The PDR Cigars team has dipped into the factory’s aging room to pull out the next release in its AR Cigar Collective series, The Four Star Society, which is being sent as an exclusive to Binny’s Beverage Depot in the Chicago area.

The cigar is a 4 1/2 x 50 petit belicoso that uses a five-year-old Ecuadorian habano rosado wrapper over a Dominican corojo 98 binder and Nicaraguan fillers. The company was able to find 4,360 cigars, which will be split up into 436 butcher-paper wrapped bundles of 10 cigars. Pricing is still being finalized, but it is expected to be in the $6-7 range when it hits stores next week, according to Richie Otero, director of sales of PDR Cigars. He added that it will be in all of Binny’s 40 locations and is designed to be paired with a private barrel whisky that the store sells.

The Four Star Society gets its name from Chicago’s famous flag which features four stars, and which forms the central element of the label that will come on the bundles. The cigars themselves, will be unbanded.

Four Star Society follows up December’s Bullet With a Name Vol. 1 release, the debut in a new series of cigars found in the company’s aging rooms. That cigar went to just 19 retailers. Otero said that more cigars are in the works for the AR Cigar Collective series, but declined to get into specifics or when they would be released.

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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.