Cigar Aficionado

Family is a common source of influence and inspiration in the cigar industry, particularly when creating new brands and blends. ACE Prime co-founder and master blender Luciano Meirelles decided he wanted to blend a cigar to honor his late mother, Maria Lucia Meirelles, to capture the complexity, grit and vibrance of her character. The new cigar is called Maria Lucia; it will be launched at the PCA trade show coming this July in Las Vegas and will ship to retailers immediately following the event.

Meirelles wanted to blend a cigar that reflected his mother’s life story. “It took me many years before I dared to blend something inspired by my mother. She passed away when I was only 12 years old, and it was only recently that I was able to fully understand and know her complicated life’s story,” Meirelles said. The cigar he created is meant to be an intricate smoke, heavy with bold flavors but with an air of versatility intended to appeal to experienced and novice smokers alike. 

The cigar box and band art were designed by Meirelles’ oldest daughter, Deborah, who works in Paris as an artist and fashion designer. She drew a portrait of what she imagined her grandmother to look like without seeing a photograph. To Meirelles’ surprise, the portrait was strikingly similar to his mother’s look, and he felt there was no better fit for the artwork for this cigar.

Maria Lucia is a box-pressed cigar measuring 5 1/4 inches by 54 ring gauge. Each box contains 12 cigars, and the suggested retail price for an individual smoke is $12.80. Marcia Lucia is rolled with Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, two binders from Ecuador (one grown from Sumatra seed, the other Havana ’92) with a mix of fillers from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Peru. The cigar is described as medium to full in terms of strength.. 

Maria Lucia is made at Tabacalera Pichardo in Nicaragua, and only 4,000 boxes have been produced, for a run of 48,000 cigars in this one size. ACE Prime has plans to add sizes in the first quarter of 2023.