2021 Awards: Company of the Year

When it comes to picking the Company of the Year Award, there is both a singular question—which company had the best and/or most impressive year—and then many factors that aren’t as standardized. The cigars that hit store shelves certainly factor into the decision, particularly if they are new, but as we saw last year, it could also be awarded to a massive company for how it managed to offload its cigar operations into seemingly capable hands.

This year, a total of 10 companies were nominated by halfwheel staff, and each certainly had its merits, but when it came down to the final vote, the job of getting impactful cigars and cigar products to shelves won out for this year’s winner.

2021 COMPANY OF THE YEAR — Davidoff

Take your pick among the Year of the Tiger, Chefs Edition 2021 and the Urban Architecture humidor for the most impressive new product from Davidoff this year; it would be hard to pick a wrong answer, particularly when factoring in the Year of the Tiger accessories.

And the cigars themselves were no slouch either, earning a 92, a 91, two 90s and an 89 on 2021 releases. That’s before even taking into account the number of cigars that were released: 17 new cigars for the Exclusive Series, three Vault releases, a store exclusive for JR Cigar, and the aforementioned Year of the Tiger and Chef’s Edition, as well as the Davidoff Dominicana.

To put it simply, Davidoff put out several very impressive cigars, an impressive breadth of releases overall, as well as some remarkable accessories, all of which contributed to a year when the company was seemingly never out of the conversation and had consumers and the industry interested in seeing what it would come up with next.

The company delivered with both flash and substance in 2021, a combination that earned it the 2021 Company of the Year award.

Honorable mentions: RoMa Craft Tobac and Ferio Tego.