halfwheel

Review: La Aurora Excepcionales

To my knowledge, this is the third time this cigar has been mentioned on halfwheel. Its name is the La Aurora Excepcionales and unless you live in New York — you’ve probably never seen it. Given its limited nature, and the fact that it’s been nearly five years since the cigar debuted, I thought it [...]

Review: La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Oscuro Natural A

Since its debut in 2003, La Flor Dominicana’s Double Ligero line has been home to some of the company’s more unique vitolas – including Litto Gomez’s signature Chisel vitola, the 2011 release of the 8 1/2 x 60 Digger, and today’s cigar, the A. A somewhat traditional format that is seeing a bit of a resurgence, [...]

Review: Arturo Fuente Solaris (Prerelease)

In the latter part of 2010, Smoke Inn, based out of Florida, announced the first in what would eventually number four separate releases in what is known as their Microblend series to celebrate their 15th anniversary in business. Each release is by a different manufacturer, with different blends, sizes, numbers of cigars released and price [...]

Review: Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Senior Blend

In addition to the Don Carlos, which is the blend crafted by its namesake Carlos Fuente Sr., a small number of cigars are actually made exclusively for the patriarch of the Fuente family, the Don Carlos Senior Blend. On the outside, the Senior Blend looks like a typical Don Carlos, although Fuente doesn’t make the [...]

Redux: Diamond Crown Julius Caeser Toro

First introduced at the IPCPR show in 2009, but not actually released until mid 2010, the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser is named and produced in honor of the company’s founder, J.C. Newman. There were some problems with some of the early samples and it was later learned that several thousand had to be destroyed. Interestingly, [...]

Review: Nomad Renegade

Officially launched in January 2012, Fred Rewey’s Nomad Cigar Company released its initial offering of five cigars to the market on March 28. The lineup is as follows: Drifter – 6 x 60 Renegade – 5 1/2 x 54 Robusto Vagabond – 4 5/8 x 54 Figurado Navigator – 6 x 52 Torpedo Fugitive – 5 7/8 x 64 Figurado [...]

Review: Four Kicks Selección No.5 (Prerelease)

In late 2011, the long-awaited and much-anticipated Four Kicks debuted from Crowned Heads, the Nashville-based company formed by Mike Conder, Nancy Heathman, Jon Huber and Michael Trebing, all former CAO employees. Four Kicks would be their first line, made by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., and originally debuted in four sizes. Huber told Brooks back in November: It [...]

Redux: Los Libertadores Robusto

A little known fact to today’s cigars smokers is that Litto Gomez produced another cigar before starting the famed La Flor Dominicana brand. After being robbed of $400,000 of jewelry at a store called Pekin’s that he owned in Miami’s North Beach in 1993, he quit that job and went to work for a cigar [...]

Review: La Aurora 100 Años W. Curtis Draper 125th Robusto

On April 13, 2012, La Aurora Cigars’ Guillermo León appeared for an event at W. Curtis Draper in Washington D.C. to celebrate Draper’s 125th year in business. To commemorate the occasion, La Aurara released a special cigar, a 5 x 50 Robusto in the 100 Años blend. Charlie covered the details of the 100 Años [...]

Review: Rodrigo La Fortaleza Absoluto

In late of 2011, George Rodriguez of Rodrigo Cigars sent out a holiday e-mail that contained info about his newest project, La Fortaleza. Details were slim at the time, but slowly it was learned that this would be a limited edition Dominican puro that would bring Rodrigo into the full range. Like the other like Rodrigos, [...]