Weekly News (January 9, 2012)

Editor’s Note: So we made it one week. This past week was about as dead as cigar news goes, but over the weekend, things changed a bit. While there are a few stories, there honestly isn’t a whole lot of new news. I would like to thank everyone who supported us in week one and am pleased to announce that halfwheel is at this point back to normally scheduled programming, i.e. no more holy grail week. There are a variety of contests beginning, all of which will be announced at the end of the week. — el niño diablo.

• Fuente’s New Lines — This is by no means the only releases for Arturo Fuente’s 100 Year Anniversary, but it appears Fuente decided to finally make public some information on the Cigar Dave Show. For those that don’t want to listen to everyone’s favorite self-appointed general, Cigar Coop provides a summary:
  • Arturo Fuente 8-5-8 Aniversario — Slightly larger size, same wrapper as the below mentioned Don Arturo Aniversario.
  • Casa Cuba — We broke the story here. We put a picture of the band up a while ago, above is another. I’ve smoked a few of these, they are medium in strength and body, slightly south of full in flavor. Going to be one of the more intriguing releaeses of the year.
  • Don Arturo Aniversario — Annual released LE, six vitolas, Dominican-grown wrapper.
  • FFOX Angel Share — Prereleases have been floating around via a few forums. This is a lighter Opus X that uses the mid-primings of the Chateau de la Fuente leaf. These will have black bands, or so I’m told.
• Emilio in 2012 — I spoke with Gary Griffith last week about his mass amount of 2012 plans and early this morning he made most of them public:
  • Emilio AF Suave — Five sizes, made by A.J. Fernandez, other details were in last week’s rendition of the Weekly News.
  • Draig Series — Made by Plasencia. 300 boxes of 10 cigars for each of the three (Corona, Robusto, Toro) sizes to debut in spring.
  • AF1 & AF2 Tins — Some thoughts about 4 x 38 tins.
  • ChatTweetUp Corona — Emilio will make a Corona and Miami Cigar & Co. will make another one for the ChatTweetUp in August.
  • Grimalkin Name Change — Pretty self explanatory.
  • Boxes Changing — Gary says the boxes are getting prettier.There are some other projects, but that’s the confirmed plans.
• The Corona Project — A new small batch brand associated with Rodrigo Cigars. Production is set to begin in a few weeks and three sizes (Corona, Corona Gorda, Double Corona) will debut over the summer with less than 500 boxes of 12 cigars being released. More here.

• Tatuaje Tattoo Robusto — The above picture via @cigarsthomas.
• Don Cervantes Rosado LaViña 10 Lancero — Expect this in a few months. Making Lanceros for girls, that will go over well. Questionably NSFW.
• Nat Sherman to Ship Timeless Collection — Details are here.
• 2012 Habanos Deletions — Not sure if we have posted this yet, but here’s the list from Christoph Wolters at LCDH Hamburg.
• Romney Wins Federal Cigar’s Matchbook Poll — No surprises here, Mitt Romney won site sponsor Federal Cigar’s election tradition pretty handily.

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.