I suspect there shall be a lot more grouping of these two companies together in the future, and as far as the trade show was concerned, they were in two separate booths. The obvious large topic of discussion was the gigantic distraction that is known as Sam Leccia and Sam Leccia Cigar Co., but he wasn’t there. For Toraño, the trade show was going to busy even without Sam and it seemed a noticeable uptick from their quasi debut last year. After the jump, Toraño, Graycliff and some bonus info you probably are going to want to see.

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Graycliff
There was some discussion in May that Graycliff might have a new line, and they didn’t. I have a sample of one of their new releases, although the wrapper is almost completely gone, so I’m not sure how well smoking will go. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and blame the Vegas dryness on the wrapper issue. Graycliff had a different vibe this year, although the normal fixtures were back. I will say the Toraño team (or at least those that I spoke with) seem fully knowledgeable of the Graycliff product line, which is somewhat impressive.

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Toraño Exodus 1959 50 Years BFC
Much to Brian McGee’s disappointment, this didn’t appear to be a box-pressed 6 x 60.

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Toraño Loyal
One of the two Toraño new lines, Loyal has been floating around and retailers were given samples. It’s yet another $6ish Toraño, and it’s another solid option at the price point. Who wants to bet we’ll see another line at this price point in 2013?

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Toraño Vault
The info is here, although this blend was just chosen, so there is no word on release dates. The humidor looks cool.

Crowned Heads
The rumors regarding Toraño distributing Jon Huber & Co.’s Crowned Heads have begun to pick up, and it makes a bit of sense. The Crowned Heads team are all former CAO employees and most of the Toraño team were right by them when the company was still in Nashville. Just for kicks I asked Huber about the rumors and he laughed. Crowned Heads will be distributed by… Crowned Heads. Quite frankly the plans have never been to be in five-hundred stores at the time of the cigar launch and Huber et al. are going to take their independence. For those wondering, the plan is still to have product by the end of 2011, but, test blends are still being sent out… you do the math. (161 days until 2012, just in case you are wondering.) — el niño diablo.

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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.