Weekly News (October 3, 2011)

Editor’s Note: The biggest news of the week was the Friday announcement from the attorneys for Pepín García indicating the legal matter of El Rey de los Habanos had been settled. Our original story contained an error referring to the separate matter of Tabacalera Cubanas as “lawsuit” instead of “dissolution.” (To be clear both companies are now owned solely by the García family.) We apologize for any confusion this could have caused. The story remains and as always, we stand by our work. — el niño diablo.

• El Rey de los Habanos Lawsuit Settled — We broke the news here. Editor’s note explains the noted correction to the original story.
• Tatuaje Monster Series The Wolfman — The list of retailers was released via Pete Johnson’s Saints & Sinners club. Casa de Montecristo, Just for Him Shop and Pheasant Cigars have already outed themselves. Same numbers as last year: 666 Dress Boxes of 13 amongst the Unlucky 13 retailers. 1,300 plain boxes of 10 amongst the 13 and additional retailers. Cigars MSRP at $13.

• Litto Gomez Diez Small Batch No. 4 — Last we heard of the newest Small Batch was an early 2012 release (although murmurs around the show indicated that it could be late 2011), but that was a few months ago. This weekend at W. Curtis Draper’s Little Puff a box was on up for auction. According to the box this is a 2006 crop from Litto’s La Canela farm. The box of 105 cigars was sold for $2,700.00. (Pictures via Jerry Cruz of Stogie Review.)

• Viaje Oro Koa & More — 100 Boxes of 25. It’s a Corona Gorda based off of the Oro blend. These will be released at R. Field Wine Company in Hawaii on October 21st. In addition, Farkas indicated that he expects the Samurai to return, although the release doesn’t seem to imminent. For those that didn’t get enough Viaje news this week, there’s at least one more single store release scheduled for this year, details coming later on this week. Pictures and details via the Facebook of Mr. Farkas.
• Padrón Family Reserve 85th in October — While there was a box up for auction with much of the rest of the series at Drapers this weekend, these have still not shipped and can be added to the flood of October releases. (Other items included a box of 50 Tatuaje Hassels from the Nicaraguan Cigar Festival, of which Pete indicated there were only 500 made), a bundle of Ratzillas and plenty of other cigars. Stogie Review has video here.)
• Juan Lopez Selleción No.2 Selleción Orchant — Missed this last week, but Mitchell Orchant of C.Gars Ltd has selected his newest Selleción Orchant. Pre-orders for the some twenty-five boxes have begun.
• Room 101 OSOK — According to CA there are to be three sizes of Matt Booth’s One Shot One Kill. No more details available at this time.
• Joya De Nicaragua — Not really breaking news here, but José Blanco is working on new blends. My understanding is we shouldn’t see any new projects until next year. There are also rumors that Mr. Blanco might be in fact doing his famous blending seminars with the Dark Corojo. (That should answer the e-mails asking what’s going on at JDN.)
• CAO OSA Sol Corona Gorda — Faithful reader of the news, Jerry Cruz hinted that we might see a Animados size of the CAO OSA Sol.
• CFCF at Federal Cigars — Friday October 7th will be a Fuente/CFCF Charity Event at Rick Gadway’s Federal Cigar. Tickets are sold out, unfortunately. There is going to be a host of interesting and rare Fuente items up for auction, almost like a preview for next year, all for a good cause.
• Australia Looks to New Packaging — Australia is looking into applying plain packaging to cigars, which would include either removing or covering the bands.
• Habanos Asks for Default Judgment in Pinar Del Rio Case — Frank Herrera has the documents here. In other news, Abe Flores’ & Co. are getting a new factory.
• JSB Trademark Application Opposed, Twice — Frank Herrera has details here.
• J.C. Newman Opposes Stone House — Details here, as noted by Herrera, Brick House is the issue here.

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.