Cohiba 55th Anniversary Humidor Sells for €2.8 Million

Friday night likely saw the sale of the most expensive humidor ever sold at auction. Habanos S.A. capped off its Cohiba 55th Anniversary Celebration in Havana, Cuba with a humidor auction. The namesake Cohiba 55 Aniversario Humidor sold for €2.8 million, quite possibly the most expensive cigar humidor ever sold at auction.

The event, which took place this week celebrating the anniversary of the Cohiba brand, concludes with tonight’s gala evening, highlighted by the humidor auction that included two humidors: the Cohiba-inspired humidor that likely set a record and a Champagne-focused humidor that sold for €100,000.

Much of the week has functioned as a miniature version of Habanos S.A.’s Festival del Habano, an annual event that the Cuban cigar monopoly hosts each February. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have not been Festivals in 2021 or 2022, but Habanos S.A. planned this event to celebrate a major anniversary for the Cohiba brand.

Annually, the Festival del Habano concludes with an auction of large and grandiose humidors. Typically, there are around a half dozen humidors, one from each brand, that are impressive not just for their designs and sizes, but also their eye-popping hammer prices. These humidors typically include a mixture of both regular production, limited edition and otherwise unavailable cigars.

The proceeds of the auction benefit the Cuban Public Health System. The most recent Festival del Habano humidor auction, hosted in February 2020, raised roughly $4.8 million. That auction included a Cohiba humidor that sold for €2.4 million, which at that time was likely the most expensive humidor ever sold at auction.

This year’s auction included just two lots, one of which focused on the Cohiba brand and another is actually based around Champagne.

Lot 1 — Cohiba 55 Aniversario Humidor

Sold for €2.4 million ($2.39 million).

Despite being “Lot 1,” this was actually the second of the two lots sold. Described as a cave-shaped humidor, it was designed by Nous Group and built by Humidores Habana, which has been creating humidors for Habanos S.A. for more than 20 years.

Measuring 67 inches (170cm) tall by 51.2 inches (130cm) wide and 39.4 inches (100cm) in depth, its design features veneers of precious woods, mother of pearl embedded along the base, and the Cohiba 55th Anniversary logo in gold with Swarovski crystals. The interior is made from okoume and mahogany, with trays to hold the 550 cigars that come with the humidor. An internal humidification system and hygrometers ensure that the cigars are kept at optimal conditions.

As for the cigars inside, the list is extensive and spans the majority of the Cohiba portfolio, including regular productions, limited editions, and a handful of cigars that are not sold, such as the Cohiba Gran Corona:

• 20 Cohiba 1966
• 35 Cohiba 55 Aniversario
• 35 Cohiba Ambar
• 20 Cohiba BHK 52
• 20 Cohiba BHK 54
• 20 Cohiba BHK 56
• 20 Cohiba Espléndidos
• 20 Cohiba Genios
• 25 Cohiba Gran Corona
• 35 Cohiba Ideales
• 20 Cohiba Lanceros
• 20 Cohiba Mágicos
• 20 Cohiba Medio Siglo
• 25 Cohiba Novedosos
• 25 Cohiba Pirámides
• 20 Cohiba Pirámides Extra
• 20 Cohiba Robustos
• 20 Cohiba Robusto Especial
• 25 Cohiba Robustos Supremos
• 20 Cohiba Siglo IV
• 20 Cohiba Siglo V
• 20 Cohiba Siglo VI
• 25 Cohiba Sublimes Extra
• 20 Cohiba Talismán

Lot 2 — Humidor Rare Le Rituel & Cohiba Ambar

Sold for €100,000 ($99,571.20).

The second item up for bid was the first edition of Rare Le Rituel, described as a tasting cabinet combining a bottle of Champagne Rare Millésime 1988 and 44 of the Cohiba Ambar, a new cigar for the marca.

It measures 12.6 inches (32cm) tall, 12.6 inches (32cm) wide and 35.2 inches (64cm) deep. It is made of sycamore, okoume, gold, silver and mother of pearl. The designs on the sides and inner lid draw on the sun and moon for inspiration. The humidor was designed by Elie Bleu, the French company that has been making humidors since 1976.

Included as part of the lot are:

• 1 Bottle of Champagne Rare Millésime 1988
• 24 Bottles of Rare Millésime 1998*
• 24 Bottles of Rare Millésime 2008*
• 44 of the Cohiba Ambar cigar, an ashtray, cigar cutter and cedar sheets.

*The 1998 and 2008 bottles are not physically packaged in the humidor but are included as part of the auction lot.

The Cohiba Ambar is a new vitola not just for the Cohiba brand but for the entire Habanos S.A. portfolio. It measures 5 1/5 (132mm) x 53, a robusto extra vitola known as Placeres. The Cohiba Ambar has not been released commercially yet and little is known about it other than that it will be sold in boxes of 10. In the catalogue, Habanos S.A. described it as having strength that goes from medium to full, offering a strong tobacco flavor from the first puff, with a drier note developing into the second third. The final third is described as “unctuous, tannic and spongy,” while preserving the dry note from earlier.

Habanos S.A. said that after the auction, an additional nine of the Rare Le Rituel humidors will be produced “upon request.” However, the company has not yet elaborated on how they will be sold or how much they will cost.