Foundation 10 Year Aniversario Shipping Next Week
Now that Foundation Cigar Co. has been in business for a decade, owner Nick Melillo is celebrating the accomplishment with the limited-edition 10 Year Aniversario, launching next week. It’s a large, Salomon-style smoke made in Nicaragua by A.J. Fernandez featuring a hybrid wrapper grown in Connecticut.
With their striking curves and tapers, these shapely Aniversarios measure 7 inches long, widening out to a 58 ring gauge at the fattest point. They’re notably dark thanks to a wrapper from the Connecticut River Valley—a leaf that Melillo says is a hybrid between broadleaf and Habano seeds. Underneath is a Brazilian Mata Fina binder and an entirely Nicaraguan filler blend of tobacco from Estelí, Jalapa and Condega. All the Nicaraguan components were grown by Fernandez.
The 10 Year Aniversario has a suggested retail price of $35 each, or $350 per box of 10. Foundation is only producing 2,000 of these boxes. An even more limited, 20-count box geared toward collectors will also be released for $700 (750 boxes total). Both are adorned with the biblical image of St. George slaying a dragon. Melillo tells Cigar Aficionado that he only has part of the planned production run in inventory and anticipates it selling out quickly. The rest of the cigars are aging and will be released incrementally.
Foundation is holding a launch party for the cigar at Micky Blake’s in Southington, Connecticut, on September 10. The cigars will ship nationally shortly after.
For a rating on the Foundation 10 Year Aniversario, see a future issue of Cigar Insider.
