The Wire
Concordia: Quai d'Orsay Gets Its Second Limited Edition, and a Vitola It Has Never Had
Premiered at Las Ventas in Madrid before more than 400 guests, the Concordia is a new 50 x 145 mm Preciosos, aged at least two years in every leaf, in boxes of 20 at 914 euros. It is the only Edición Limitada announced for 2026 so far.
The Wire
Five Toros in a Green Box: Plasencia Packages Its Portfolio for the Holidays
One cigar from each principal line: the organic Reserva Original, the volcanic Alma del Fuego, the high ground Alma del Cielo, Alma Fuerte and the box pressed Alma del Campo, in a windowed gift box at 99.99 dollars. Shipping to authorized retailers this month.
The Wire
The Grand Cru Perfecto Arrives: Oliva's Melanio Edición Año 2026 Reaches Stores
A 5 3/8 x 54 perfecto built on the Jalapa harvest of 2023 and 2024, which the maker calls a Grand Cru crop. Nine thousand boxes of ten, at 20 dollars a cigar, released November 2.
The Makers
Gran Legado Returns: La Gloria Cubana Puts Its Rollers' Names Back on the Cigar
The 7 3/4 x 62 perfecto first made in 2024 is back for a limited 2026 run at 15.89 dollars, rolled at El Credito by a team whose members each sign the cigar they made.
The Leaf
View all →Tobacco agriculture and the growing regions: Vuelta Abajo, Esteli, the Cibao, Honduras, Cameroon and Ecuador. The harvests that shape the smoke.
The Leaf
The Cibao Valley: Dominican Tobacco's Fertile Heart
In the valley around Santiago, the Dominican Republic grows the mild, elegant leaf that defines its cigars.
The Leaf
Honduras: The Quiet Power
The Jamastrán Valley rolls a huge share of the world's cigars and asks for none of the credit.
The Leaf
Cameroon: Africa's Wrapper
From a rainforest on the Cameroon border comes what the Meerapfel family describes as the most expensive wrapper leaf in the industry.
The Makers
View all →The great houses and the new generation: torcedores, blenders, families and factories, reported from the public record.
The Makers
Gran Legado Returns: La Gloria Cubana Puts Its Rollers' Names Back on the Cigar
The 7 3/4 x 62 perfecto first made in 2024 is back for a limited 2026 run at 15.89 dollars, rolled at El Credito by a team whose members each sign the cigar they made.
The Makers
Five Champions in One Box: Padron Puts Every Cigar of the Year It Ever Won in a Single Sampler
The 2004, 2007, 2009, 2021 and current champions, one of each, for 195.85 dollars. The sampler has already shipped, and its hardest cigar to find is the point of it.
The Makers
The Talisman Comes Full Circle: Cohiba’s Pigtail Returns to London
Nine years after its debut as a Limited Edition, the Cohiba Talisman joins the Linea Clasica as regular production. The world launch at the Orangery at Kensington Palace opened the brand’s 60th anniversary year.
The Ritual
View all →Cutting, lighting, the herf, the etiquette of the lounge and the culture of slowness. Technique and philosophy, taught properly.
The Ritual
The Art of Putting It Down: Murmmr's The Object: Cigar
Most cigar tools serve the first five minutes: the cut, the toast, the first draw. A crystal dome from San Francisco serves the middle of the smoke instead, the pause, and the relight that follows it.
The Ritual
The Long Smoke: An Argument for Slowness
The cigar is the last luxury that cannot be hurried, streamed, or summarized. In defense of the unhurried hour.
The Ritual
The First Cigar
Start mild, start small, and buy from someone who knows the humidor. The beginner's guide to your first cigar, with editorial authority instead of retailer copy.
The Lounge
View all →Great lounges, the third place, the year's gatherings and the humidor at home. Where the cigar is smoked, and why those rooms endure.
The Lounge
Smoke 'N The Desert: Four Days in the Valley
Phoenix gets four days, ten events, and one hell of a weekend. PHX Cigar Week returns October 8-11 across six Valley cities.
The Lounge
The Herf Calendar
London to Las Vegas, Tampa to Dortmund: the cigar world's gatherings from autumn 2026 through 2027, with each event's status marked honestly.
The Lounge
The Humidor at Home
A humidor is a small climate, and climates need tending. The storage science for the home smoker: numbers, wood, seasoning, and beetles.
The Vintage
View all →Aging, collecting, the market and the fake-band trade. What time does to a cigar, and what the market does to time.
The Vintage
Montecristo Fragata: Habanos' New Travel-Retail Exclusive, Unveiled at Cannes
A 140mm x 54 Duke vitola, the first time the format has carried the Montecristo blend, arrives in 20-count travel humidors for duty-free and travel retail only.
The Vintage
The Auction Block: Where Vintage Cigars Find Their Price
From London salerooms to online bidding rooms, a small but serious market decides what rarity is worth. A tour of the houses that handle it.
The Vintage
The Price of Smoke: Building the 2026 Market Index
Nobody agrees how big the premium cigar market is, so we are building the index ourselves. Here is what the public numbers say, and how we will measure what they miss.
The Index
View all →The publication's franchises: the State of the Leaf survey and the Golden Band judging protocol, published before a single ballot is cast.
The Index
The Golden Band: How We Judge
Our annual ranking publishes its protocol before a single cigar is smoked: the panel, the blind rounds, the ballots, the conflicts. Rankings are never sold.
The Index
The State of the Leaf 2026: The Survey Begins
No public dataset describes the premium cigar industry as a whole. This winter we field the first annual survey of makers, retailers, and smokers. Here is what it will measure, and why.
The Wire
View all →Current reporting from the cigar world: regulation, harvests and the news that matters to the serious smoker.
The Wire
Concordia: Quai d'Orsay Gets Its Second Limited Edition, and a Vitola It Has Never Had
Premiered at Las Ventas in Madrid before more than 400 guests, the Concordia is a new 50 x 145 mm Preciosos, aged at least two years in every leaf, in boxes of 20 at 914 euros. It is the only Edición Limitada announced for 2026 so far.
The Wire
The Grand Cru Perfecto Arrives: Oliva's Melanio Edición Año 2026 Reaches Stores
A 5 3/8 x 54 perfecto built on the Jalapa harvest of 2023 and 2024, which the maker calls a Grand Cru crop. Nine thousand boxes of ten, at 20 dollars a cigar, released November 2.
The Wire
Five Toros in a Green Box: Plasencia Packages Its Portfolio for the Holidays
One cigar from each principal line: the organic Reserva Original, the volcanic Alma del Fuego, the high ground Alma del Cielo, Alma Fuerte and the box pressed Alma del Campo, in a windowed gift box at 99.99 dollars. Shipping to authorized retailers this month.
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The Makers
Gran Legado Returns: La Gloria Cubana Puts Its Rollers' Names Back on the Cigar
2026-11-07
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