Like most manufacturers at the show this year, SAG Imports looked much like it had in recent years, and a conversation with Terence Reilly revealed that is right in line with what the company is doing with its cigar lines.
The company isn’t launching a bunch of new lines this year; rather, they’re bringing back Oktoberfest, with a new 5 x 43 vitola called the Krone. It shares a vitola with the Quesada Seleccion España.
The Kaiser Ludwig is back as well in an increased quantity, as the production in that one vitola is up to about 500 boxes from about 250 last year.
With fewer new releases, SAG Imports turned their attention to Cubita Nouveau, a mark they’ve held since the mid 1990s but that hasn’t been a focal point of their portfolio. At around $4-$5 per cigar, they fill a hole in the company’s offerings between bundle and premium priced cigar. It’s available in Robusto, Toro, Gordo and Churchill, all using long filler Dominican tobacco.
Other than that, Regius Cigars, who SAG Imports distributes, has a pair of new limited editions coming out. One is the Regius Culebra, the other was made in collaboration with UK cigar merchant Mitchell Orchant, and bears the Orchant Seleccion name, much as several of his Cuban cigar offerings do.
The Orchant Seleccion, a 4 3/4 x 52 Robusto, uses all Nicaraguan tobacco and is said to be a bit fuller body than the regular line.
Beyond that, the massive 9 x 60 Fonseca 150 (don’t call it the F-150) made for the Texas market was on display:
The only other note of interest is that the unbanded blends in their Blenders Sampler probably aren’t going to be turned into a regular production cigar, at least not without some tweaks. Response was good in terms of quantity, though the results were fairly polarized.