Montecristo Ciudad de Música Heading to TAA Stores

The city of music is heading to TAA stores.

Altadis U.S.A. has announced that its collaboration with Crowned Heads—the Montecristo Ciudad de Música—is now being offered to the roughly 80 retailers who are members of the Tobacconists Association of America (TAA).

Previously, the Ciudad de Música was limited to the company’s Casa de Montecristo stores and franchises, Casa de Montecristo licensed lounges and stores that were part of the Altadis U.S.A. Advisory Group, a group of about nine stores and distributors.

Ciudad de Música is offered in four sizes.

• Montecristo Ciudad de Música Corona Gorda (5 5/8 x 46) — $11.95 (Boxes of 20, $239)
• Montecristo Ciudad de Música Robusto (5 x 50) — $14.75 (Boxes of 20, $295)
• Montecristo Ciudad de Música Sublime (6 x 54) — $13.25 (Boxes of 20, $265)
• Montecristo Ciudad de Música Piramide (6 1/8 x 52) — $16 (Boxes of 20, $320)

The Piramide size will remain exclusive to the Casa de Montecristo lounges.

Ciudad de Música was made in collaboration with Crowned Heads. The Nashville-based cigar company worked with its Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., who makes the majority of Crowned Heads brands, to create blend candidates and Altadis U.S.A. picked the final one.

That cigar uses an Ecuadorian habano wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.

Production will be limited to 100,000 cigars per vitola.

The TAA is a fairly small group of some of the country’s top tobacconists, about 80 retailers as well as 40 or so manufacturers. The association gathers annually to discuss issues facing the industry and retailers, as well as to have its trade show, a unique event that works on a group buying format in order to secure exclusive deals for these generally high-volume merchants.

In recent years, many of those manufacturers have made exclusive cigars for the organization, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.