Pro Cigar and New Cigars by Frank Seltzer
Pro Cigar 2012
This week is the annual Pro Cigar festival in the Dominican Republic. This is only the second one I missed but I think I have a good excuse this time. Anyway, the event started Sunday with arrivals in La Romana and the famed Casa de Campo resort. Yesterday, attendees had the chance to play Pete Dye’s Dye Fore Golf Course (one of three including Teeth of the Dog and the Links), or go on an eco walk, or a Catamaran ride. Today, Tuesday, the attendees go see Tabaclera de Garcia, the one of the world’s largest cigar factories. It is home to Montecristo, H.Upmann, Romeo y Julieta and Trinidad among others.
SUMUM
VegaFina Sumum
There may be a new cigar making its debut at Pro Cigar. Altadis USA announced late last week that a new cigar was being made at Tabacalera de Garcia. It is a special edition to the VegaFina line called the Vega Fina Sumum Edicion Especial 2010 (sumum is latin for summit). The cigar is supposed to debut this month so my guess is the attendees at La Romana got the chance to sample it. The cigar is a 2010 vintage using Ecuadorian-grown Cuban-seed wrapper that is aged for 2 years. The Dominican binder along with the fillers from Nicaragua, Peru and The Dominican Republic are all aged 3 years. The Sumum comes in one size, 54 x 5 and has a suggested retail price of $6.75.
Up in Santiago, where everyone will be starting tonight, the Pro Cigar participants will spend the next three days visiting the fields of both Davidoff and General Cigar maker of La Gloria and Macanudo along with the factories of both aforementioned companies and the facilities of La Aurora and MATASA. They also will have the chance to visit Intetab—which grows, processes, packs and ships Dominican tobacco the world over. There also will be a tour of the Brugal Rum company, a rafting tour, a beach day or a Catamaran cruise.
What cigars will they be smoking in Santiago, I do not know for certain, one or two usually make a surprise visit like at last year’s pool party on Tuesday night – the Quesadas unveilled their Espana cigars –made for the Spanish market but very popular with the group.
(It became virtually impossible to find them after the first night as word spread about how tasty they were.)
Quesada Q D'etat
I do know that Manolo Quesada and some friends were smoking the new Molotov under the Q d’etat which was announced in December. The Molotov figuarado is the first in the series released by the Quesadas to protest the unfair treatment of cigars. It is totally Dominican with a retail price of $7.95.
Later this week, Michael Herklots will, most likely, be unveilling his new cigar for New York’s Nat Sherman.
But there will be a lot more cigars. For the second time, Pro Cigar is handing out a small box of unknown cigars to be identified. Each cigar manufacturer blended up a special cigar named for the tobaccos if the Cibao region. Participants smoke these blends which are not available anywhere else and IF they can identify all of the blends with the manufacturers, they win an all expenses paid trip back to Pro Cigar next year.
Pro Cigar used to have an informal portion to the program which happened on Saturday when most people were heading home. A hard core group got together and played a hold-em tournament. This year, Friday’s lunch will be held up at Camp David Ranch, a cool 2000 feet above Santiago in the mountains. After lunch will be the Pro Cigar Charity Poker Tournament. With only a $100 buy in, the money goes to charity in addition to that raised from the auctions throughout the event (Hospicio San Vicente de Paul –a senior retirement home for low income elders—and the Voluntariado de Jesus con los Ninos—a non profit organization for ill children), the top winners of the tournament get some great prizes. Number one finisher gets a full paid trip back to Pro Cigar along with a special humidor filled with either limited edition cigars or special cigar blends not yet released.
In addition to all the cigars, tours and dinners there also is a lot of rum to drink. Says Manolo Quesada, if Pro Cigar makes a profit, people did not eat, drink or smoke enough!
