halfwheel

Review: Padilla Premier Cru Torpedo

Back in May of 2012, Ernesto Padilla decided to, for lack of a better term, “blow up” his entire cigar portfolio and begin again. Gone were such staples as 1932, Artemis, Dominus and Miami, replaced with two new blends out of Miami, Invictus and a Maduro line. Immediately after that, it was announced that Oliva Cigar Company [...]

News: Oliva Takes Over Padilla Distribution

Only a few months after a near entire revamp of the Padilla portfolio, distribution of the Ernesto Padilla’s cigar brand is now in the hands of long-time partner Oliva Family of Cigars. Padilla’s distribution—both domestic and international—will be in the hands of Oliva within the next two weeks. Earlier this morning, both representatives at Oliva [...]

Review: Padilla Invictus Toro (Prerelease)

As part of the complete overhaul of his company’s offerings, Ernesto Padilla will be releasing a foursome of new cigars this summer, one of which is the Miami-made Invictus. Made at El Titan de Bronze, the Padilla Invictus will be rb, each with an initial production of 100 ten-count boxes: Robusto (5 x 54) — $12.50 (Boxes [...]

Review: Padilla Miami Maduro Robusto (Prerelease)

A few months ago, Ernesto Padilla announced he was—for lack of a better term—blowing up his portfolio. Gone were the staples such as 1932 and Miami, as well as new lines such as Artemis and Dominus. While the La Terraza and Legacies, both introduced last year, will continue to be made—Padilla is introducing a series [...]

Weekly News (June 4, 2012)

Editor’s Note: After finally getting caught up this past week, we got a bit behind thanks to a bug that seemed to have plagued all but two bloggers from this past week’s Drew Estate Cigar Safari media tour. We should be caught up soon, although both Brooks and I are still not feeling 100%. In [...]

Weekly News (May 28, 2012)

Editor’s Note: If all goes well, Brooks and I should be in Nicaragua right now as part of Drew Estate’s Cigar Safari media adventures. Patrick took part in the journey last week along with many others. In a slightly different accord, on behalf of the editorial staff, I’d like to apologize to you the readers [...]

News: Ernesto Padilla Plans Major Portfolio Makeover

Things are changing at Padilla that will mean a near complete overhaul of blends. Ernesto Padilla told halfwheel that he is discontinuing four of his prominent lines: 1932, Artemis, Dominus and Miami — all of which were most recently made at factories owned by Eduardo Fernandez and Paul Palmer’s Tabacalera Tropical. Coming instead will be [...]

Redux: Padilla 1932 Oscuro Torpedo

Originally released in 2007, the aptly named Padilla 1932 Oscuro used the Pepín rolled 1932 blend, and covered it with a then five year-old Nicaraguan Corojo Oscuro wrapper. Only 300 boxes of 45 cigars each were released,  each of which included 15 of three different vitolas: Churchill, Robusto and Torpedo. Here is what I said about the Padilla 1932 [...]

Editorial: Ten Questions for 2012

Last year, I published an article entitled Ten Questions for 2011. The concept was simple, what were a few of the topics to watch for in the upcoming year. With the notable exception of E.P. Carrillo’s crazy year, I’d like to think that we covered most of the major topics of 2011. With another year [...]

Weekly News (November 21, 2011)

Editor’s Note: This is not the most exciting of these commentaries, but it is the holiday season. Plenty of limited editions being released, as well as the traditional holiday cigars, which includes an Añejo and Opus shipment. The sales meetings will start soon, so cigar news is about to get a bit more interesting. Until [...]