halfwheel

Redux: Viaje Exclusivo Tower Cigars 45th (2011)

Back in April of 2011, Viaje released what was then the seventh incarnation of the Exclusivo line to celebrate Tower Pipes & Cigars in Sacramento, CA 45th year in business. The box-pressed Viaje Exclusivo Tower Cigars 45th was released on April 5, 2011 with only 100 boxes of 20 cigars produced. The same vitola with the same blend [...]

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: Nestor Miranda 70th Nicaragua

Back in October of 2012, Barry Stein, assistant director of marketing at Miami Cigar & Co. tweeted about a new project involving a limited release cigar made for Nestor Miranda’s 70th birthday on February 14, 2013. While almost nothing was known about it at the time, Stein put a photograph up on Instagram in November that showed [...]

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: OpusX Football

Ask anyone who has the slightest knowledge about OpusX cigars which cigar they would most like to smoke, and chances are the Fuente Fuente OpusX Football will be extremely high on the list. Yes, it’s an OpusX-banded cigar that is shaped like a football. While normal Fuente Fuente OpusX releases are highly sought after by [...]

Redux: La Palina Goldie Laguito No. 2

In the summer of 2012, La Palina released the Goldie Laguito No. 2, a 6 x 38 Petit Lancero rolled by a single person, Maria Sierra, who was one of the first women trained to roll cigars in Cuba. Named after Goldie Drell Paley, who was the wife of the founder Sam Paley. Only 1,000 boxes of 10 [...]

Review: H.Upmann Royal Robusto

In 2004, Habanos S.A. released the first in what would eventually become a regular occurrence, exclusives for the Habanos-licensed La Casa del Habano retailer. These releases are only sold to La Casa del Habano stores around the world and are usually limited to one or two different cigars per year. When the program started, the [...]

Review: Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan

In January of 2013, Alec Bradley announced a new release for St. Patrick’s Day, the Dirty Hooligan. Based on the popular Black Market blend, it uses a Candela wrapper from Nicaragua and limited to only 2,000 boxes of 22 cigars. We gave the information in a news story: Alec Bradley has informed retailers of the newest [...]

Review: Oliva Serie V Maduro Diadema

Today’s review is the last in our event-only Oliva sampler series, the Oliva Serie V Maduro Diadema. Last July we announced the sampler that would be offered at some of the upcoming Oliva events. It featured five new cigars – four new sizes for existing lines and one test blend. These samplers have become staples [...]

Review: La Flor Dominicana Mystery

Last month, La Flor Dominicana announced a new cigar called the “Mystery Cigar” that would be given out and sold exclusively at specific events in 2013. Details on the blend are being purposely kept secret, as are total production numbers and even if it will be released again in the future. The press release had [...]