Last week, I spoke to Israel Markevitz, of Uptown Cigar Co. We spoke about a lot of things, he had mentioned that he had recently spoken to some of the folks from Drew Estate, who were in the area. Unfortunately, he told me that Jonathan Drew, Marvin Samel and a few others had come up from the Drew Estate factory to visit Sal Fontana, who was in a hospital nearby Uptown Cigar Co.’s current location. Wednesday afternoon, Sal Fontana passed away at the age of 86.
Sal Fontana, once the head of Caribe Imported Cigars, now Camacho, served as a personal mentor to many in the industry, including current Camacho head Christian Eiroa. Abe Dababaneh, who also lists Fontana as a mentor, points out his official title at Camacho, Consigliere.
Fontana is responsible for a lot of Camacho cigars, the Corojo and Triple Maduro, being the most notable today. However, if you smoke a cigar in tribute to him, perhaps the cigar made for the man, the La Fontana Consigliere. Rest in peace.
Photo via Jonathan Drew’s Flickr stream.