Weekly News (December 6, 2010)

The impressive C. Gars Ltd Auction finished, with 85% of the lots selling. The ten highest selling lots:

1. Lot 141 Fidel Castro Presidencia Humidor by Elie Bleu containing 150 presidencia cigars (92 Piramides & 52 Robustos), a bunch of vintage Cuban Pesos and signed by El Presidente – £24,000 (37,500)
2. Charity Auction Lot – Romeo y Julieta humidor signed by Jennie Churchill and Don Alejandro Robaiana with 108 specially banded Churchill cigars – £16,000 ($25,000)
3. Lot 110 Dunhill Selección No. 779 Romeo y Julieta. Box of 10, Pre-Embargo. £11,500.00 ($18,000)
4. Lot 148 Che Humidor by Elie Blue (2004) 11/50 containing 32 Robustos, 38 Piramides, 34 Double Corona and matching ashtray. £9,000 ($14,000)
5. Lot 138 Dunhill Selección No.777 Partagás. A partial cabinet of 44/100 from the 1970s. £8,200 ($12,800)
6. Lot 134 Dunhill Selection No.150 Partagas. Full cabinet of fifty of the 5 3/4 x 44 1980s Cubans. £7,800 ($12,000)
7. Lot 104 Davidoff Dom Perignon. A full box of twenty-five of the 1980s Churchills. £6,000 ($9,400)
8. Lot 273 Davidoff Chateau Yquem. Partial cabinet missing four of the 1980s Coronas. £5,800 ($9,000)
9. Lot 132 – Dunhill Selección Suprema no.108 Romeo y Julieta. Cabinet of fifty Coronas from the early 1970s. £3,900 ($6,000)
10. Lot 54 Belinda Belindas. Cabinet of fifty Candella Coronas from the 1950s. £3,700 ($5,800)

The cheapest item was a partial box of 11 H. Upmann Corona Minors from the early 1980s which went for £60.00 (~$94.) My favorite lot that didn’t sell was the Cohiba Linea 1492 Anniversario Humidor. Number of three of five hundred contained fifteen each of Siglo I, Siglo II, Siglo III, Siglo IV, Siglo V and Siglo VI. In a separate auction hosted by Christie’s, Winston Churchill’s Cartier cigar case sold for £30,000 ($46,500.)

Let’s see what else happened this week… Rene Castaneda, Vice President of Miami Cigar & Co., is being replaced by Hector Paz as National Sales Manager. Castaneda will be switching focus to international sales come January 1st. Habanos S.A. announced the Trinidad 40th Anniversary Humidor. I attempted to put some sense into the senseless Minneapolis proposals to ban “sampling” in tobacco shops. The Viaje Holiday Blend 2010 is near. Ernesto Padilla tweeted the picture below of the Artemis. Box-pressed, available at fifty Brick & Mortar shops starting February, comprised of all Nicaraguan tobacco and made at the Raices Cubana factory in Honduras. (Perhaps the hottest factory in the game right now…)

In addition to that humidor, Habanos S.A. announced the thirteenth annual Festival del Habano, February 21-25, 2011. The three brands that will receive special focus are: H. Upmann, Montecristo and Partagás. Last week, I previewed the upcoming Habanos S.A. releases, just in case you need a reminder. On a completely different note, the CigaRV has been announced, thing looks cool.

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.