halfwheel

IPCPR 2012: Altadis U.S.A.

For Altadis U.S.A., the 2012 IPCPR seemed to be an honest effort to improve the quality of its new products. Gone was the intense marketing focus of Warlock and H. Upmann Sun Grown, and in its place were language that suggested the tobacco was of a different breed. It’s hard to say the results are in—but [...]

IPCPR 2012: Tatuaje & L’Atelier Imports

Pete Johnson sat down with halfwheel and talked a lot, and about all sorts of things—including the upcoming 10 year anniversary of Tatuaje. He also talked about his new company, L’Atelier Imports, which made its national debut at IPCPR 2012 after a bit of a preview in the form of Surrogates at New Havana Cigars [...]

IPCPR 2012: Davidoff Group

Between AVO, Camacho, Davidoff, Griffin’s, Room101, Winston Churchill, Zino and the lesser talked about Oettinger Davidoff Group brands—every year will be a busy year for Davidoff. Oddly the biggest splash in Orlando took place outside of the booth in the form of the inaugural Golden Band Awards—a ceremony honoring Davidoff’s top White Label retail merchants. [...]

IPCPR 2012: La Aurora And Miami Cigar & Co.

Last year, I said, “too much.” This year? It was much of the same. There were a lot of products, although this year was noticeably heavier on the Miami Cigar & Co. side of things. The caveat is—much like Rocky Patel—most of these lines were either extensions to series or limited editions. In the end, [...]

IPCPR 2012: Graycliff

While last year Graycliff and Toraño were still in separate booths, their U.S. distribution was controlled solely by the latter. This year, both companies booths looked largely the same, but the distribution was separate. Graycliff used IPCPR to focus on B-cuz, one of two new lines the company had for the show, but really the [...]

IPCPR 2012: Rocky Patel

The booth seemed bigger, and so did the crowd. Rocky Patel brought a host of new product to the show, and the retailers followed. While the EO Brands portfolio was no longer on display in the large booth, a few new lines, major extensions and limited editions outlined one end of Rocky Patel’s massive IPCPR [...]

IPCPR 2012: Casa Fernandez

The flagship brand of AGANORSA has had a busy time in the past year, including an entire shifting of production to Miami. IPCPR saw three extensions to the domestic stable, including a 5 1/4 x 54 addition to the Arsenio line. The BoothIt felt tall. Casa Fernandez Miami ReservaFrom Patrick Lagreid: The Casa Fernandez-Miami Reserva [...]

IPCPR 2012: My Father

There were no surprises at IPCPR this year for My Father, largely because the Jaime Garcia Limited Edition 2012 shipped the week before. The focus was long understood to be on La Dueña, and the spotlight shined solely on La Dueña. As always, the My Father booth was busy and colorful. La DueñaAll five sizes [...]

IPCPR 2012: Padrón

It finally arrived for the masses. After two soft releases, a name change and a delay, the Padrón 1964 No. 4 made its debut at IPCPR. As for the rest of Padrón, it was like normal—the same. The Booth Busy as usual. Also as usual, avoiding the IPCPR new products craze. Notably absent, no new [...]

IPCPR 2012: Prometheus

Fuente showed off new products at IPCPR 2012, Prometheus offered them for sale. While Keith Park had long described his 2012 trade show as something filled with a near overload of new products, he confirmed to us shortly before the show that he deemed the original plans as too much—so Prometheus was left with just [...]