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: 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: 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 [...]

Review: Dante Canto I: The Imp (Prerelease)

In 1857—156 years ago—Dante became one of the first brands to use lithographed labels. It is the same brand also credited as being the first to market their product with pictorial labels. Fast forward to 2013 and a new Dante brand is being released next week. Owned and distributed by Mike Huff and Mo Fakhro, who [...]

Review: Kristoff 685 Woodlawn (Prerelease)

On March 29, Glen Case of Kristoff released the details of his new small batch cigar in an exclusive to halfwheel. The Kristoff 685 Woodlawn draws its name from the suburban Chicago house in which Case lived until he was 21 years old. While the Kristoff 685 Woodlawn won’t be formally released until the IPCPR [...]

Review: Room101 Big Delicious (Prerelease)

In December 2012, halfwheel broke the story of a new cigar coming from Room101 and Smoke Inn, a project called “Big Delicious” that takes its name from Matt Booth’s nickname for Abe Dababneh, proprietor of the South Florida retailer. The new cigar, the six installment in Smoke Inn’s MicroBlend Series™, made its first public appearance on [...]

Review: Fonseca Cubano Exclusivo Robusto (Prerelease)

Last month we got the news out of SAG Imports that it was releasing a new Fonseca line called the Cubano Exclusivo. The cigar was developed with the idea that they wanted to take the easily recognizable Fonseca branding and develop a cigar that breaks out of the expected smooth and mild Fonseca profile. The cigar [...]

Review: Illusione *R* Rothchildes (Prerelease)

In late 2012, murmurs started that Dion Giolito would have a new Illusione, the Illusione *R* Rothchildes. It was supposed to be a completely separate project from the La Grand Classe release, which at the time had just shipped. But there were a lot of similarities from the initial details: Nicaraguan filler and Mexican San [...]

Review: Intemperance BA XXI A.W.S. IV (Prerelease)

Today we’re looking at the next cigar coming out in RoMa Craft Tobac’s Intemperance line called the A.W.S. IV. Back in February we had the news story about this cigar, which for the time being will only be available at RoMa Craft events starting in May. The A.W.S. IV is going to be part of the [...]