Help with a year on a Box of Don Carlos

[Lumberg]

Ok I went ahead and bought a box of Don Carlos Belicosos. On the box it says "Cosecha 1984."

Is this a typical date for a Box produced in 2003? Was the tobacco aged for 19 years before rolling the cigars? OR are the cigars aged some?

The box is sealed in plastic and does have a Humidipak sticker on it....not sure how ling humidipaks have been around. But then again the box could have sat in a warehouse, then they opened it up and put a humidipak in there and put a sticker on the box, then they sealed it and sent it out.

Anyways I'm curious, I have no doubt that the tobacco in these cigars was harvested in 1984, but now I'm wondering when the cigars were actually rolled.

 

[Lumberg]

Well guys I haev done a little research and I foufn this interview from 1995 in CA:

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Ar...322,706,00.html

C.A.: What's the approximate volume of Don Carlos?

Fuente: Well, that's a very limited volume. We have just two cigar makers on that. We have tremendous demand for those cigars. If we went out and filled the demand for it, we would run out of tobacco, because it uses tobacco from a 1984 crop. Naturally, that is a limited supply. So we just use it in a very limited way.

C.A.: When you say it's tobacco from 1984, you mean blended with its younger vintage as well, yes?

Fuente: The only tobacco that is younger is the wrapper. All the filler and binders are from the 1984 crop.

C.A.: When are you going to run out of 1984?

Fuente: That depends on how many cigars we make. The demand is forcing us to make more. We're going to skip the 1985 crop and then go to 1986. From all of the tobacco we've grown ourselves, we have saved a substantial amount of tobacco. But we have gone through, my son and I, more than expected for the Don Carlos


Who knows when they stoped using the 1984 filler, but at least we have confirmation that the tobacco in these babies is indeed 19 years old!

I did hear that they switched to "cosecha 1987" in 1996. If this is true the cigars themselves are at least eight years old!

 

[lucasbuck]

Wow, nice find Jonathan. Be sure and give us a review when you burn one into oblivion

 

[Lumberg]

I might be willing to sell these babies off...but not until I find out for usre when they ran out of the 1984 tobacco!

 

[Big100HD]

Nice work on the research...guess we'll never get a straight answer.

Just bust them babies open and lets do the split.

any takers?