La Palina Ships Goldie Churchill

The latest La Palina Goldie is on its way to store shelves, as the company has begun shipping the Churchill, a cigar that was formally known at the Julieta..

The cigar is a Churchill-esque size, measuring seven inches long with a 48 ring gauge and sporting a fantail cap like the other sizes in the line. It uses the same blend as its predecessors, with an Ecuadorian habano wrapper over an Ecuadorian binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, including some medio tiempo leaves, which are found on the highest parts of only some tobacco plants and are believed to offer a unique strength and sweetness.

Pricing has been set at $23 per cigar and $230 for a box of 10 cigars.

The Goldie was introduced in 2012 and has become La Palina’s flagship release. It is rolled at El Titan de Bronze in Miami, originally rolled entirely by the late Maria Sierra. In 2017, Sierra handed off those duties to Lopez “Chino” Perez as part of her retirement.

• La Palina Goldie Laguito No. 2 (6 x 38) — July 2012 — $15 (Boxes of 10, $150) — 1,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars)
• La Palina Goldie Laguito No. 5 (5 5/8 x 54) — May 2013 — $18 (Boxes of 10, $180) — 2,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• La Palina Goldie Laguito Especial (7 x 40) — May 2014 — $16.50 (Boxes of 10, $165) — 2,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• La Palina Goldie Laguito Robusto Extra (6 1/10 x 50) — June 2015 — $18 (Boxes of 10, $180) — 2,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)
• La Palina Goldie Dalia (6 3/4 x 43) — June 2016 — $20 (Boxes of 10, $200) — 2,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• La Palina Goldie Toro (6 x 52) — June 2017 — $22 (Boxes of 10, $220) — 2,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• La Palina Goldie Cañonazo (5 7/8 x 52) — October 2018 — $22 (Boxes of 10, $220) — 1,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (15,000 Total Cigars)
• La Palina Goldie Churchill (7 x 48) — September 2019 — $23 (Boxes of 10, $230) — 1,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars)

The Goldie line is named for Goldie Drell Paley, the wife of Samuel Paley, who originally launched the La Palina brand in 1896 as part of the Congress Cigar Co. As for the vitola name, Julieta No.2 is the factory name—or vitola de galera—of the Cuban Churchill size, which measures 7 inches long with a 47 ring gauge.

Update — The name of the cigar has been changed from Julieta to Churchill due to existing usage of the word.

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.