Aging Room Small Batch Pelo De Oro Coming To IPCPR
Pelo de Oro is a difficult, temperamental wrapper to grow. It's susceptible to disease, the yields are low and most farmers want nothing to do with it—but A.J. Fernandez isn't most farmers. The cigarmaker-cum-tobacco grower cultivates a bit of this heritage Cuban-seed tobacco in Nicaragua, and he's giving some to Rafael Nodal for his upcoming release, Aging Room Small Batch Pelo de Oro, a small brand from Boutique Blends Cigars.
Well, he isn't exactly giving it to him, but he's agreed to give him access to his small allotment of this coveted tobacco. Fernandez is also making the new Aging Room Small Batch Pelo de Oro at his factory, Tabacalera A.J. Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua.
"I view Boutique Blends Cigars as a laboratory, creating unique and exciting blends with rare and hard-to-find tobaccos," said Rafael Nodal, president and co-founder of Boutique Blends Cigars. "It does not get more rare or harder-to-find than Pelo de Oro tobacco."
Translated to "golden hair" in Spanish, Pelo de Oro was once a popular tobacco in Cuba, but was eventually phased out on account of its susceptibility to the blue mold disease. The seeds have since migrated out of Cuba, and the tobacco is occasionally grown in small amounts.
The Aging Room Small Batch Pelo de Oro consists of a Cuban-seed Nicaraguan wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan Pelo de Oro filler. It comes packaged in 10-count boxes and will be offered in only one size: Scherzo, which measures 5 1/2 inches by 55 ring gauge. It's rolled with a Cuban-style triple cap and pigtail head.
The Scherzo, which is set to retail for $13.90, continues on Nodal's recurring theme of musically-named cigars within the Aging Room portfolio. In musical terms, a scherzo is a faster, light-hearted, playful movement found within a larger symphony.
The Aging Room Small Batch Pelo de Oro Scherzo is the first cigar that A.J. Fernandez has made for Boutique Blends. It will be formally introduced at next week's IPCPR trade show, however, Nodal says that it's already begun to ship to a handful of stores.
Like all Aging Room Small Batch brands, it will be made in limited quantities and eventually retired once the key tobacco is finished.
