Rocky Patel Royal Vintage Toro

Rocky Patel and partner Phil Zanghi founded the Indian Tabac Cigar Company in 1995 and the phenomenal success their smokes have gained in the premium market is astonishing, a testament to their dedication to producing super-premium class cigars. Rakesh (Rocky) Patel quickly made the contacts necessary to produce cigars of the highest quality. Their cultivation areas are located in the beautiful Jamastran Valley of Honduras and the Jalapa Valley of Nicaragua. They recently left their fabrication area in Danli, Honduras in favor of a modern production area in San Martos, Honduras. And the owner of the production area is none other than the legendary cigar plantation baron Nestor Placencia. With a slew of outstanding ratings peaking at the 93-point mark, the Vintage series is highly celebrated; in fact, it’s considered one of the most notable and memorable cigar blends ever created. As if that weren’t enough, Rocky recently added a limited, one-time production extension to the series—the Royal Vintage. This purple-banded beauty is made with perfectly fermented Habano wrappers, aged no less than seven years. This thick, oily wrapper leaf—with its lovely reddish hue—cloaks a vintage mixture of long-leaf tobaccos from both Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Expect a mellow, medium-bodied smoke filled with a rich array of elegant flavors including notes of espresso, earth and spices. Our preference on this one is to savor it solo but if you want a “toast” with your stogie, a smoky single malt such as Lagavulin or Oban will serve your Royal well.

Honduras has been a tobacco growing and cigar manufacturing area for hundreds of years, but it was the Communist revolution in Cuba that really put Honduras on the map. In the 1960s, many Cuban cigar makers fled their homeland and arrived in Honduras to re-establish their way of life. The immigrants took advantage of the climate, soil, and geography, which were well-suited to tobacco growing, and began producing high quality cigars. The center of the Honduran cigar industry is the city of Danli and the nearby Jamastran Valley. The majority of the world’s pure Corojo tobacco is grown here, now that Cuba has stopped production of this iconic, spicy, and rich variety in favor of Corojo hybrids. Other important areas of Honduran cigar production include the Talanga Valley, Copan, and Trojes.