Claudio Sgroi, Edgar Julián Sued Team Up for Trio of Limited Editions

Claudio Sgroi and Edgar Julián Sued have announced the first of what will be a trio of limited editions.

The first release will be Cinque Terre, a 5 x 54 robusto extra made at Julián Sued & Compañía in Tamboril, Dominican Republic. It uses an Ecuadorian wrapper over an American binder and filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Nicaragua. The cigars were aged for 150 days after rolling and will be released to stores in the U.S. and international markets this month.

It will have an MSRP of $14.95 per cigar and is limited to 1,000 boxes of 10 cigars.

Cinque Terre is Italian for “five lands,” a reference to the five countries where the tobaccos for the cigar were grown. Sgroi told halfwheel the series doesn’t have its own name at the moment.

“This is a magnificent collaboration that came from my friendship with Edgar,” said Sgroi in a press release. “My goal is to find and help the new generation of tobacco talents around the world.”

Sgroi worked at Mombacho Cigars S.A. from 2011-2021. In April, he announced he was leaving his role as master blender for Mombacho Cigar S.A. and starting his own consulting company, CST Consulting.

“For me it is a great honor and privilege to create collaborations in Dominican Republic hand in hand with Claudio Sgroi,” said Sued. “Undoubtedly his experience in the tobacco industry will take us closer to our main goal which is never-ending improvement.”

Sued created his first brand, Campesino, in 2012, originally made at Manufactura Rivas, a small Dominican factory best known for producing Chogüí. In 2015, he began working with Hendrik Kelner Jr. and last year opened up his own factory.