Fuente Delays Celebration by Frank Seltzer
Fuente Postpones Celebration
2012 is the 100thanniversary of the founding of the Arturo Fuente cigar company. At last summer’s IPCPR trade show, Carlito Fuente talked about the plans the family had to celebrate their centennial. Alas, a month later, tragedy struck the company when fire destroyed two of the Fuente’s warehouses in the Dominican Republic. The exact cost of the loss and what tobaccos were damaged has not been reported (as far as I can determine). But Carlito told Cigar Aficionado at the time the loss included some “irreplaceable tobaccos that had been purchased in 1990 from a Connecticut grower and may have been harvested as long ago as 1960.”
It was thought the company would still push ahead with its celebration and special cigars, but then, Carlito posted that would not be the case. He said:
” There are times when fate has other plans for us, and this is one of those times.
As you know, we planned to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Arturo Fuente cigars this year with several special events. However, fate stepped in and handed us a series of personal and professional challenges that have made this year a trying time.”
He continues to say that the family decided to postpone the celebrations for a year until 2013 at which time they will mark the first year of the second century.
The family reportedly was planning a special 858 Anniversary cigar along with a new Don Arturo line and special Opus X cigars called Angels Share.
Perdomo Marks 20 years
Perdomo 20th
Cigarmaker Nick Perdomo is about to chalk up his 20th year in the business and to commemorate the occasion, Nick is putting out a special 20th Anniversary cigar. On Friday, Nick put up a sneak peak for an hour on youtube…The cigar apparently is going to be unveiled at the IPCPR trade show and shipped in September. In looking at the video, the cigar appears to be a dark box-pressed toro or robusto (kinda hard to tell from the video what the size is.)
We took this picture off the video which has been taken down after the one hour it was up.
Capitol Hill Progress
It should be noted that S 1461 in the Senate has picked up its 12th co-sponsor. S-1461 is the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act. It is the Senate version of the House bill which already has 203 co-sponsors. These bills are aimed at preventing the FDA from taking control over premium cigars. Last week, National Review wrote a story on the bills.
As expected the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids is out against the bills saying they will turn more youths to smoking. Of course they always fail to note that it is already illegal for anyone under 18 to actually BUY cigars or cigarettes. But none the less they hammer about youths between 12 and 17 buying cigars. Right.
Then comes this group…Faith United Against Tobacco. Apparently the anti-tobacco goons are trying to co-opt faith now as well. Anyway, these useful idiots are pushing Congress not to pass the FDA-Cigar exemption. The group says:
“We know all too well that the tobacco companies continue to spend billions of dollars to attract people to their deadly products and we urge you not to weaken FDA’s authority to protect children and others from cigars and all other tobacco products.”
So who is this Faith United? It is another shell group courtesy of George Soros and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. RWJ has given $84 million to pay for Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, which in turn begat Faith United. But to RWJ this is a drop in the bucket since it has spent nearly a half billion dollars pushing smoking bans. Why? Hmmm, could it be that the company sells Nicoderm and Nicorette finds it in its financial interest? That would be Johnson and Johnson the company founded by Robert Woods Johnson.
We cannot compete on money, but we can pressure Congress. If you haven’t sent your Senator or Congressman a letter, do it now via the IPCPR. It is easy and we need more sponsors.
California Update
In the vote against the huge cigar tax in California, Prop 29, they are still counting ballots. The No side is still winning, although our margin has shrunk to 17,534. They will cheat when they can.
