Portrait of a cigar: Dunhill

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			Portrait of a cigar: Dunhill The history of Dunhill cigars only began 20 years ago, though, over that brief period of time the brand has changed ownership several times, while the cigars bearing the name have been produced in four different countries. The Alfred Dunhill Limited Company first moved to establish its own cigar brand in the 1970s. In 1977 the company began lengthy talks with the Cuban cigar manufacturer Cubatabac that lasted nearly five years. Eventually, in 1982 the parties reached an agreement. Some time was needed to prepare the blend that would meet the high standards of Alfred Dunhill. The first Dunhill cigars produced in Cuba were presented to smokers in 1984. The marketing concept of the brand was based on the idea of rivalry with Davidoff not only in terms of production of luxury accessories but also of premium cigars. In 1984 Dunhill cigars were shipped to as many as 10 countries around the world; in 1985 the company sought to increase the number of importing countries to 30. The range contained cigars of eight various sizes, with the company having designed and planned to launch the production of seven more formats. Everything would have been fine if it had not been for the embargo. The U.S. has always been the leading consumer of cigars, but for Cuban-made Dunhill cigars that market was closed. The disagreements between partners grew and when in 1991 the terms of the original contract expired it was not extended. Today Cuban-made Dunhill is only rarely available at auctions, with the price per box exceeding several thousand dollars. Realizing back in the 1980s that cigar production in Cuba was no longer possible, Alfred Dunhill began looking for alternative producers. First of all, in 1986 the company launched production of Dunhill cigars on the Canary Islands. The cigars adorned with a red and brown band featured local tobacco – binder and filler – and Cameroon tobacco, used as a wrapper. That new Dunhill differed significantly from the Cuban-made cigars in terms of taste and aroma, with a milder taste and a hint of pepper. The line included five cigars – Corona, Corona Extra, Corona Grand, Lonsdale Grand and Panetella. The next country to produce Dunhill cigars was the Dominican Republic. In 1989 Consolidated Cigars Corporation – the owner of the Tabacalera de Garc?a La Romana factory – launched production of Dominican Dunhill cigars, carrying a blue band. The brand was entitled Dunhill Aged Cigars. Those cigars contained a filler of Brazilian and Dominican-seed tobaccos, a Dominican binder and a U.S. Connecticut wrapper. The range included 13 cigars of various sizes, three of which – Cabreras, Tabaras and Altamiras were produced in tubes. 1998 saw the arrival of the Dunhill Honduran Selection with a green band, produced at the company’s factory Tabacos San Andres in Danli, Honduras. Those cigars featured a filler of a blend of Dominican, Mexican and Brazilian tobacco, a binder of Mexican tobacco and a wrapper of Indonesian tobacco. The Dunhill Honduran Selection included five cigars – Robusto, Corona, Toro, Lonsdale and Churchill. Thus, by 1999 three lines of Dunhill cigars produced in various countries – the Canary Islands, in the Dominican Republic and in Honduras – were present on the world market. In 1999 British American Tobacco (BAT) purchased the exclusive production rights for Dunhill cigars. In the course of the next two years the company’s experts worked on a new concept of the brand, taking into account modern packaging trends and the popularity of cigars fuller in body. Consequently, in 2001 a new line of cigars – the Dunhill signed range – was launched, differing entirely from all of its predecessors. Every box released under the brand is individually numbered and carries the signatures of those responsible for the creation of the cigars – a roller, a sorter, a packer and a quality supervisor. Dunhill signed range cigars are made at the Cuevas & Tora?o boutique workshop. The Dunhill signed range line features Columbian and Dominican filler, a broadleaf-seed binder grown in Pennsylvania, and Connecticut-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador. The line includes six sizes: Torpedo, Robusto, Corona, Toro (also available in tubes), Churchill and Petit Corona. by ANNA ARANOVSKAYA