Figured I'd post up some details on the upcoming Serie V Melanio that's being released at this years IPCPR. I'm working on getting a few samples from the factory to get out to some bloggers and forums members for pre-release reviews.
http://www.cigaraficionado.com/webfe.../show/id/16571
Oliva Cigars is expanding its Serie V line, the game-changer cigar that turned the company from a producer of bargain smokes into one that is known for making some of the cigar world’s most sought-after cigars.
Oliva Serie V Melanio will debut in August, at the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers trade show, and should reach cigar stores by September. The cigars are named after Melanio Oliva, who is believed to be the first in the Oliva family to grow tobacco. Melanio Oliva grew tobacco in the 1800s on a small farm in San Juan y Martinez, Cuba, some of the best tobacco lands in the world.
The new cigars are made entirely of Nicaraguan filler and binder tobaccos grown by the Olivas, and they are wrapped in Sumatra-seed wrappers grown by Oliva in Ecuador. This is the first cigar Oliva has made using these particular wrappers, and the first Ecuador Sumatra seed cigar from the company other than the Oliva Master Blends 2.
The original Oliva Serie V came out in 2007. “It was the best that we could make, and ever since then we thought of a follow-up,” said Oliva president Jose Oliva, during a long interview spent smoking the new cigars in Cigar Aficionado’s New York City offices. “It had to be as unique as V was.”
Oliva said that several cigars intended as a follow-up to the Serie V were made into other smokes, such as Cain, which ended up too powerful and too unlike the original Serie V to work.
The final blend came from combining Ecuadoran Sumatra seed wrapper with a Nicaraguan blend that emphasized tobacco from the Jalapa region, the area of Nicaragua known for more nuanced leaf than Estelí and Condega. As with the original Serie V line, these are well-aged tobaccos. “The fillers that we use for [Serie V] are our most-aged fillers,” said Oliva. “This used a little more Jalapa. Jalapa adds flavor, but it doesn’t have a lot of body.”
The new cigar brand will come in five sizes: Robusto, Churchll, Torpedo, Petit Corona and Figurado, a smoke Oliva described as a “double-ended torpedo, straight in the center.”
The cigars will retail for $8 to $14 per cigar, making them the most expensive in the Oliva portfolio.
For more information on the new cigar, see next week’s Cigar Insider, and look to a future issue for a tasting of all the sizes in the new brand.
To view all of our Oliva Serie V ratings, click here.
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http://www.halfwheel.com/news-oliva-...ut-ipcpr-2012/
Earlier today, the details of the Oliva Serie V Melanio were confirmed and released by David Savona. For many, even the name was a new concept, which is odd given Melanio Oliva is the patriarch of the family’s tobacco business, and perhaps more interestingly — the concept is hardly new.
At the 2010 IPCPR, Stogie Guys posted this brief bit of info:
Also rumored is that a limited but regular production cigar named “Melanio” (after Gilberto Oliva’s grandfather) is in the works with an estimated MSRP of $12-15 per cigar.
Throughout last year, Oliva continued working on the cigar, although all indications heading into 2012 were that the Oliva Master Blends 4 was taking priority. Things changed this past weekend when Erik Calviño of Cigar Snob posted the following picture of the Serie V Melanio:
Word from Oliva at the time was that the cigar was planned for IPCPR with five sizes, although the sizes weren’t confirmed. That changed Tuesday when Savona posted the following details:
The final blend came from combining Ecuadoran Sumatra seed wrapper with a Nicaraguan blend that emphasized tobacco from the Jalapa region, the area of Nicaragua known for more nuanced leaf than Estelí and Condega. As with the original Serie V line, these are well-aged tobaccos. “The fillers that we use for [Serie V] are our most-aged fillers,” said Oliva. “This used a little more Jalapa. Jalapa adds flavor, but it doesn’t have a lot of body.”
The new cigar brand will come in five sizes: Robusto, Churchll, Torpedo, Petit Corona and Figurado, a smoke Oliva described as a “double-ended torpedo, straight in the center.”
The cigars will retail for $8 to $14 per cigar, making them the most expensive in the Oliva portfolio.
One interesting bit confirmed to halfwheel is that the cigar will be made at Tabacalera Oliva de Nicaragua S.A. (TABOLISA) in Estelí, Nicaragua. In December, Cigar Aficionado reported Oliva was moving production of Serie V to Miami — a move that still hasn’t happened and won’t happen in time for the scheduled September release.
This is the second time Oliva has created a non-Master Blends line priced higher than Serie V. The first was Special S, which debuted shortly before Serie V and was cancelled after the more inexpensive line’s debut.
Serie V Melanio’s IPCPR debut means there will be no Master Blends IV in Orlando.
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