Eddie Ortega appeared on CigarChat Thursday evening, and during his time confirmed that he is reserving a fairly significant number of Wild Bunch cigars to create an end-of-year sampler that will feature one of each of the twelve cigars. He estimated the number to be about 700 cigars.

Ortega also mentioned that he will not have the Wild Bunch on display at the upcoming IPCPR trade show, saying he can’t take on any more retailers for the project.

The Ortega Wild Bunch project was first mentioned back in July 2012 under the name the Ortega Dirty Dozen. The project name was changed in the months leading up to its debut and is comprised of twelve cigars named for people that Ortega has met during his career in the industry. Each release is limited to 500 boxes of 20 cigars, for a total run of 10,000 cigars.

The first three cigars in the Wild Bunch project have been reviewed on halfwheel: the Big Bad John Jackhammer, the Iron Mike I-Beam and the Island Jim Wahoo.

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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 and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for MLB.com, 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.