Graycliff Graywolf Cameroon Churchill

Founded by Graycliff Resort owner, Enrico Garzaroli, the Graycliff Cigar Company has achieved fame worldwide for high-end, handcrafted cigars produced in the lush tropical setting of the prestigious Bahamian resort by the same name, as well as at their Honduran, Dominican, and Nicaraguan factories . The site of the Graycliff Resort was originally a church built in 1666, one of Nassau's first structures and certainly most prominent. Known as the "Pride of the Bahamas," this historic site later served as a fort before becoming home to the 5-star resort it is today.

Before it was home to a five-star restaurant, a chocolatier, a cigar company, and one of the world’s largest wine cellars, Graycliff had quite the history. It all starts with Captain John Howard Graysmith, a pirate who plundered ships all throughout the Caribbean. His buccaneering not only made him one of the more famous pirates of the Caribbean but also one of the more wealthy pirates of his time. When Captain Graysmith retired from piracy in the 1740s, he built a mansion at Graycliff near the church, and that structure in part is what is used as the hotel. During his time at Graycliff, he became a privateer, a legal form of pirate backed by the British Crown. Over the years, the mansion served as a pirate hangout, the American Navy’s headquarters and garrisons in 1776, the officer’s mess for the West Indian Regiment during the American Civil War, and a hot spot for the rich and famous during Prohibition. Owned by British royalty in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Garzarolis acquired the property in 1973, turning the private home into the elegant hotel we know today. If those walls could talk!

The Graywolf in your shipment today was created to commemorate Captain Graysmith’s notorious schooner, Graywolf, which was scuttled in 1726. This smoke features a rich, toothy and oily Cameroon wrapper that looks as good as it tastes, as well as a Honduran binder, and it’s filled to the brim with Honduran long-fillers. This thing is begging to be lit. You’ll notice the easy draw and level burn along with notes of tobacco, nuts, and wood. Tasty down to the nub, enjoy this medium-bodied smoke with hoppy IPA.

Though tobacco is indigenous to Hispaniola, the tobacco industry in the Dominican Republic existed in the shadow of Cuba’s dominance through the 1960s. When the exodus of Cuban cigar makers began in the wake of the revolution, many decided the Dominican Republic would be ideal for the resumption of their livelihoods. Unrest in Nicaragua in the 1980s fueled the Dominican cigar industry further. The country now makes more than half of the premium cigars imported into the U.S.

The Cibao Valley and the nearby city of Santiago are the center of cigar production in the Dominican Republic. Three main varieties are grown here: the mild and native Olor Dominicano; the intense Piloto Cubano, brought from the Vuelta Abajo of Cuba; and San Vicente, a milder and more acidic Piloto hybrid. Dominican puros were once unheard of as it was widely thought impossible to grow quality wrapper leaf on the island, but new growing techniques are now allowing some exceptional puros to be produced.