Balmoral Serie Signaturas Dueto

The Wintermans family has celebrated great success in recent years with their own cigars. Their Balmoral Anejo XO cigars have quickly earned a permanent place in the humidors of many aficionados. The family-run company Agio Cigars from the Netherlands has been a solid player in the affordable short filler segment for decades, but they have now earned their reputation in the long filler category with a lot of hard work and passion - hats off!

As stated by Boris Wintermans, the junior CEO, in the press release for this Balmoral Series Signaturas Dueto, he aims to break the "limits" of in-house blending with these collaborations and reach "new flavorful horizons." For the first collaboration, they teamed up with none other than Ernesto "Ernie" Perez-Carillo. These five vitolas have been rolled as regular production in his Tabacalera La Alianza in the Dominican Republic since October 2018.

The wrapper is a Jalapa from Nicaragua, the binder is an Esteli from the same country. In the filler, you can sense the influence of Agio Cigars: The Brazilian tobaccos that the company favors have been mixed with Nicaraguan tobacco, specifically the Mata Norte variant. Yes, you read it right, there is no Dominican tobacco used in the Balmoral Dueto. Hence, the flavor profile is quite Nicaraguan, starting with a peppery kick and combining it with woody-leathery notes that persist throughout the smoking experience. We found the smoke to be somewhat "mouth-drying" and slightly acidic. Both samples we smoked at Inter tabac 2019 were quite similar - let's see what the series production will bring after a few months of aging!

In the USA, the second collaboration has already been distributed since 2019, this time featuring Litto Gomez with his Tabacalera La Flor Dominicana. We are curious to see how these collaborations will continue, especially after Agio Cigars was acquired by the industry giant STG (Scandinavian Tobacco Group) in the fall of 2019.