Over four years ago, Tatuaje founder Pete Johnson announced plans for a new event only cigar called La Petite Eglise.

It was supposed to be an event-only cigar that retailers would sell when Johnson was in the store for a Tatuaje event. But it never happened.

From time to time Johnson would mention the cigar and that he was still working on it with the narrative recently shifting to two facts. One, the cigar would be sold in Europe. Two, it would use pelo de oro tobacco, which complicated the blending process.

The current plan is for that to happen next Spring. It will be one of two cigars with Église in the name, the other being Clos L’Église. Both are 5 x 50 robustos and expected to retail for €15. The differences between the cigars is the wrapper and foot. Petite Église will get an Ecuadorian rosado claro wrapper with a normal foot, while Clos L’Église uses an Ecuadorian rosado oscuro wrapper with a closed foot.

There are French wines that use the same names.

Pelo de oro is more often found in cigars from Johnson’s other company, L’Atelier Imports. The strain of tobacco is banned in Cuba because it oftentimes grows blue mold. The García family, owner of the My Father brand and factory, grow it in Nicaragua and reserve it for special releases.

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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.