Juan López Punto 55 Arrives in France

Cigar smokers in France have a new Edición Regional to add to their collections, as the Juan López Punto 55 Edición Regional Francia has arrived at retail in the country.

It’s a Montesco vitola that measures 5 1/10 inches long (130mm) with a 55 ring gauge, a size that has become popular for Edición Regional releases as of late and part of a growing trend of thicker cigars in general being released by Habanos S.A. and its distributors. It’s a vitola that came to prominence with the 2010 release of the Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchills, and has since been used on a number of regional editions, including the Ramón Allones Silver Jubilee for the Asia Pacific region and the Sancho Panza Valientes for Switzerland, both of which have come out in the past year or so. The yet-to-be-released Punch Preferidos for Germany also uses the vitola.

Marketing materials released by Coprova S.A.S., which is one of the distributors of Habanos S.A. products in the country, said that the vitola was selected because the “generous format” allows the cigar to express all the subtlety of its aromas over the course of the tasting.

The Juan López Punto 55 is priced at €18.10 per cigar, or just over $21. It is offered in 10-count boxes, with 6,000 boxes being produced.

The Juan López brand, which dates back to the 1870s, offers just two regular production cigars, the Selección No.1, a grand corona that measures 5 3/5 x 46, and the Selección No.2, a robusto measuring 4 9/10 x 50.

Habanos S.A. products are distributed by Coprova S.A.S. in France, with the exception of the Quai d’Orsay and José L. Piedra brands. The company also distributes to Algeria and Monaco.