Byron 20th Century Londinenses Dark Wrapper Heads to Casa De Montecristo Countryside in September

Next month, a new limited edition version of the Byron line from Selected Tobacco will arrive as Casa de Montecristo in Countryside, Ill.

Today, the retailer and manufacturer launched the upcoming launch of the Byron 20th Century Londinenses Dark Wrapper, a 5 1/2 x 54 robusto that uses a darker than normal Ecuadorian wrapper to give the cigar a unique flavor. It is a leaf that the company says has generally been reserved for select Byron vitolas like the Epique Poemas or the Distinguidos.

Underneath the wrapper is a binder of undisclosed origin and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Peru, and an undisclosed source. The cigars were rolled in 2010 at Tabacos de Costa Rica and have been aging ever since. It is an extended aging period for a Byron cigar, which generally gets between two and five years of rest before release.

“The Byron Londinenses was already a deeply complex cigar,” said Oliver Nivaud, national sales manager of United Cigars, via a press release. “But when you have a master in the kitchen that has a special ingredient to elevate a dish, that’s when you experience something even more captivating.”

The release is being limited to 100 numbered jars of 25 cigars, a total run of just 2,500 cigars. They are slated to arrive at Casa de Montecristo in Countryside, Ill. on Sept. 1, and will be available both in-store and via its website. Pricing is set at $795 per jar and $31.95 per cigar, before taxes.

“Byron has been my daily cigar since 2017, I can’t get enough,” said Sam Khalil, co-owner of Casa de Montecristo. “When we smoked this 10 year old Byron Londinenses with the dark wrapper we told Oliver we wanted them all.”

Nivaud noted that this is the first of several new projects forthcoming from United Cigars, though this is the only dark wrapper Londinenses slated for 2020.

Selected Tobacco is distributed by United Cigars.

Images courtesy of Selected Tobacco/United Cigars.

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.