The San Pedro de Macoris Ecuador blend is made with a shade-grown Ecuadorean Connecticut wrapper, a Dominican Olor binder, and filler tobaccos of Dominican Piloto Ligero, Dominican Olor and Brazilian Mata Fina. The blend provides a creamy and medium-bodied smoking experience with complex notes of vanilla and white chocolate as well as a hint of peppery spice. San Pedro de Macoris Brazil is finished with a sun-grown Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, Dominican Olor binder, and filler tobaccos of Dominican Piloto Ligero, Dominican Olor and Brazilian Mata Fina. The blend offers a medium-bodied smoke with complex notes of cacao, dry nuts and coffee beans.
Perhaps most rewarding for Wintermans and his team has been the collaboration between Royal Agio and EPC Cigar Co.’s Ernesto Perez-Carrillo for the launch of Balmoral’s first Serie Signaturas cigar, Dueto. Serie Signaturas (Signatures Series) is the newly created collaboration platform for the Balmoral brand that offers another avenue to explore, discover and release completely new and exciting cigar blends.
“Working with Boris on Dueto has been a real pleasure because we both share an exploratory philosophy as cigarmakers,” Perez-Carrillo says. “We are both passionate about creating unique and new cigar blends that will capture cigar smokers’ imaginations. I believe we’ve created something very special with Dueto and that it will be one of the most exciting new cigars to debut this year.”
Made at Carrillo’s Tabacalera La Alianza factory in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Dueto is crafted with a Nicaraguan wrapper grown in Jalapa, a Nicaraguan binder grown in Esteli, and Nicaraguan and stalk-cut Brazilian Mata Norte filler tobaccos. Dueto cigars present a complex and savory smoking experience that combines the robust Cubanesque flavors for which Perez-Carrillo has become known with the optimal balance of sophisticated complexity and smoothness that is the trademark of Balmoral cigars. The blend offers harmonious notes of cacao, dry nuts and black pepper, with smooth molasses and floral finishing notes.
“It was exciting to work with Ernesto,” says Wintermans. “We shared our curiosity, and it was amazing to witness what happened. He came about it from a different angle—elegant robustness and a different flavor profile—than what we use. It’s good to see how we found synergies between his approach and our own. I think we inspired each other, and it was like a cigar-blending jam session. It was cool to see that you can combine two philosophies and come up with a different one. You only discover this by experimentation and not being afraid to be curious.”
This story first appeared in the September/October 2018 issue of Tobacco Business magazine. Members of the tobacco industry are eligible for a complimentary subscription to our magazine. Click here for details.
– By Stephen A. Ross, senior editor of Tobacco Business Magazine.
