Partagás Descendant Starts Altezas Reales 1871 Brand
The name Cifuentes might be familiar to you. The Cifuentes family was the last owner of the Partagás factory in Cuba until Castro’s Cuban Revolution nationalized the cigar industry in the early 1960s. There was even a Cuban Cifuentes brand. Now, many decades later, Rafael Cifuentes III has decided to follow in the family footsteps and make a cigar of his own.
Called Altezas Reales 1871, the brand is debuting tonight at the Empire Social Lounge in Dadeland, Florida, and according to Cifuentes, there’s a little bit of what he considers to be the “old Partagás taste” in every cigar.
“Cuban cigars used to be stronger,” he tells Cigar Aficionado. “Now it’s clear that cigars for the United States are much stronger than Cubans. My cigars are inspired by the Partagás cigars of the ’90s, especially the Serie D No. 4.”
Altezas Reales 1871 cigars are made in Miami at the El Titan de Bronze factory with an Ecuador Habano wrapper that envelops an all-Nicaraguan blend. They come in three sizes: Robusto, measuring 5 inches by 50 ring gauge; Corona at 5 3/4 by 48; and a 6-by-52 Toro. Packaged in 10-count boxes, they have suggested retail prices of $16, $17.60 and $18.60, respectively. Only 1,000 boxes of each size are being produced.
Born in 1967, Cifuentes III is the great grandson of Ramón Cifuentes Llano, who purchased the Partagás factory more than 100 years ago. The family business in Cuba was passed down over three generations until the Cuban government took over the entire cigar industry shortly after the Revolution of 1959. Ramón Cifuentes Toriello (Cifuentes’ son) left Cuba and eventually licensed the U.S. distribution rights of the Partagás name to General Cigar Co. in the 1970s. The first non-Cuban Partagás cigars hit the U.S. market in 1977. About 20 years later, General released a non-Cuban Cifuentes brand as well.
While this is his first cigar brand, Rafael Cifuentes III has been in the tobacco industry for 35 years working at his family’s tobacco supply and distribution company headquartered in Spain, among other ventures. When developing his Altezas Reales 1871 line (which translates to “royal highness”), Cifuentes wanted the cigars to be manufactured in the Cuban style.
“I was looking for each cigar to be made in the traditional Cuban style of tubing the filler [entubado] and then finished with a beautiful triple cap, then inspected by another master roller/blender, boxed and dated to ensure the cigar is of the highest standard,” he explains.
The new Altezas Reales 1871 brand is distributed by Cifuentes’ Miami-based company, Flor de Tabacos La Lealtad Inc.
