Oliva Debuting Perfecto Made With Tobaccos From Exceptional Growing Years
Oliva Cigar Co. has just announced that it’s preparing a new figurado made with tobaccos from particularly promising growing years in Nicaragua’s Jalapa Valley: The Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2026 Perfecto Round. While they will be shown at the PCA show, which begins next weekend in New Orleans, the cigars aren’t expected to ship for months, sometime in the fall.
Oliva is comparing these cigars to “gran crus,” the wine industry term that translates to “great growth.” The cigars are made with filler and binder tobacco from the Jalapa Valley of Nicaragua, where Oliva has fields. The region experienced an atypical weather pattern in 2023 and 2024, a time that Oliva says was particularly wonderful, with reduced rainfall and historically high temperatures. Oliva called the conditions ideal for its tobacco. The Perfecto's Sumatra-seed wrapper was grown in Ecuador.
“These special conditions cannot be man-made, they can only be handed down by nature,” says Fred Vandermarliere, owner and CEO of Oliva. “And so, with every aficionado enjoying this remarkable cigar, we pay homage to that powerful bond between the forces of nature and the skills of the craft.”
As with all perfectos, the cigars are tapered at the head and the foot. They are round, measuring 5 3/4 inches long by 54 ring gauge at their fattest point. Each cigar has the familiar double band known to Melanio smokers, with an added third adornment, a red foot band (with golden accents) denoting the year 2026. Prices have yet to be finalized.
Oliva has made other perfectos before. In 2021, the company celebrated its long history in the tobacco business with the release of the 135th Anniversary Edición Limitada, and in 2023 it created its most expensive cigar ever, the Oliva Serie V Roaring Twenties Super Limited Edition, which retailed for $300 (a portion of the proceeds went to charity).
