2023 Awards: Factory of the Year

For our 2023 awards, we have changed the nomination process for Factory of the Year and Company of the Year.

In the past, each writer has been asked to nominate as many factories or companies as they would like for each award. After that was completed, each writer was then asked to rank all the nominees. The winner was determined by the cumulative rankings.

For 2023, the nominees were determined based on the five highest-scoring factories or compansed based on our regular reviews in 2023. Each writer was then asked to rank the nominees by whatever method they wanted.

This change was done because it better aligns with how halfwheel sees the cigar world: through the lens of new cigars.

For better and worse, we focus on new cigars. Whether it’s reviews, news stories, event coverage, etc.—we spend almost all of our time writing about new cigars, and very little time writing about cigars that have been on the market for 10 years. It’s not that new is better, rather, new tends to be what interests the largest amount of readers. We think it makes more sense to at least use that lens as a way to narrow down the options. — Charlie Minato.

2023 Factory of the Year — Cigars Davidoff

After taking home the top prize in this category in 2013 and 2017—not to mention honorable mentions in multiple other years—Cigars Davidoff has once again been named halfwheel’s Factory of the Year.

Cigars Davidoff is the flagship factory for Davidoff. Based in the Dominican Republic, it is responsible for producing the eponymous Davidoff cigars as well as Zino Platinum.

Amongst our four-person voting panel, it received first-place votes from two different people and second-place votes from the other two. When looking at the review scores from cigars made at the factory, it is obvious why Cigars Davidoff won this year and proves that the factory is simply on a completely different level compared to most factories.

Out of four different regular reviews that were published on halfwheel, the cigars rolled at Cigars Davidoff were awarded two 92s, a 91 and an 88, which is the highest average of any factory’s products on our list this year that had more than one cigar scored.

• Davidoff Aniversario No. 1 Limited Edition Collection (92)
• Davidoff Limited Edition 2023 Year of the Rabbit (92)
• Davidoff Limited Edition 2023 Year of the Rabbit Flagship Exclusive (91)
• Davidoff Nicaragua 10th Anniversary Limited Edition (88)

Of course, this award is not simply a contest of which cigars scored the best out of any given factory. On a personal level, I can say that every cigar I smoked last year that was made at Cigars Davidoff—which included cigars that I was scoring as well as cigars I was smoking for myself—was spot on when it came to flavors, consistency and construction, a fact that is far from a given these days. — Brooks Whittington

Honorable Mentions: El Maestro and Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.

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Here is the remaining schedule for awards week:

• Jan. 17, 2024 (Wednesday) — Company of the Year
• Jan. 18, 2024 (Thursday) 12 p.m. CST — Packaging Awards
• Jan. 19, 2024 (Friday) 12 p.m. CST — Top 25 Cigars
• Jan. 22, 2024 (Monday) 12 p.m. CST — The Consensus 2023