New Cuban Hoyo Debuts In Germany
The Hoyo de Monterrey Le Hoyo de San Luís had its launch party yesterday in Germany organized by Fifth Avenue Products Trading GmbH, the exclusive distributor of Cuban cigars for Germany, Austria and Poland. The cigar is the newest size in the Le Hoyo line, an old subset of the Hoyo de Monterrey brand that has received new attention over the past decade or so.
The cigar is a bit more than 6 3/8 inches long with a 52 ring gauge, a new size called fragrancias in Cuban cigar factories. The cigars come in boxes of 10 and the Cubans peg it as medium in body. The retail price is 24 euros ($28) per cigar in Germany, and will vary somewhat from market to market.
The new smoke is named for San Luís, one of the two most prized growing regions within Pinar del Río. This is the home of Cuba’s most famous tobacco farm, Cuchillas de Barbacoa, better known as the Robaina farm. Habanos S.A., the Cuban company that controls the nation’s cigar production, says that all of the leaves inside the new cigar are grown in San Luís.
The Le Hoyo Series is considerably old, but new releases such as the San Luís are considerably different than the originals. The first Le Hoyos were rolled in the 1940s, and the sizes were small and somewhat stronger than typical Hoyos. There was the Le Hoyo du Maire (30 ring gauge); Le Hoyo du Gourmet (33 ring); Le Hoyo de Dauphin and Du Député (both of them 38 ring gauge); the Le Hoyo des Dieux (42 ring); Le Hoyo du Prince (40) and Le Hoyo du Roi (42). Many of these sizes have been discontinued, but you can still find some. (On a recent trip to Havana, one of the more abundant cigars was the Du Député, which was available for less than $8 a cigar.)
In 2014, Habanos expanded the Le Hoyo Series with a far fatter, considerably different size, the Hoyo de Monterrey Le Hoyo de San Juan, a 54-ring-gauge smoke. Four years later, it followed with the Le Hoyo de Rio Seco, which was even fatter at 56 ring gauge. Both have rated fairly well in Cigar Aficionado. With the San Luís, it is pulling back a bit in girth, although its 52 ring gauge still dwarfs those older Le Hoyos.
The cigar is expected to roll out to other markets at a later date. Look for a review in a future Cigar Insider.
