Somm Rioja Soft Launches at Luxury Cigar Club

The newest blend from Vlada Stojanov’s Somm Cigars is now on its way to a small group of consumers before it gets a national release at TPE 2024 in January.

It is called Somm Rioja, a new line that uses a three-year-old Dominican corojo wrapper over a three-year-old Sumatra binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic, all of which are aged between three and four years. For this release, Stojanov has decided to work with Eladio Diaz’s Tabacalera Diaz Cabrera in the Dominican Republic.

“With this blend, I wanted to pay homage to one of the last, great bastions of value – the famed Spanish region of Rioja and its Gran Reserva wines,” said Stojanov in a press release. “Nowhere else do you find such an exceptional combination of tradition, prowess and skill at such an amazing quality to price ratio. With that in mind, who better to team up for this release than the famed Tabacelera Diaz Cabrera.”

Rioja—pronounced ree-ow-huh—is made in two vitolas:

• Somm Rioja Robusto (5 x 54) — $13.50 (Box of 10, $135)
• Somm Rioja Toro (6 x 52) — $14 (Box of 10, $140)

Luxury Cigar Club, an online retailer and cigar subscription service, has already gotten a shipment of Rioja and those cigars are already on their way to subscription members.

“I’ve had the pleasure and incredible fortune of working with Ben and Chris, from Luxury Cigar Club, since they’re first box,” said Stojanov. “They have been great supporters of every project I have been involved with. Aside from that, they’ve been phenomenal friends along the way.”

TPE 2024 takes place Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Las Vegas.