In early 2020, Carlos “Carlito” Fuente Jr. said that Arturo Fuente would release a special version of its popular Hemingway line with a rosado wrapper as an exclusive for retailers that attended the 2020 PCA Convention & Trade Show.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, PCA 2020 never happened and those cigars were never sold. Now, it appears there will be a Hemingway with a rosado wrapper.

It’s called Arturo Fuente Hemingway OpusX, a cigar that is described as unique compared to the existing OpusX blends. Fuente Jr. says this is a tribute to his father, the late Carlos Fuente Sr., who created the Hemingway brand in the 1980s. It will be offered in a special 7 x 50 size and it will be sold, at least for now, in a special Elie Bleu humidor that was designed by Elie Bleu and Manny Iriarte, a longtime Arturo Fuente collaborator.

The two companies will formally debut the cigar tomorrow, at the start of the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show in Las Vegas, but the cigars are not expected to begin shipping until the spring of 2024.

The humidors are reminiscent of the Ernest Hemingway House in Key West, Fla. To create the look, Elie Bleu—a French humidor maker—used sycamore veneers, marquetry and metallic accents. The humidor sits on a tile base and features a stained glass lid. It measures 14.45 inches x 12.6 x 9.84.

Pricing has not been announced.

This is not the first time that Arturo Fuente has paid tribute to the Hemingway House; the company built a replica of the house at its Chateau de la Fuente farm in the Dominican Republic.

Each humidor will come with 60 of the Hemingway OpusX cigars. The humidors are limited to 199 units, which Elie Bleu will sell.

Rëyns International, the American distributor for Elie Bleu, is also producing special colorways of the Elie Bleu J-14 Diamond Jet Flame lighter, EBC-4 Cigar Cutter, and an ashtray to coincide with the release.

Overall Score

Avatar photo

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.