Cigar Aficionado

Cigar tobacco historically has been grown in valleys, low-lying areas surrounded by hills or mountains. A new cigar unveiled at the PCA trade show turns tradition on its head, and it comes from a company with generations of experience growing tobacco.

“This is something very special,” says Nestor Andrés Plasencia, opening a box of Plasencia Alma del Cielo cigars. The cigar, named for “soul of the sky,” features some tobacco that is grown on a farm in the mountains of Nicaragua—and the farm is 3,500 feet above sea level. 

“In tobacco I haven’t seen any other place that does that,” says Plasencia. “The view is unbelievable.”

The farm is called Finca San Julián, and that high altitude delivers different weather than Plasencia finds in other parts of Nicaragua. (His company grows more cigar tobacco in Central America than any other.) The temperature is lower, especially in the evening. “The cold nights give us the specific flavor,” he explains. The higher elevation and lack of shade found in a valley leads to more sunlight. 

So why this farm? There’s a family connection. It was a cattle and coffee farm that was owned by Melalina Torres, Plasencia’s maternal grandmother, who spent time there in her youth before her father had to sell it in 1961. “We were raised listening to the stories of that farm,” says Plasencia. “I get the love of tobacco from my father and the love of nature from my mother.”

Nestor’s father, Cigar Aficionado Hall of Famer Nestor Plasencia, bought the farm for his wife in 1998 as a surprise gift. “The soil is unbelievably rich,” says Nestor Jr. “The water comes from a spring in the mountains.”

He uses some of the tobacco from this farm in the filler blend for Alma del Cielo. All the tobacco is from Nicaragua, all grown by the Plasencias, and it’s finished with a wrapper leaf from Jalapa. Plasencia calls it a medium-bodied cigar. Cigar Aficionado smoked an early sample at Big Smoke Meets WhiskyFest last week, and agreed with the medium-bodied assessment. 

The cigar will come in three sizes, each packed in boxes of 10.

There is Celeste, a robusto measuring 4 7/8 inches long by 52 ring gauge, with a suggested retail price of $25; Boreal, a toro that is 6 1/8 inches by 54, selling for $27.50; and finally Amanecer, a hexagonally pressed smoke that is 6 by 60, with a suggested retail price of $29.50.

Alma del Cielo is the fourth line in the Alma series, which started with Alma Fuerte, followed by Alma del Campo and Alma del Fuego.

The new cigar will be unveiled tomorrow at the PCA trade show, and shipments will begin by the end of April.

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