Third Release of L’Atelier Imports Côte d’Or Arriving at Retailers

The third installment of L’Atelier Imports’ annual limited edition, Côte d’Or, has begun arriving at retailers, and it should look immediately familiar to fans of the brand.

 

This year’s version returns to the 7 x 47 Churchill vitola and the darker Ecuadorian Sancti Spiritus wrapper offered on the debut release in 2015, shown above with the 2016 version. Nicaraguan tobacco of unspecified variety is used for the binder and filler, though the cigar is best known for using pelo de oro tobacco grown by the García family, a flavorful but challenging type of tobacco to grow. Pelo de oro is also part of the wrapper, as Sancti Spiritus is a hybrid of criollo and pelo de oro.

A total of 10,000 cigars are being produced by the My Father Cigars S.A. factory in Estelí, Nicaragua, split into 1,000 boxes of ten cigars. The 2017 Côte d’Or is priced at $16 per cigar and $160 per box.

The Côte d’Or gets its name from the world of wine, a nod to the Gold Coast in the Burgundy region of France that is known for growing pinot noir grapes, which are also quite difficult and temperamental. Both pelo de oro and Pinot Noir are low-yielding varietals that produce flavorful results, furthering the similarities between the grape and the tobacco and making the name a fitting choice, as pelo de oro translates as hair of gold.

The cigar began shipping in early May.