GTO Releasing 33 Oaks Toro Esplendido, Adds Middle East Distribution

It will be a busy week for GTO Cigars.

On Tuesday, Zak International—the company’s new Middle East distributor—will host the first GTO event in the Middle East at Agora Cocktail Bar and Social Club in Dubai. Zak International will distribute the company’s cigars in Lebanon, Qatar, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and China.

A day later, on Nov. 22, GTO will release the 33 Oaks Toro Esplendido at an event at Cigars & More in Birmingham, Ala. It’s the newest size for the 33 Oaks line, which GTO says has been aged for a total of 12 years, two of which happen in spent bourbon barrels, which—by law—must be made of American white oak.

The cigar was originally announced at the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show as just the Connecticut Toro Elegante, but it will actually be offered in each of the three 33 Oaks wrapper options: Connecticut, Corojo and Maduro. The binder and filler tobaccos are from the company’s farm in the Dominican Republic.

In addition, the MSRP has dropped from $12 to $11.49 per cigar.

Update (March 16, 2024) — GTO Cigars has clarified that it only released the GTO 33 Oaks Connecticut Toro Esplendido in November 2023. The GTO 33 Oaks Corojo Toro Esplendido and GTO 33 Oaks Maduro Toro Esplendido are slated to arrive in stores in April 2024.

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.