Cigar Aficionado Hall Of Fame Class Of 2022
We welcome five new inductees to the Cigar Aficionado Hall of Fame, honoring the people who have truly made their mark on the world of fine cigars
Fernando Domínguez
President and CEO Tabacalera S.L.U.
An executive who has always put quality ahead of quantity, Fernando Domínguez is the CEO of Tabacalera S.L.U. He is an instrumental part of an organization that not only owns half of Habanos S.A., which controls Cuba’s cigar industry, but also owns Altadis U.S.A., one of the largest producers of premium cigars in the United States. He knows the world of Cuban cigars like few others, having served as co-president of Habanos S.A. for six years and living in Havana during that time.
It would be neither hyperbole nor hubris to say that Domínguez was crucial in improving the state of Cuban cigars across the board. He’s been in the tobacco business since 1985, but his restorative efforts began in the early 2000s, a rather dark period for Cuban cigars. Domínguez focused on quality control and consistency with the express goal of restoring the Havana cigar to its pre-millennial standards of excellence. The world of non-Cuban cigars has also benefitted from his leadership, as he ushered in a new era of distinction for Altadis, overseeing an overhaul of brands such as Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta for the U.S. market. More than half his life has been dedicated to fine-tuning all aspects of the cigar world, driven by the philosophy that a good product can always be better.
José “Pepín” Garcia
Patriarch and Owner My Father Cigars
The American Dream isn’t some outdated ideal, but a very real phenomenon that’s alive and well, especially for José “Pepín” Garcia, who emigrated from Cuba to the United States in 2002 and brought with him the ability to make perhaps the most Cubanesque cigars the industry had ever seen since the Cuban embargo.
Like so many in the cigar world, Garcia has been in the cigar and tobacco business his entire life. He began rolling cigars in Baez, a small town in central Cuba nearly 200 miles from Havana. The factory was responsible for producing such storied brands as Montecristo, Cohiba and Romeo y Julieta. Garcia’s ambitions, however, led him to the United States where he eventually opened up a small storefront with a few rolling tables in Miami’s Little Havana.
The operation was modest, but people took notice of the quality cigars Garcia was making. Nearly two decades later, Garcia and his family are now in Nicaragua, growing tobacco and making cigars at the grand My Father Cigars factory in Estelí. Along with his own brands, My Father also produces cigars under contract for such prominent companies as Ashton and Tatuaje. Though Garcia has become synonymous with Cuban-style cigars, his brilliant body of work is definitively Nicaraguan.
Eric Newman
President J.C. Newman Cigar Co.
His familial roots in the tobacco industry are four generations deep. His knowledge of Tampa’s cigar history is encyclopedic. And his time in the cigar world spans half a decade. That’s why conversations with Eric Newman are not only fascinating but highly educational.
The family business started in the late 1800s in Cleveland, Ohio, eventually moving to the landmark El Reloj building in Tampa in the 1950s. J.C. Newman Cigar Co. has some 22 million cigars made by hand in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and a small amount in Tampa—all under Newman’s supervision and guidance.
Newman made a brave decision in 1986 when he, along with his brother, Bobby and father, Stanford, bought the remaining shares of the business from his other family members. They mortgaged the factory for a bank loan to pay out the family in cash and put the company in negative equity. The La Unica brand, a premium smoke presented as a bundle cigar, helped to get them out of the red.
Today, J.C. Newman produces stalwart brands such as Cuesta-Rey, Diamond Crown, Brick House and El Baton. Newman has been industrious in his ability to lead his company into the 21st century by creating cigars that are both traditional and modern in style.
Gilberto Oliva Sr., 1931–2017
Founder, Oliva Cigar Co.
Gilberto Oliva Sr., the late patriarch of Oliva Cigar Co., left a legacy of tobacco that started in pre-Castro Cuba and continued into Nicaragua, making Oliva cigars the rich and reliable smokes they are today.
Oliva grew tobacco in Cuba then shifted his focus to leaf brokerage. When the country’s agricultural operations were nationalized by Fidel Castro, Oliva left Cuba, eventually settling in Nicaragua, though he grew tobacco in various countries throughout the Caribbean and Central America. He later moved to cigarmaking and opened his own factory with his family in 1996.
A major shift in the family business came when, in a post-boom cost-cutting measure, Oliva stopped importing tobacco from other countries and used his own inventory of aged Nicaraguan stock to make cigars. In doing so, Oliva created a product that not only reflected Nicaragua’s rich growing regions, but showed remarkable consistency. The timing couldn’t have been better, as the appetite for Nicaraguan cigars was growing precipitously.
He passed away in 2017 at 86 years old, living long enough to see the great success of the Oliva Serie V brand, most notably in 2014 when the Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado was named Cigar of the Year.
Alan Rubin
Founder Alec Bradley Cigars
Few people impart wisdom and work ethic like a father. Alan Rubin, founder of Alec Bradley cigars, knows this first-hand. He absorbed all he could working with his father as an importer of nuts and bolts, learning by example and internalizing what would become a model of professionalism and conduct. When they sold the commodity-based business, his father retired and Rubin ventured into the cigar world.
Starting small in the late ’90s as the cigar boom was in decline, he made cigars intended to be sold at golf courses. The results were less than impressive. But lackluster sales and near bankruptcy early in his career did not deter Rubin, and his personal persistence combined with a strong belief in the industry and a love of cigars brought him hard-earned success. His achievements include an almost yearly placement on Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list, as well as winning the Cigar of the Year in 2011 with the Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill. The achievements didn’t end there. He continues to enrich the lives of cigar lovers by constantly innovating, experimenting with new tobacco blends that keep his growing portfolio diverse and relevant. Now, 25 years into the cigar business, Rubin is imparting what he’s learned to his sons, Alec and Bradley, for whom the company is named after.
