Illusione’s New Epernay Packaging Heads to Stores

At the 2024 PCA Convention & Trade Show, Illusione showed off new packaging for its Epernay line. At the time, the plan was to begin shipping some of the new-look Epernay in late March.

Yesterday, Illusione began shipping the new Epernay line, which features the first major packaging change since the line was introduced in 2009. Blend-wise, Epernay remains the same, and it continues to be made at Raíces Cubanas in Honduras, an outlier compared to the rest of Illusione’s cigars, which are made in Nicaragua.

The new packaging keeps the gold-on-white color scheme, but it’s now used on much larger bands and the boxes have been updated to feature a new seal, which uses a lone swan as a brand identifier.

As with the previous packaging, there are two minor variations of the new Epernay packaging. The Le Voyage, a 9 1/4 x 48 A size, will continue to be the lone vitola sold in coffins, though the coffins have been updated to be consistent with the new look.

The Epernay 10th Anniversary d’Aosta also has new packaging.

Epernay’s roots trace back to 2008 when Illusione released the ~eccj~ 15th as part of European Cigar Cult Journal’s 15th anniversary. A year later, that blend reemerged under a new name: Epernay. The name refers to Épernay, a commune in France known for its Champagne. Dion Giolito, Illusione’s founder, recommendation is to pair Illusione Epernay with Champagne.

In 2022, Illusione began updating the packaging of nearly every line it sold. Epernay and OneOff were the two lines that were not part of this major update.