Cuba Introduces Partagás Línea Maestra
As Cohiba has the Behike line and Romeo y Julieta has the Línea de Oro, Partagás now has the Línea Maestra, an ultra-premium extension to the Partagás brand. News of the new Partagás came during the Habanos Festival, which is taking place this week in Cuba. According to Habanos S.A., all the tobacco in this brand comes exclusively from the San Luís region of Pinar del Río, Cuba’s famed growing region—a first for the company.
The Partagás Línea Maestra comes in three sizes, all of them topped with a 109-style, belicoso head: Origen, measuring 6 1/8 inches by 46 ring gauge; Rito, at 6 5/8 by 52 and Maestro, a 5 1/4-by-56 fat belicoso. The bands, which are blue rather than red, have been reworked to include more gold elements and feature the names of each size.
Ultra-premium line extensions seem to be a recurring trend for Cuba’s major brands. Habanos released the Behike BHK series in 2010 as a higher-end product that distinguished itself from core Cohibas by its use of medio tiempo tobacco, a stronger leaf that grows at the very top of some plants. Then, in 2018, Habanos launched the Montecristo Línea 1935, marketing the new line as being not only the most full-bodied, but “the most premium.” Two years later, Habanos announced the Romeo Línea de Oro at the 2020 Habanos Festival, but the cigars didn’t start appearing in stores until late 2021.
There’s no word on when these new Partagás cigars will ship, nor is there any indication of pricing, but it’s fairly safe to say that this ultra-premium line extension won’t be cheap.
For a vertical brand tasting on the Partagás Línea Maestra, see a future issue of Cigar Insider.
