We welcome five new inductees to the Cigar Aficionado Hall of Fame, honoring the people who have truly made their mark on the world of fine cigars
Fernando Domínguez
Fernando Domínguez
President and CEO Tabacalera S.L.U.
An executive who has always put quality ahead of quantity, Fernando Domínguez is the CEO of Tabacalera S.L.U. He is an instrumental part of an organization that not only owns half of Habanos S.A., which controls Cuba’s cigar industry, but also owns Altadis U.S.A., one of the largest producers of premium cigars in the United States. He knows the world of Cuban cigars like few others, having served as co-president of Habanos S.A. for six years and living in Havana during that time.
It would be neither hyperbole nor hubris to say that Domínguez was crucial in improving the state of Cuban cigars across the board. He’s been in the tobacco business since 1985, but his restorative efforts began in the early 2000s, a rather dark period for Cuban cigars. Domínguez focused on quality control and consistency with the express goal of restoring the Havana ciga
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“#1 Cigar of the Year”
“96” rating by Cigar Aficionado in 2011.
The Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill is rolled at Raices Cubanas (‘Cuban Roots’) factory, the Prensado was first created to pay homage to the Cuban traditions of cigar making rolling the filler ‘entuba-do,’ triple capping the head and box pressing the finished cigar. Blended with proprietary estate grown corojo from the Trojes region of Honduras, Prensado would eventually be named Cigar Aficionado “Cigar of the Year,” propelling Alec Bradley’s trajectory into cigar culture much quicker than anyone anticipated.
Alec Bradley Prensado Cigars- Prensado was one of the first Alec Bradley brands to represent the company coming into its own. Prensado means pressed in English and refers to the cigar’s shape or vitola. Inspired by the Cuban roots of the New World cigar industry, the cigar features a rich blend of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos. This cigar is medium to full bodied, like much of Alec Bradley’s portfolio.
This cigar won cigar of the year from Cigar Aficionado in 2011.
Alec Bradley Cigars
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Alec Bradley
Cigar brand
Alec Bradley is the name of a popular brand of handmade cigars established in 1996 by Alan Rubin, the son of an importer of hardware supplies. Rubin launched his brand, named after his children, at the tail end of the cigar boom of the 1990s and entered a clogged market. After failed initial schemes at producing cigars targeted to golf courses and flavored after-dinner cigars, Rubin managed to carve out a tenuous niche selling budget-priced cigars to tobacconists. In 2007 the company managed to break through to a broader market with the introduction of its full-flavored "Tempus" line. As of 2011 the company was selling between two and three million cigars annually to consumers around the world. Alec Bradley is today based in Hollywood, Florida. Over the years a number of manufacturers have been used to make Alec Bradley's various products, including Raices Cubanas of Honduras, Nestor Plasencia in Honduras and Nicaragua, and Henke Kelner in the Dominican Republic.[1] In 2019 it became clear that the company had begun using J. Fuego Cigar C