halfwheel

Review: El Centurion 2013 (Prerelease)

In 2007, José “Don Pepín” García released his first official limited edition cigar, the El Centurion. Rolled in three vitolas at first limited to 850 boxes of 20 cigars and priced well north of $10, the release was said to be his own personal blend. A Lancero was added to the line in December of [...]

Review: Rocky Patel II-XXVI Robusto

Back in May 2011, I had the chance to talk with Rocky Patel during an event in Phoenix, when his new factory in Nicaragua, Tabacalera Villa Cuba, S.A.—TAVICUSA for short—was still in its relative infancy. He was excited about the cigars that would be coming out of the factory, as they would be the higher-end [...]

Redux: Cabaiguan WCD 120 REDUX

Most of Pete Johnson’s limited editions come with fanfare, but every once in a while the Tatuaje faithful seems to miss one. Such was the case with the 2007 release of the Cabaiguan WCD 120 for Washington D.C.-based W. Curtis Draper’s 120th anniversary. History almost repeated itself again five years later when the cigar was [...]

Review: Villiger Talanga Selecto Lancero

In January of 2013, Villiger Cigars announced they would be hosting various Discovery Tour events in order to introduce their cigars to smokers around the country. Along with the normal specials, the events would also feature a sampler of unreleased cigars that would be included with box purchases. We broke the news with the information [...]

Review: Aquitaine Blockhead (Preproduction)

Since the launch of RoMaCraft Tobac in January 2012, the company has quickly expanded into three full lines of cigars, each of which contain a number of event-only, limited availability cigars. The RoMaCraft Tobac website offers a good amount of detail about the Aquitaine, noting that the filler leaf comes from three separate areas of [...]

Review: Joya de Nicaragua CyB Lancero Fino (Prerelease)

There are a lot of best of/top cigars lists that appear at the end and beginning of each calendar year, I’d like to think one serves as a model a bit more than any other, The Consensus. It’s a list we’ve curated for the past two years, but an idea tried hundreds of times over in [...]

Review: Ortega Serie D Maduro Lancero

Today I’m going to be reviewing the Ortega Serie D Maduro Lancero. The cigar was originally only available by buying a ticket to the 2013 D.C. Cigar Tweet-Up, which included a swag bag and a bundle of 10 Ortega Serie D Maduro Lanceros. Yesterday, we broke the news the cigar will be regular production and shipping [...]

Review: Tatuaje Exclusive Series Federal Cigar 90th Anniversary 109 Redux

In 2011, Tatuaje released two separate blends to commemorate New Hampshire based Federal Cigar’s 90th anniversary: one with a Rosado wrapper and one with a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper. Both releases were based off of the Cuban 109 vitola, a Double Robusto with a round cap and a favorite that is a favorite of Federal Cigar owner [...]

Review: Ezra Zion Tantrum (Prerelease)

In July of 2012, the team behind cigar social networking site Cigar Federation launched a brand of their own, Ezra Zion. The brand’s two releases—Honor Series Reagan and Inception, now known as Jamais Vu—were received with general praise, including finishing 22nd on the halfwheel Consensus 2012. Now it’s time for the company’s new release, Tantrum. [...]

Review: Reinado Grand Empire Reserve Corona Gorda (Prerelease)

Of all of the 2012 releases from smaller manufacturers, the Reinado Grand Empire Reserve arguably received the most fanfare. For the past few month’s Antonio Lam has made it clear the line was likely to expand from the single 5 x 55 vitola it debuted in. Last week, Lam made the extensions official in an [...]