day was presented after the La Flor Dominicana Father and Sons seminar. Managing editor Greg Mottola came on stage joined by José Oliva, adviser and chairman of the board for Oliva Cigar Co., and company chief executive officer Cory Bappert, to discuss the No. 5 Cigar of 2022 at 95 points, the Oliva Serie V Churchill Extra.

Oliva Cigar Co., which was founded in 1995, released the Serie V line in 2007. The cigar brand marked a turning point for the company, as the smoke was not only bolder than Oliva’s previous lines but it brought a complex new cigar into a market that was moving from the lighter, thinner cigars of the era to more powerful smokes.

“As cigar smokers started to become more complex, and their tastes evolved, they started to demand a more full-bodied cigar,” said Oliva. “And so, we set out to make a cigar that would have the full benefit, the complexity and the strength of a Nicaraguan cigar but the challenge was to do it in a way that it could also be smooth.”

He further explained that to market Serie V, Oliva reps would go to cigar shops and bring the tobaccos with them to demonstrate what they wanted to achieve by either having people smoke the cigar without the wrapper or smoking cigars consisting of just one of the tobaccos so they understood what each one brought to the table.

In 2016, the company was bought by the Vandermarlieres of Belgium. Moderator Mottola noted that though the company has expanded under its new corporate leadership, quality has demonstrably been maintained. 

Bappert attributed the continued success in part to the policy of having only salaried rollers for the Serie V, which ensures that the cigars are rolled with the highest level of care instead of attempting to churn out as many as possible.

Oliva also stated that he believed that the company has thrived since the takeover due to the culture remaining the same. He pointed out that many of the people working in the office or the warehouse are many of the same people who worked there fifteen years ago.

Mottola then turned the discussion to Oliva’s expansion overseas. In international markets, with the price of Cubans rising to prohibitive levels and their increasing scarcity, cigar smokers who once exclusively smoked cigars from Havana now have begun smoking Serie Vs. Bappert explained that these factors have resulted in consumers who are more accepting of “New World cigars” and have learned there is something that can be offered from somewhere other than Cuba. He anticipates that it will only get bigger in the coming years. “I think it’s a testament to not only our company, but also to the other cigarmakers that are in this room.”

Read Next: 2023 Big Smoke Las Vegas Seminars: The Three Faces Of Connecticut

Don’t Miss A Big Smoke: The Big Smoke Returns To Las Vegas On Friday November 1 and Saturday November 2. Save the date.