The Germans are ahead of the English on the "market-specific" smokes, however. In fact, they have taken it a step further. A cigar shop in Cologne, La Casa del Habano, has just reintroduced the Bolivar Gold Medal in packs of ten. The lonsdale-sized smoke, with a 42 ring, hasn't been made since the 1980s.
I haven't smoked one of the new ones, but the packaging alone, which was copied exactly down to the bright gold foil inset, is to die for. The cigars sell for 16 euros (about $21) each. All are made in the Partagas factory. Only 1,000 boxes were made.
"Partagas made the blend according to the original," said Christoph Wolters, who manages the shop in Cologne and oversaw the production of the new cigar. Wolters is the same man who had the Partagas factory produce the Salomon II in 1996, which is a legend among cigar aficionados.
Wolters is one of the best-connected tobacco men in the Cuban cigar business. He convinced the Partagas factory to discreetly make a limited production of the Salmones in the mid-1990s. Only 5,000 of the large shaped cigars were produced. They are sold in individually numbered, specially designed wooden humidors (all different in style) with two bundles of 25 cigars each. They cost about $10,000 each in the beginning and continue to sell for about the same price at auction and from private individuals.
So -- thankfully for Cuban cigar lovers -- Wolters is back at it again. "We ordered these as special-production Gold Medals two years ago," added Wolters. "The Gold Medal was one of the great Cuban cigars. I just had to have it made again."
