halfwheel

News: Oliva Serie V Melanio to Debut at IPCPR 2012

Earlier today, the details of the Oliva Serie V Melanio were confirmed and released by David Savona. For many, even the name was a new concept, which is odd given Melanio Oliva is the patriarch of the family’s tobacco business, and perhaps more interestingly — the concept is hardly new. At the 2010 IPCPR, Stogie [...]

Review: Oliva Master Blends 1 Churchill

In 2003, the Oliva Family of Cigars introduced perhaps their most legendary cigar, the Master Blends 1. It was the first it what has become a trilogy of Oliva’s most storied releases. The Master Blends 1 was a cigar that shed the idea of simple and practical and embraced the idea of extravagance, ornateness and [...]

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 [...]

Review: Oliva Connecticut Reserve F Lonsdale (Preproduction)

As we have said all week, While chatting with Ian Hummel and Bryan Scholle of Oliva/Studio Tobac fame at the IPCPR Show in Las Vegas earlier in the year, it came to light that Bryan, who rolls cigars at Studio Tobac events, rolls quite a few different combinations of blends for attendees of said events. As part of my research, I [...]

In Memoriam: Bert Gottfried

This will be the start of what is going to be a weekend full of statements celebrating the life of the iconic Bert Gottfried of Oliva Family Cigars who passed away early Friday morning. While I only met Bert a few times, he was a member of a select group of those in this industry: [...]

Review: Padilla/Studio Tobac Figurado (Prerelease)

For those of you that don’t know… In March of 2011, the (Oliva) StudioTobac Executive Board approved a request from Padilla Cigars to produce a Limited Edition full-bodied, Nicaraguan cigar that Padilla would distribute. This is the first (of presumably many) collaborations that the Studio Tobac team will produce. Says Studio Tobac’s John Gazerro: “Even [...]

IPCPR 2011: Oliva Cigar Co.

Publicly, the biggest news regarding Oliva and the 2011 IPCPR was the court order that prevented former employee Sam Leccia from attending the trade show. Despite a fairly one-sided discussion on various online format, numbers don’t lie and Oliva wasn’t really worrying about a Miami courtroom. An Oliva employee was trying to explain just how [...]

Weekly News (July 18, 2011)

Editor’s Note: This might upset some people. Here it is, the Weekly News, with little of the news most probably care about. The idea of trying to do a news post that captures ALL of IPCPR accurately is comical to say the least, so a milder form of the news. After the jump, all the [...]

Updated: Oliva Cigar Co. v. Leccia

Earlier this week the chatter regarding Sam Leccia and the Oliva legal battle picked up. Earlier today, the tensions between Oliva and their former employee hit an all-time high with Sam confirming the rumors that suggested he would not be allowed into the IPCPR show because of a court ruling. This led to a generally [...]

Review: Cain F Lancero

(You can read Brooks’ review of the Cain F Lancero, here.) Following yesterday’s announcement that these were slated for release later on this year, it seemed like a great time to finally getting around to posting this. When it was first announced, I was a bit surprised as this is just not one of the [...]