This is a long one folks but I would appreciate you taking the time to comment.
I also decided to cross-post this on several forums since not everyone reads everywhere and I would like to gain as much input as possible, so don't be surprised if you see it more than once.
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On many occasions I've read posts referring to the "terroir" being the cause of the unique flavor profile of Cuban cigars. I have been thinking about this for awhile and I would like to explore this idea a bit and see if we can't refine what we mean. There have also been posts drawing further analogies to wine with respect to the physical aging characteristics and other factors but I will leave that discussion to those more capable. I am also going to ignore the effects of manufacturing skill for the purposes of this discussion.
I'm no wine expert but have done some reading and come up with a few factors I think are relevant. Please feel free to correct any errors in my understanding or expand on anything at all. I guess I am kind of coming at this after thinking about French wines in particular since they tend to have more regional differentiation in my mind but there are some points relating to worldwide wine production as well.
To begin "terroir" refers to the microclimate a particular plant is grown in. It includes the soil makeup, the water supply, the humidity, the amount of sun available, and any other physical characteristic of the region the plant is grown in.
In the case of wine I believe terroir to be defined more specifically than it would be for tobacco. A wine terroir is often limited to the extent of a particular vineyard and the names of wines reflect this. "Chateau Haut-Brion" for example is wine made from grapes from one particular vineyard and is presumably unlike any other wine, in part due to the effects of the terroir made up by the land the vineyard rests on. A wine from a vineyard is often made from a blend of grapes grown there and it is that unique blend of grapes used that distinguishes one wine from another as well.
Put another way Company 1 and Company 2 could both produce wine using grapes in a .25A/.25B/.5C formula but produce a different product because the growing environments are different in the vineyard operated by each company. Alternatively different wines could be produced using grapes that all came from the same vineyard but with a different blending ratio resulting in two distinct products.
We also see another naming convention as well, basically "Varietal X from Vineyard/Country Y". This indicates the bottle is either purely made up of a certain varietal or meets a certain minimum content rule of some kind. In this case a Merlot from California and a Merlot from Australia can be expected to be somewhat similar, but again distinct due to the terroir present in each wines history.
I believe that while somewhat similar this is all quite distinct from the production of tobacco. The terroir of tobacco grown in Cuba is the Pinar del Rio, made up of 7 regions on the west end of the island. An area of probably thousands of square kilometers, far larger than any vineyard I have ever heard of. Rather than the nomenclature of cigars being defined by the vega the tobacco comes from, it is instead defined by the "factory" the cigars come from. At least that was the case at one time but we know that now many factories produce vitolas from a variety of different lines. So naming is more defined by the blend then by the growing conditions as represented by the name of the vega/vineyard. (On a side note is this maybe indicative of the centralized planning, communist mindset? Are post-Castro cigar production logistics substantively different than pre-Castro? It seems likely, but are those differences reflected in the names of the cigars?)
I've read a number of tobacco and cigar books and watched a few videos covering the production process and have seen nothing to indicate that leaves are identified by what farm they come from. No visible markings on bundles as they are transported from farm to factory or any apparent labeling during any of the production steps. However I have read on the forums, as stated by people I believe are far more in the know than me, that the blend of each cigar is a carefully crafted recipe made up of "X leaves from this farm, and Y leaves from that farm" etc. That makes sense in order for their to be at least a semblance of consistency (taking that term for what its worth lol ) to a certain cigar, and also indicative that the information is being tracked somehow.
Coming back to our wine comparison we get cigars crafted as .25A/.25B/.5C where A,B, and C are leaves potentially produced on 3 distinct farms within the "macro-terroir" of the Pinal del Rio, each having their own unique "micro-terroir", and in contrast to a wine in which A,B, and C all come from the same micro-terroir, ie: Chateau Haut-Brion, within the macro-terroir of Bordeaux.
For our purposes I believe this means that while the information may be available, we as consumers of Cuban cigars will never be able to know the source of our cigar's components with the same level of precision as wine drinkers.
However I also believe that this is not the case with respect to non-Cubans in some cases. For example, and this could be an incorrect example as I don't know much about NCs but the theory holds, Padron cigars are made from tobacco grown in Nicaragua. If the required tobacco (wrapper, binder and filler) are all produced on one farm then it is a situation analogous to the Haut-Brion wine. All components are grown in the "Padron" farm/micro-terroir of the Nicaraguan (or whatever region of the country tobacco cultivation takes place) macro-terroir, allowing a more precise knowledge of the presence of a certain terroir in that family of cigars.
This would get muddied further by the fact that NCs are often produced with filler from one country, binder from another, and wrapper from yet one more. This being a situation I don't believe ever happens with wine production. No one mixes French, Australian, and Canadian grapes to make anything. Well, maybe they do but I've never heard of it, which doesn't necessarily mean much lol.
This next brings me to the subject of old world versus new world wines. As far as I am aware new world wines are those produced in countries not traditionally known for their wine producing capabilities (ie: Canada, Australia, the United States etc) in contrast to the European countries where wine originates (originate might not be quite right but close enough). New world production arose when exploration of the new countries discovered areas similar in nature to areas where particular varietals of grapes grew in the old countries. Seedlings where taken from the old location, planted in the new and production began.
I see this being paralleled in cigar production by the fact that many NC producers claim their tobacco is grown from Cuban seed. Growers left Cuba and discovered other areas they thought that Cuban tobacco would thrive. They planted seeds and set up production and began trying to emulate the flavours of tobacco grown in the Pinar del Rio.
The salient point of that I believe is that for many years new world wines were considered vastly inferior to old world despite many being produced from the same grape varietals, and even I would assume some of the same direct genetic stock as the new world seedlings came from old world plants. While some of this difference must have come from production skill a large part I expect came from the differences in the terroir in which the grapes were grown.
This held true for many years until 1976 when there was a wine tasting competition in Paris between Californian and French wines with California wines coming out on top and changing the perception of new world products forever.
In my mind this begs the question of whether it is possible we will see "new world tobacco", as represented by the various NC cigars produced, eventually surpass in quality the Cuban leaf we all hold in such high regard? A possible answer to that might be found by determining how much of the improvement in new world wines resulted from production changes, which might potentially be a lot since it would be difficult to cause changes in the terroir the new world grapes were being grown in. If production changes are what caused the improvement then an examination of NC production methods must be undertaken to evaluate whether they will eventually cause enough improvement in quality to produce cigars that rival Cubans. I will accept that some people may already believe this has taken place. I've never met anyone who preferred NCs over CCs but I accept they may be out there.
Lastly, and I have no idea what is going on here, are there any wines produced from grapes that are native to North America, Australia, etc, or is all new world production from old world varietals? Are there strains of tobacco native to countries other than Cuba that are used to produce cigars, or is all NC production based on Cuban seed tobacco? If so how do they compare to old world, both wine and cigar, products?
So all that being said, does anyone else have any thoughts?
I also decided to cross-post this on several forums since not everyone reads everywhere and I would like to gain as much input as possible, so don't be surprised if you see it more than once.
-----------
On many occasions I've read posts referring to the "terroir" being the cause of the unique flavor profile of Cuban cigars. I have been thinking about this for awhile and I would like to explore this idea a bit and see if we can't refine what we mean. There have also been posts drawing further analogies to wine with respect to the physical aging characteristics and other factors but I will leave that discussion to those more capable. I am also going to ignore the effects of manufacturing skill for the purposes of this discussion.
I'm no wine expert but have done some reading and come up with a few factors I think are relevant. Please feel free to correct any errors in my understanding or expand on anything at all. I guess I am kind of coming at this after thinking about French wines in particular since they tend to have more regional differentiation in my mind but there are some points relating to worldwide wine production as well.
To begin "terroir" refers to the microclimate a particular plant is grown in. It includes the soil makeup, the water supply, the humidity, the amount of sun available, and any other physical characteristic of the region the plant is grown in.
In the case of wine I believe terroir to be defined more specifically than it would be for tobacco. A wine terroir is often limited to the extent of a particular vineyard and the names of wines reflect this. "Chateau Haut-Brion" for example is wine made from grapes from one particular vineyard and is presumably unlike any other wine, in part due to the effects of the terroir made up by the land the vineyard rests on. A wine from a vineyard is often made from a blend of grapes grown there and it is that unique blend of grapes used that distinguishes one wine from another as well.
Put another way Company 1 and Company 2 could both produce wine using grapes in a .25A/.25B/.5C formula but produce a different product because the growing environments are different in the vineyard operated by each company. Alternatively different wines could be produced using grapes that all came from the same vineyard but with a different blending ratio resulting in two distinct products.
We also see another naming convention as well, basically "Varietal X from Vineyard/Country Y". This indicates the bottle is either purely made up of a certain varietal or meets a certain minimum content rule of some kind. In this case a Merlot from California and a Merlot from Australia can be expected to be somewhat similar, but again distinct due to the terroir present in each wines history.
I believe that while somewhat similar this is all quite distinct from the production of tobacco. The terroir of tobacco grown in Cuba is the Pinar del Rio, made up of 7 regions on the west end of the island. An area of probably thousands of square kilometers, far larger than any vineyard I have ever heard of. Rather than the nomenclature of cigars being defined by the vega the tobacco comes from, it is instead defined by the "factory" the cigars come from. At least that was the case at one time but we know that now many factories produce vitolas from a variety of different lines. So naming is more defined by the blend then by the growing conditions as represented by the name of the vega/vineyard. (On a side note is this maybe indicative of the centralized planning, communist mindset? Are post-Castro cigar production logistics substantively different than pre-Castro? It seems likely, but are those differences reflected in the names of the cigars?)
I've read a number of tobacco and cigar books and watched a few videos covering the production process and have seen nothing to indicate that leaves are identified by what farm they come from. No visible markings on bundles as they are transported from farm to factory or any apparent labeling during any of the production steps. However I have read on the forums, as stated by people I believe are far more in the know than me, that the blend of each cigar is a carefully crafted recipe made up of "X leaves from this farm, and Y leaves from that farm" etc. That makes sense in order for their to be at least a semblance of consistency (taking that term for what its worth lol ) to a certain cigar, and also indicative that the information is being tracked somehow.
Coming back to our wine comparison we get cigars crafted as .25A/.25B/.5C where A,B, and C are leaves potentially produced on 3 distinct farms within the "macro-terroir" of the Pinal del Rio, each having their own unique "micro-terroir", and in contrast to a wine in which A,B, and C all come from the same micro-terroir, ie: Chateau Haut-Brion, within the macro-terroir of Bordeaux.
For our purposes I believe this means that while the information may be available, we as consumers of Cuban cigars will never be able to know the source of our cigar's components with the same level of precision as wine drinkers.
However I also believe that this is not the case with respect to non-Cubans in some cases. For example, and this could be an incorrect example as I don't know much about NCs but the theory holds, Padron cigars are made from tobacco grown in Nicaragua. If the required tobacco (wrapper, binder and filler) are all produced on one farm then it is a situation analogous to the Haut-Brion wine. All components are grown in the "Padron" farm/micro-terroir of the Nicaraguan (or whatever region of the country tobacco cultivation takes place) macro-terroir, allowing a more precise knowledge of the presence of a certain terroir in that family of cigars.
This would get muddied further by the fact that NCs are often produced with filler from one country, binder from another, and wrapper from yet one more. This being a situation I don't believe ever happens with wine production. No one mixes French, Australian, and Canadian grapes to make anything. Well, maybe they do but I've never heard of it, which doesn't necessarily mean much lol.
This next brings me to the subject of old world versus new world wines. As far as I am aware new world wines are those produced in countries not traditionally known for their wine producing capabilities (ie: Canada, Australia, the United States etc) in contrast to the European countries where wine originates (originate might not be quite right but close enough). New world production arose when exploration of the new countries discovered areas similar in nature to areas where particular varietals of grapes grew in the old countries. Seedlings where taken from the old location, planted in the new and production began.
I see this being paralleled in cigar production by the fact that many NC producers claim their tobacco is grown from Cuban seed. Growers left Cuba and discovered other areas they thought that Cuban tobacco would thrive. They planted seeds and set up production and began trying to emulate the flavours of tobacco grown in the Pinar del Rio.
The salient point of that I believe is that for many years new world wines were considered vastly inferior to old world despite many being produced from the same grape varietals, and even I would assume some of the same direct genetic stock as the new world seedlings came from old world plants. While some of this difference must have come from production skill a large part I expect came from the differences in the terroir in which the grapes were grown.
This held true for many years until 1976 when there was a wine tasting competition in Paris between Californian and French wines with California wines coming out on top and changing the perception of new world products forever.
In my mind this begs the question of whether it is possible we will see "new world tobacco", as represented by the various NC cigars produced, eventually surpass in quality the Cuban leaf we all hold in such high regard? A possible answer to that might be found by determining how much of the improvement in new world wines resulted from production changes, which might potentially be a lot since it would be difficult to cause changes in the terroir the new world grapes were being grown in. If production changes are what caused the improvement then an examination of NC production methods must be undertaken to evaluate whether they will eventually cause enough improvement in quality to produce cigars that rival Cubans. I will accept that some people may already believe this has taken place. I've never met anyone who preferred NCs over CCs but I accept they may be out there.
Lastly, and I have no idea what is going on here, are there any wines produced from grapes that are native to North America, Australia, etc, or is all new world production from old world varietals? Are there strains of tobacco native to countries other than Cuba that are used to produce cigars, or is all NC production based on Cuban seed tobacco? If so how do they compare to old world, both wine and cigar, products?
So all that being said, does anyone else have any thoughts?
And even if we don't find "The One" it sure as hell is fun looking.