Romeo y Julieta Short Churchills Reserva Cosecha 2019 Announced

The Romeo y Julieta Short Churchills will be the next cigar to get the Reserva treatment from Habanos S.A.

Today, the Cuban cigar giant announced the Romeo y Julieta Short Churchills Reserva Cosecha 2019 as the 2024 cigar for the company’s Gran Reserva/Reserva series. Like other Gran Reserva and Reserva releases—arguably the flagship series of Cuban cigars—it is a special, aged version of a regular production cigar, meaning this cigar measures 4 7/8 x 50.

Habanos S.A. says that all of the tobaccos used for this release were from the 2019 harvest—hence Cosecha 2019—and from the Vuelta Abajo region of Pinar del Río, located on the western tip of the island. The tobacco is aged for three years and the cigars themselves are aged for much longer than most Cuban cigars.

Like other Reserva releases, there will be 5,000 boxes of 20 cigars. One major change is that Habanos S.A. is producing 3-cigar gift boxes. While it will oftentimes produce these gift boxes for select events—like the Festival del Habano—they are typically not sold to distributors. There will be 5,000 gift boxes, meaning there will be 15,000 more of the Romeo y Julieta Short Churchills Reserva sold than previous Reserva releases.

Each year, Habanos S.A. selects a single regular production cigar from one of its largest brands to be designated as a Gran Reserva or Reserva. Currently, Gran Reservas are announced for odd-numbered years and Reservas in even-numbered years though recently, the cigars have not been shipped in the year they were announced.

In addition to the extra age, these cigars carry secondary—or tertiary—bands indicating they are a Gran Reserva or Reserva. Pricing and a release date have not been announced, but these cigars will likely sell for more than triple the cost of a standard Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill.

Brooks Whittington contributed to this story.

This story is part of halfwheel’s coverage of the Festival del Habano XXIV, the 2024 edition of Cuba’s annual cigar festival. For more coverage of the festival, click here.