Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Edición Doble Diamante

In the last 12 months, there has—perhaps—been no more talked-about new topic within the cigar industry than the rise of the $100+ cigar.

The concept is hardly new. For more than a decade, Gurkha has marketed at least a handful of cigars that have cracked the $100 price ceiling, none more notable than the Gurkha His Majesty’s Reserve, which Brooks reviewed 15 years ago. A decade or so ago, Davidoff introduced the Oro Blanco, which, upon introduction, was priced at an eye-popping $500 per cigar, though it has since increased to $600.

However, both of those cigars were halo products that most retailers will likely never be offered to sell. Two things have changed in the last 12 months. First, there have been a half dozen or so new, $100+ non-Cuban cigars; second, these aren’t just limited runs of a thousand or so cigars per year.

Two of the more recent entries have been even more unique because they are limited line extensions to existing, regular production lines, albeit they don’t appear to be the exact same blends. Plasencia introduced the Alma del Fuego Ometepe Edición Limitada, a cigar that looks like it could be the same as the regular Alma del Fuego line, but uses a wrapper from the Nicaraguan island of Ometepe.

In June 2024, Altadis U.S.A. began shipping the Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Edición Doble Diamante, which is a variation of the Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Edición Diamante that was introduced in 2023. While this new release shares some similar traits with the regular line, a lot is different.

From the onset, the Doble Diamante has different packaging: the normal line’s brown and gold color scheme is replaced by white and gold bands. More importantly, the blend is not the same. For this release, all of the tobacco comes from AJ Fernandez’s farms in Nicaragua—specifically, El Dorado, La Lilia and San Lotano—and has been aged for at least 10 years.

Most notably, while the six regular production vitolas are priced between $16-26, the Doble Diamante has an MSRP of $150 per cigar. Another way of looking at it: combined, the six regular production cigars cost less than one Doble Diamante.

Box images via Altadis U.S.A.

It is limited to 250 individually numbered boxes of 20 cigars. The boxes themselves are significantly nicer than the regular production Diamante, with a high-gloss finish, a gold-plated emblem on the lid and a push-button clasp.

• Cigar Reviewed: Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Edición Doble Diamante
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $150 (Box of 20, $3,000)
• Release Date: June 2024
• Number of Cigars Released: 250 Boxes of 20 Cigars (5,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

As someone who didn’t buy the full box, I don’t think anything strikes me that this is some uber expensive cigar. It comes in cellophane, and while the Montecristo bands are nicer than normal—especially the detail elements on the white parts—I’d be hard-pressed to realize that this is supposed to be something special. That said, the cigars appear to be rolled very well. The soft box press is done precisely and consistently on the three cigars I grabbed for this review. The wrappers themselves are very pretty, with a slightly darker-than-chocolate bar color that has only a minor amount of mottling and some oil. The wrappers have medium-full aromas with permanent marker and barnyard smells leading to some generic sweetness, though the third cigar smells almost exclusively like a marker. The feet on the first two cigars are medium-plus to medium, with raisins over chocolate and some weird fruitiness. The third cigar’s foot smells nearly full with some sort of off-putting mixture of chocolate and orange. It’s smooth and quite sweet but also has some foulness to it. All of this carries over to the cold draw. There’s some sort of funky, spoiled flavor that I find from time to time with cigars. I don’t know how to describe it beyond that it reminds me of what I imagine some sort of spoiled grape or berry might taste like. While not the strongest flavor of the cold draw, it’s pervasive and unique, so my brain gravitates towards it more than it does the stronger flavors like barnyard and leather. Secondary notes include peppered beef jerky, peanut butter, fresh mud, and on the third cigar, some spiciness on the lips. Cold draws range from medium-plus to medium-full, though I do pick up signs that these cigars might be packing a nicotine punch.

The first Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Edición Doble Diamante starts out surprisingly medium-plus with earthiness, and the barnyard quickly transitions into a sweet cedar before returning to usher in the finish. The other two cigars start off quite similar: medium-full with leather, earthiness and a pretty pedestrian toastiness. There’s not much separation between the flavors, and the only real difference is that I taste some pepper on the lips of the third cigar. When it’s in the ashtray, the first cigar doesn’t have much smoke coming off the foot. I take a puff, get an adequate amount of smoke, and then examine the foot and everything looks fine. I then stare at the cigar for 30 seconds and get concerned that it might have gone out, take another puff and am surprised to find plenty of smoke. This song and dance continues for about 15 minutes until the cigar gives up the act and just goes out. Once it’s relit, the cigar begins to have a normal level of visual smoke, but quickly needs another touch-up shortly thereafter, the start of what’s a regular issue for that cigar. Fortunately, the other two cigars have much better smoke production. Flavor-wise, all three are pretty similar except for one variable: saltiness. What’s consistent is that there’s a lot of dry wood over toastiness and some toasted black pepper. Secondary notes include caramel sweetness, mineral flavors and some barnyard. The first two cigars have a lot of saltiness—like thick chunks of pink salt—while there’s very little saltiness in the third cigar. The finish has some generic cereal and toasted wheat bread flavors, but the dry profile has a habit of finding itself back into the realm of toastiness with pepper serving as the accent. Retrohales have sunflower seeds, a thinner type of saltiness, red pepper and some creaminess. They finish with an interesting mixture of cinnamon and earthiness before the saltiness takes back over, except on the third cigar, where there’s just not much saltiness. Flavor is full, body is full, and strength is medium-plus. The second cigar has an uneven burn that requires a touch-up, while the third cigar makes it through this section without any construction issues.

Nearly an hour into the cigar and it’s definitely picked up the nicotine levels, but I’m still waiting for the flavor to fully come alive. Not only is it a lot of the same, it just seems like it’s held back, almost like it’s not using its full voice. Surely there’s more to be had than woodiness, toastiness, leather, saltiness and pepper, but my palate can’t find it. Whether that’s because that’s truly all that’s there or because I’m not capable of detecting anything else, not much else is happening. Again, the largest differences between the three cigars are the first cigar is having lots of combustion issues and the third cigar doesn’t have much saltiness. During the finish, the latter really becomes obvious as the saltiness dominates the finishes of the first two cigars, whereas it doesn’t make the list during the second cigar. Earthiness, leather, black pepper and cinnamon are the other flavors to be had. There’s not much separation in terms of flavor intensity, though the flavors hit the palate at different times. Retrohales are similar, though the toasty mineral flavors are accented by citrus on some puffs, and the saltiness is now hitting the sides of the tongue instead on the exhale as opposed to squarely in the middle. They finish with a bit of herbal flavors breaking up the earthiness, saltiness and pepper. One cigar has a bit of a Ritz cracker flavor, but it, too, is minor and not found in the other cigars. Flavor, body and strength are all full. The first cigar continues to struggle with combustion, albeit there’s plenty of smoke from the foot. It just has a habit of going out from time to time. Fortunately, given the flavor profile, there’s not really any obvious signs that it’s been relit multiple times. The other two cigars need touch-ups, each having issues with uneven burns and requisite dwindling construction.

If you are enjoying the flavor profile through the first two thirds, you are going to keep enjoying the final third. Unfortunately, I’m a bit bored with the monotony. The final third is slightly more bitter than the earlier sections, but it’s still largely the same core profile: earthiness, toastiness and black pepper over varying amounts of saltiness. Acidity, sweetness, creaminess—there’s just not much to be had. During the finish, the pepper and peanut shells increase a bit, though I’m unsure they get stronger than the toastiness or saltiness, although the final third continues to have little in the way of saltiness. Retrohales are a bit different than the rest of the profile as an intense, almost horseradish-like burn clears the nose before a flavor that reminds me of a soft hot dog bun comes in, followed quickly by a red pepper blend. The finish sort of merges the different parts of the Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Edición Doble Diamante together: peanut shells and bread flavors mix together while saltiness hits different parts of the profile. It’s full in flavor, close to full in body and full in strength. Combustion on the first cigar continues to be a mess, while the other two cigars need at least one touch-up to make it to the end.

Final Notes

• As a reminder, we don’t factor price into scores. This is done for a number of reasons, but mainly because your understanding of value and mine are not going to be the same.
• For me, this is absolutely a put in the humidor for a few years and see what happens cigar. As of now, it reminds me of a wine that is too young. There’s definitely more to be had flavor-wise, but none of these three cigars were able to break the ceiling and come fully alive.
• For those bemoaning the $100+ cigar phenomenon, our readers in Canada, Australia and other high-tax countries would like to have a word. There are many places around the world where paying $100 per cigar is a regular occurrence.
• The elephant in the room with the $100+ cigars is Habanos S.A., the Cuban cigar monopoly. As I’ve written recently, Habanos S.A. seems focused on extracting the maximum profit and is prioritizing its higher-end cigars, many of which are now hundreds of dollars.
• To some degree, I think that Habanos S.A. and an increased focus on the international market by non-Cuban companies is partly to blame for the rise of $100+ cigars. I think some companies looked at what consumers were willing to pay for Cuban cigars and thought, “could I charge the same amount of money?”
• This trend doesn’t seem to have caught on. In my weekly online shopping for cigars, I’ve noticed that a lot of these high-dollar, limited-edition cigars are in stock. Furthermore, there haven’t been as many new $100+ cigars introduced in the last few months.
• I’ve never run a cigar factory or commissioned one to make me cigars, but I have consistently been told that it’s very difficult to make a cigar that costs more than $3 at the factory level. And I rounded up to $3.
• Sure, a factory could tell its rollers to slow down to 50 percent speed and maybe there’s a lot more sorting and inspection going on, but it’s not like you are buying tobacco that is grown on a 20-plant farm in Central Park, flown to the Maldives to cure and then put together by craftsmen at an atelier in Paris. The leaves came from farms that are used to provide tobacco for millions of other cigars that AJ Fernandez makes, and rolled in the same building as millions of other cigars. The raw material and the labor associated with it is almost always going to be more or less the same.
• Similar to high-end alcohol, the difference between a standard label and one priced at 10x is almost always not because of the raw materials or labor. Rather, if you are spending $100+ on a cigar you are paying more for time, scarcity, packaging and marketing.
• All of that said, I don’t think it’s a simple as saying “you are a sucker for buying a $100+ cigar.” Cigars, by their very nature, are a luxury product. We rate cigars on a technical level, and I’d recommend that anyone who is not publishing cigar reviews evaluate a cigar based on emotional enjoyment.
• While I think those people who work in cigar factories would notice that this is probably some of the better-looking wrappers in the AJ Fernandez tobacco inventory, it’s not something I see consumers appreciating. For me, the technical precision of the rolling was even more impressive than the pretty wrappers. For example, the seams of the wrappers were about as good as I ever see, barely noticeable and incredibly even.
• The first cigar needed around 10 different corrections from the lighter. Given that the cigar magically went out within the first inch, this wasn’t surprising. Fortunately, the other two cigars were able to get by with just one or two touch-ups per section. I’d rather have an ugly-looking cigar that didn’t have construction issues.
• While I never found the draw to be loose, like many box-pressed cigars, it’s looser than average. I wonder if that had a role in the amount of touch-ups. There was never any issue with smoke coming from the foot of the cigar, but I found both uneven burns and declining combustion issues throughout the cigars. It’s all quite minor, though, given the price point, these sorts of issues are much more annoying.

• These cigars are listed at 6 1/2 x 54. The cigars measuread and felt like they were slightly thinner.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• The final smoking time was around three hours for the second and third cigars; the first cigar took closer to three and a half hours. From a construction standpoint, the cigars probably would have been better off being smoked quicker. Unfortunately, doing so amplified the saltiness and bitterness in ways that I didn’t enjoy.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co. and Corona Cigar Co. carry the Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Edición Doble Diamante.