It’s the third week of November and as expected, the Por Larrañaga Sobresalientes release is imminent.

Tonight, the United Kingdom’s latest Edición Regional will debut at a party before going on sale at the country’s two La Casa Del Habano locations tomorrow. By Friday, the cigar is expected to be available online and in other stores according to Mitchell Orchant of C.Gars Ltd.

Por Larranaga Sobresalientes

The Sobresalientes is a 6 x 53 Robusto Extra. It’s the third Por Larrañaga Edición Regional for the United Kingdom, following the Magnificos in 2007 and Regalias de Londres in 2010. Both of those cigars, however, bore a secondary band of Exclusivo Reino Unido, whereas the Sobresalientes is designated as Exclusivo Gran Bretaña, a change made beginning in 2011.

Por Larranaga Sobresalientes 2

Jimmy McGhee of Hunters & Frankau, the U.K.’s importer of Cuban cigars, told halfwheel production was limited to 5,000 numbered boxes of 10 cigars. Hunters & Frankau lists suggested retail pricing at £25.60 ($40.10) per cigar or £245 ($383.63) per box.

This is the second Edición Regional release this month. Switzerland took delivery of the Ramón Allones Perfectos on Nov. 7.

Por Larranaga Sobresalientes 4

The Edición Regional program sees Habanos S.A.—the marketing and distribution company behind Cuban cigars—create unique, limited vitolas for its distributors around the world. Sizes must be those that are in the Habanos S.A. portfolio, but not amongst the regular production offerings for the brand, although some discontinued regular sizes can be created. New vitolas created for a certain brand are also not eligible to be used. In addition, the “global” brands—i.e. Cohiba, H. Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey, José L. Piedra, Montecristo, Partagás and Romeo y Julieta—are not eligible to be made into an Edición Regional.

Since 2012, distributors have been limited to a single release per year, a change from prior years when some distributors would receive multiple releases per year. Distributors are the ones to initiate the idea of a new release, and the cost for any new Edición Regional must be underwritten by the distributor. There is no guarantee that any particular region will get a new release in a given year.

Given the program’s track record, it’s highly unlikely that even a majority of the 2014 Edición Regionals will be released in 2014.

(Ed. note — an earlier version of this story identified the Sobresalientes as the second Por Larrañaga release for the United Kingdom when in fact it is the third. We sincerely regret the error and apologize for any confusion.)

(Images via Hunters & Frankau)

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.