Quai d’Orsay Baalbeck Heading to Lebanon

For the first time since 2011, a Quai d’Orsay Edición Regional will head to a country not named France.

Later this year, Lebanon will receive the Quai d’Orsay Baalbeck, a 2018 Edición Regional in the 5 1/2 (140mm) x 54 shape known as duke. Antoine Bathie of SEITA, a French distributor of Cuban cigars, announced that Phoenicia T.A.A. Cyprus Ltd., the Cuban cigar distributor for Lebanon and the Middle East, will launch the cigar later this year.

In 2019, for the first time, Quai d’Orsay cigars will be released in a 50-cigar cabinet!
This Regional Edition “Exclusivo Libano” is an initiative from Phoenicia Trading, ⁦@Habanos_Oficial⁩ distributor in the Levant.

Discover size and name here… https://t.co/F5KxHG9vlQ

— Antoine Bathie (@antbathie) January 30, 2019

The Quai d’Orsay brand is most associated with France, where the brand has been the most successful. This is the seventh Edición Regional for Quai d’Orsay, though only the second time a country other than France will receive a release. According to Bathie, it will be limited to 1,200 cabinets of 50 cigars.

As noted by Bathie, Baalbeck continues the naming pattern for other Lebanese regionals, named after historical cities in the country.

If you feel like you’ve read a lot about Edición Regionals in the duke size of late, it’s because you have. Last week alone, the Mexican distributor for Cuban cigars announced a new Punch Duke and Phoenicia themselves launched a Saint Luis Rey regional in the size.

An email sent to a Phoenicia was not returned.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.