Partagas (cigar brand)

Partagás is the name of two brands of premium cigar, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in the Dominican Republic from Dominican, Mexican, and Cameroon tobacco for General Cigar.

History

The Spaniard Don Jaime Partagás Ravelo had worked in the Cuban tobacco business for years before establishing his own factory, Real Fábricas de Tabaco Partagás in 1845, on 60 Industria Street in Havana, one of the largest of its time. The name, which translates as "Partagás Royal Tobacco Factory," was supposedly chosen because of Don Jaime's status as cigar supplier to various European and Asian nobility. Don Jaime owned many of the best plantations in the Vuelta Abajo tobacco-growing region of Cuba and being able to choose from among the finest tobaccos on the island made the brand incredibly successful. Don Jaime is also believed to have experimented with various methods of fermenting and aging tobacco and is legendarily credited with hiring the first "lector" to read to and entertain the cigar rollers as they worked.

Don Jaime was murdered (supposedly by a jealous rival he'd been vying with in one of his love affairs) on one of his plantations in either 1864 or 1868 and his son José Partagás took over the business. Later on, the factory and brand were sold to a banker named José A. Bance, who in turn sold it to the firm of Cifuentes, Fernández y Cía in 1900. In 1916, Don José Fernández seems to have left the firm and Ramón Cifuentes Llano joined with Francisco Pego Pita to form the new firm of Cifuentes, Pego y Cía. In 1927, the firm would acquire the rights to the Ramón Allones brand and at some unknown point the factory began to produce a brand named for its owner, Cifuentes.

Cifuentes died in 1938 and Pego in 1940, leaving the Cifuentes family solely in control of the increasingly-prestigious factory and brand (it's unknown why Pego's heirs didn't claim anything) and renaming the company simply Cifuentes y Cía. In 1954, the Cifuentes family acquired the Bolívar and La Gloria Cubana brands from José F. Rocha and moved their production to their factory. In 1958, the Partagás Factory was the second largest exporter of Cuban cigars (the H. Upmann Factory being the only one bigger), accounting for over a quarter of all exported tobacco goods.

After tobacco was nationalized following the Cuban Revolution, the family's patriarch, Ramón, was initially offered the job of leading Cuba's tobacco industry, but refused and the Cifuentes family fled the country and the newly-formed Cubatabaco arm of the government took over the factory and cigar production there. After a hiatus of almost seventeen years, the patron of the family, Ramón Cifuentes began to produce Partágas and Bolívar cigars for General Cigar Company and the US market at first from Jamaica, but later from a plantation and factory located in the Dominican Republic, where they are still made today. Ramón Cifuentes passed away in 2000.

Before and after the Revolution, the Cuban-produced Partagás has been one of the most revered and highest-selling brands of cigars in the world. Many cigar connoisseurs consider this to be their favorite brand of Cuban cigars, with the Serie D No. 4, Lonsdales (now discontinued), Lusitanias, and Shorts all being incredibly popular and renowned sizes. The Partagás Factory (since renamed the "Francisco Pérez Germán" factory) still produces Partagás and numerous other cigar brands for export and has proven to be a very popular tourist destination for cigar smokers vacationing in Havana.

In 2002, when Altadis bought a controlling share in the Cuban government-owned cigar distributor, Habanos SA, a number of changes in cigar production were instituted. One of these changes was the decision to gradually turn the various brands of Cuban cigars to either all-handmade or all-machine-made lines, reduce the number of redundant sizes within a brand, and cut many low-selling cigars from production. Partagás, which has historically produced a variety of handmade and machine-made or machine-finished cigars, had several of its "vitolas" cut from production, much to the dismay of connoisseurs worldwide.

Since the introduction of the "Edición Limitada" annual releases, Partagás has gotten a special size made almost every year: the Pirámide in 2000, the Serie D No. 3 in 2001, the Serie D No. 2 in 2003, and the Serie D No. 1 in 2004. In 2005, Partagás introduced a new addition to its regular lineup, a pyramid called the Serie P No. 2. So far, this new size has proved incredibly popular with cigar connoisseurs.

Partagás also produces two machine-made cigarillos (the Mini and the Club) and a brand of cigarettes.

"Vitolas" in the Cuban Partagás Line

The following list of "vitolas" (sizes) within the Partagás 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"
* Lusitania - 7 5/8" x 49 (194 x 19.45 mm) Prominente, a double corona
* Churchill de Luxe - 7" x 47 (178 x 18.65 mm) Julieta, a churchill
* Presidente - 6 1/4" x 47 (158 x 18.65 mm) Taco, a perfecto
* Serie P No. 2 - 6 1/8" x 52 (156 x 20.64 mm) Pirámide, a pyramid or torpedo
* 898 Cabinet Selección Barnizados ("Varnished") - 6 3/4" x 43 (170 x 17.07 mm) Dalia, a lonsdale
* 898 Cabinet Selección Sin Barnizar ("Unvarnished") - 6 1/8" x 42 (155 x 16.67 mm) Corona Grande, a long corona
* Partagás de Partagás No. 1 - 6 3/4" x 43 (170 x 17.07 mm) Dalia, a lonsdale
* Serie du Connaisseur No. 1 - 7 1/2" x 38 (192 x 15.08 mm) Delicado, a long panetela
* Serie du Connaisseur No. 2 - 6 1/2" x 38 (166 x 15.08 mm) Parejo, a panetela
* Serie du Connaisseur No. 3 - 5 5/8" x 35 (143 x 13.89 mm) Carlota, a panetela
* Serie D No. 4 - 4 7/8" x 50 (124 x 19.84 mm) Robusto, a robusto or rothschild
* Corona - 5 5/8" x 42 (142 x 16.67 mm) Corona, a corona
* Short - 4 3/8" x 42 (110 x 16.67 mm) Minuto, a tres petit corona"Machine-Made and Hand-Finished Vitolas"
* Corona Senior - 5 1/4" x 44 (132 x 17.46 mm) Eminente, a corona
* Petit Corona Especial - 5 1/4" x 44 (132 x 17.46 mm) Eminente, a corona
* Partagás de Luxe - 5 1/2" x 40 (140 x 15.87 mm) Crema, a corona
* Super Partagás - 5 1/2" x 40 (140 x 15.87 mm) Crema, a corona
* Mille Fleurs - 5 1/8" x 42 (129 x 16.67 mm) Petit Corona, a petit corona
* Aristocrat - 5 1/8" x 40 (129 x 15.87 mm) Petit Cetro, a petit corona
* Corona Junior - 4 5/8" x 40 (117 x 15.87 mm) Coronita, a petit corona
* Princess - 5" x 35 (127 x 13.89 mm) Conchita, a short panetela
* Habanero - 4 7/8" x 39 (125 x 15.48 mm) Belvedere, a short panetela
* Chico - 4 1/8" x 29 (106 x 11.51 mm) Chico, a cigarillo

"Edición Limitada Releases"
* Pirámide (2000) - 6 1/8" x 52 (156 x 20.64 mm) Pirámide, a pyramid or torpedo
* Serie D No. 3 (2001/re-release in 2006) - 5 5/8" x 46 (143 x 18.26 mm) Corona Gorda, a corona gorda
* Serie D No. 2 (2003) - 6 1/8" x 50 (156 x 19.84 mm) Robusto No. 2, a robusto extra
* Serie D No. 1 (2004) - 6 3/4" x 50 (170 x 19.84 mm) Partagás No. 16, a robusto extra

References

* Nee, Min Ron - "An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars" (2003, Reprinted: 2005), ISBN 3-9809308-2-3

See also

* Cigar brands

External links

* [http://www.habanos.com Official website of Habanos S.A.]