Quai d'Orsay Baalbeck Edición Regional Libano (2018)

5. Quai d’Orsay Baalbeck Edición Regional Libano (2018)

Habanos S.A.

  • Country of Origin: Cuba
  • Factory: Undisclosed
  • Wrapper: Cuba
  • Binder: Cuba
  • Filler: Cuba
  • Length: 5 1/2 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 54
  • Vitola: Duke
  • MSRP: $19.80 (Box of 50, $990)
  • Release Date: June 2021
  • Number of Cigars Released: 1,200 Boxes of 50 Cigars (60,000 Total Cigars)
  • Original Score: 91

Quai d’Orsay is arguably the most unique brand in the massive Habanos S.A. portfolio in that it was created in the 1970s at the request of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, then Minister of Finances and soon-to-be President of the French Republic. d’Estaing asked Cubatabaco to create a French cigar and Cuba responded by creating Quai d’Orsay. And for the decades that followed, the brand acted as a quasi-regional release because the vast majority of Quai d’Orsay cigars were sold only in France.

In the last decade, Habanos S.A. almost deleted the brand entirely, only to bring it back with new sizes and packaging.

There has only been two Quai d’Orsay Edición Regionals made for a country other than France: the Quai d’Orsay Superiores—a robusto made for the Asia Pacific region and released in 2011—and the Quai d’Orsay Baalbeck Edición Regional Libano.

Named after a historical city in Lebanon which has been continually occupied for 8,000 to 9,000 years, the Baalbeck was added as a 2018 release but was not announced until 2019, and did not actually begin to arrive at stores until June 2021. It also happens to be the first Quai d’Orsay release—regular production or otherwise—to be sold in 50-count cabinets.

Of course, it takes more than an interesting name or backstory to make it onto halfwheel’s Top 25, and the Baalbeck has no problem in that regard either. The profile is both vibrant and complex, with a multitude of flavor changes between thirds, all of which add up to make the Quai d’Orsay Baalbeck Edición Regional Libano not only one of the best examples of a Edición Regional we have smoked, but also one of the best cigars we reviewed last year. — Brooks Whittington.