Montecristo Cigars

Montecristo is the name of two prominent and premium cigar brands. One of the branads is produced in the Dominican Republic by the Franco Spanish tobacco conglomerate Altadis SA and the other is produced by the state owned Cuban company Habanos SA in Havana Cuba.

History

The Montecristo cigar brand was first created by Menedez, Garcia y Cia in 1935. The group was the owner at the time of the very popular H. Upmann brand of cigars. The company had recently purchased the Upmann line from J. Frankau & Co., when Menendez and Garcia chose to create their own sub category of the general H. Upmann line. They called this line the Monecristo Selection. The name designation for the brand of cigars was driven by the novel titled The Count of Monte Cristo written by Alexadre Dumas. This novel was incredibly popular among the cigar rollers or torcedores to read often.

Insisted by John Hunter's firm in Great Britain, the name of the cigar was called simply Montecristo and it received a new logo with a yellow background and red "crossed swords". The logo remains in use today. The efforts of Alfred Dunhill, Ltd made the Montecristo brand an enormously popular international choice. Today the brand accounts for almost half or 50% of Habanos SA's international cigar sales. Therefore the Montecristo is the most popular Cuban cigar in the world. With the end of the Cuban Revolution and the overall nationalization of the cigar industry throughout Cuba in 1961, Menedez and Garcia left the country and settled in the Canary Islands. The men attempted to re-establish the brand, however were forced to shut down because of copyright disputes with Cubatabaco. During the mid 1970s, the cigar operation was re-located to La Roman in the Dominican where production of cigars for the US market resumed. Because of the embargo, Cuba's rights to the brand were not and are not recognized in the United States. Menedez Garcia, y Cia was assumed by Altadis SA. This entity now controls all produciton, distribution and marketing throughout the United States.

The orgiinal Montecristo line came only with five numbered sizes and a tubed cigar was added to the lineup in the mid 1940s. Other than these additions, the brand remained unchanged until after Cuban nationalization. When Menendez and Garcia fled after 1959, Jose Manual Gonzalez, one of the prominent torcedores was promoted to overall floor manager and drastically increased the company's bottom line. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, five distinctly new sizes were added to the line: the Petit Tubo, the A, the Joyita, and the Especial No. 1 and 2. Three additional sizes were added however discontinued. these included the Montecristo No. 6, No. 7, and B.

Throughout the 1970's and the 1980's, the Montecristo brand rose steadily in popularity within cigar smokers and began one of Cuba's highest selling cigar brands. Currently the Montecristo No. 4 alone is the most purchased and popular cigar in the world. Another new addition to the Montecristo line was the Edmundo in 2004, a large robusto sized cigar. This cigar was named after the protaganist, Edmond Dantes, in the Count of Monte Cristo.

The Montecristo brand of cigars is also frequently chosen to be featured in Cuba's Habanos SA's yearly Edicion Limitada of selected cigars with a darker and more pronounced vintage wrapper. There are also several limited edition releases of this cigar as a special Montecristo

Cigarillos

The Montecristo brand also produces three machine manufactured cigarillos: the Purito, the Mini and the Club.

Vitolas in the Cuban Montecristo Line

The following list of vitolas (sizes) within the Montecristo line lists their measurements in English and metric, their vitolas de galera (factory name), and their conventional name in American cigar slang.

Hand-Made Vitolas

* No. 1 - size: 6 1/2" x 42 (165 x 16.67 mm) Cervantes, a lonsdale
* No. 2 - size: 6 1/8" x 52 (156 x 20.64 mm) Pirámide, a pyramid or torpedo
* No. 3 - size: 5 5/8" x 42 (142 x 16.67 mm) Corona, a corona
* No. 4 - size: 5 1/8" x 42 (129 x 16.67 mm) Mareva, a petit corona
* No. 5 - size: 4" x 40 (102 x 15.87 mm) Perla, a tres petit corona
* A - size: 9 1/4" x 47 (235 x 18.65 mm) Gran Corona, a presidente or giant
* Especial No. 1 - size: 7 1/2" x 38 (192 x 15.08 mm) Laguito No. 1, a long panetela
* Especial No. 2 - size: 6" x 38 (152 x 15.08 mm) Laguito No. 2, a panetela
* Joyita - size: 4 1/2" x 26 (115 x 10.32 mm) Laguito No. 3, a cigarillo
* Tubo - size: 6 1/8" x 42 (155 x 16.67 mm) Corona Grande, a long corona
* Petit Tubo - size: 5 1/8" x 42 (129 x 16.67 mm) Mareva, a petit corona
* Edmundo - size: 5 3/8" x 52 (135 x 20.64 mm) Edmundo, a robusto

Edición Limitada Releases

* Double Corona (2001) - size: 7 5/8" x 49 (194 x 19.45 mm) Prominente, a double corona
* Robusto (2001) - size: 4 7/8" x 50 (124 x 19.84 mm) Robusto, a robusto or rothschild
* C (2003) - size: 5 5/8" x 46 (143 x 18.26 mm) Corona Gorda, a toro
* D (2005) - size: 6 3/4" x 43 (170 x 17.07 mm) Dalia, a lonsdale
* Robusto (2006) - size: 4 7/8" x 50 (124 x 19.84 mm) Robusto, a robusto or rothschild

Special Releases

* Millennium Reserve Robusto - size: 4 7/8" x 50 (124 x 19.84 mm) Robusto, a robusto or rothschild
* B - size: 5 3/8" x 42 (135 x 16.67 mm) Cosaco, a corona

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