IPCPR 2015: Davidoff of Geneva USA

After a downsizing at General Cigar Co., Davidoff of Geneva USA is now, without question, the largest exhibitor at this year’s show. It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given Davidoff’s strategies that include a hefty dose of marketing spending. The booth itself is the same basic outline that we’ve seen from the last few years, but with a few changes — most notably the old humidor has been replaced by an AVO section and the Zino Platinum bus is nowhere to be found. Despite what doesn’t seem like that many new products, there’s a 64-page sales book and a few pages of notes sitting in front of me.

AVO’s New Digs
As is mentioned above, AVO has its own walk-in section, a big commitment to the brand which was relaunched this year. Inside was a variety of items, including the AVO promotional items and the new AVO lines.

AVO Classic Covers 2015 Volume 2
The follow-up AVO Classic Covers looks incredible. It’s a 6 x 54 toro extra priced at $16. It uses an Ecuadorian 702 Marron wrapper, Mexican binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Production is limited to 3,500 boxes in the U.S.

It’s hard to argue that the star of the show isn’t the display. The box itself is great: a round 16-count box designed to look like a record, but Davidoff of Geneva USA has created a new display that holds five boxes and one open item up top.

AVO Robusto Assortment
It’s a four-pack of AVO’s containing Classic, Domaine, Syncro and a mystery cigar called AVO Mystery Note 326, all in a robusto size. Pricing is $30 per four-pack.

AVO Syncro Nicaragua
The box-pressed Syncro took the back wall at the new AVO section, which is great to show off the myriad of colors. It’s great to see the cigar in real life, as the press images were a bit computer generated for me and the cigar does pop. It’s not the old AVO, but it still is relatively AVO. As for the cigar, I still haven’t tried one. More details on the box-pressed release here.

Camacho American Barrel-Aged Tubo
The relatively new American Barrel-Aged line now has a tubed version of the Robusto size. It comes in boxes of 20 and retails for $10.50, 50 cents more than the non-tubed version.

Camacho Ecuador Robusto Tubo
Same story as above, pricing is $7.25 per cigar.

Camacho Liberty Series 2015
This was shipping before the show, but it’s on display here as well. More details here.

Camacho Shellback
The new limited edition from Camacho is part of a new Brotherhood Series. This is in similar vein to Camacho Blackout and Double Shock, a yearly limited edition that has been shown off at the IPCPR Convention & Trade Show. Shellback measures 6 x 50 and uses an Ecuadorian habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers from Estelí.

Production is limited to 4,000 boxes of 20, which should ship in September, and pricing is suggested at $12 per cigar.

The name refers to a naval term; a “shellback” is someone who has gone on missions on both sides of the equator.

Camacho Strongbox Humidor
The new humidor is impressive, and yes, it takes two hands to open. Pricing is $699.

Davidoff Escurio
Im not sure what’s left to say about Escurio. It’s the new Davidoff, the second in the company’s informal black series and part of the company’s idea that it can find inspiration (and tobaccos) from other countries.

Given the comments from Davidoff’s retailers, there’s a lot of excitement — particularly given the success retailers are still having with Nicaragua. More details here.

Davidoff Escurio Accessories
It’s $100-160 retail. It’s part of the company’s new accessory philosophy, which sees lower-priced accessories banded for lines, whereas the eponymous Davidoff line will be higher-priced. These will ship a bit later, possibly October.

More details here.

Davidoff Nicaragua Mini Cigarillos
Sold in tins of 20 and I will say that it’s true that despite the small size, the cigars do not burn hot. Pricing is $19.90 per tin of 20. More details here.

Davidoff Stainless
There’s a new stainless cutter and lighter, but that is it as far as the eponymous Davidoff accessories. I’m told there might be a revamp coming here in the future.

Davidoff Winston Churchill Belicoso & Petit Panetela
This uses an Ecuadorian habano wrapper, Peruvian pelo de oro viso binders and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.

The Petit Panetelas are sold in tins of five priced at $6.35 per cigar, while the Belicoso is sold in tins of five with pricing at $7.25. More details here.

Room101 The Big Payback Jacquemate
The new, gigantic Big Payback will ship later this month. It’s an 8 x 80, albeit in torpedo form, and priced at $8.95 per cigar. This will ship in boxes of 30 late next month. It uses an Ecuadorian Havana-seed, Cuban-seed Brazilian binder and Brazilian Cubra and mata fina, Dominican olor, piloto and san vicente.

Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut
We’ve seen a lot of space-themed cigars in recent years, but none have taken the approach of—whatever the opposite of serious is. This is probably my favorite branding I’ve seen at the show, although the high-gloss boxes are a bit challenging to photograph. It’s limited to 70,000 cigars, more details here.

Smoking Jacket Limited Edition Gran Belicoso
Hendrik Kelner Jr.’s Smoking Jacket Cigars brand is distributed by Davidoff of Geneva USA and there’s a new limited edition. It measures 5 3/4 x 60 in belicoso form.

Kelner Jr. told halfwheel that there were only 250 boxes of 10 and they would be limited to accounts who carried the regular Smoking Jacket line. He described it as fuller, using a Dominicana Havana wrapper, criollo binder and five filler tobaccos: Condega viso, Dominican HVA and San Vicente, Peruvian pelo de oro and a tobacco referred to as “eight percent,” the super strong Pennsylvania ligero that has ben appearing in other cigars of late.

This will ship in August priced at $12 per cigar.

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.