Ashton Cabinet

Robert Levin, of the family that keeps Holt's in Philadelphia, launched Ashton in 1985, says holts.com. His first cigars were not rolled at Fuente: he says in a 1996 interview that they were first made by Henke Kelner at Tabadom, and that he then entrusted the brand to the Fuentes in 1988; the house, for its part, writes that he teamed up with the Fuentes shortly after the launch. The Fuentes — the family house that had just rebuilt its reputation on the island after the fire at its factory in 1980 — today roll Ashton cigars at Tabacalera A. Fuente, in the Dominican Republic.

The Cabinet Selection is the range that the house ages after rolling. It is not merely a premium cigar: it is a cigar that undergoes additional ageing — the time that the cedar boxes give it.

After rolling, Cabinet Selection cigars are placed in Spanish cedar boxes — not the decorative cedar of standard packaging, but structural cedar of the type traditionally used in the ageing of Spanish wines and spirits — and left for twelve to twenty-four months before release. During this period, the tobaccos continue fermenting in a controlled environment that softens what harshness remained and lets the components of the blend harmonise. The boxes contribute their own character: the slow transfer of resinous cedar oils over months of contact influences the wrapper and outer leaves in a way that ordinary ageing does not reproduce.

The result is a cigar of remarkable composure. The Connecticut Shade wrapper — Ecuadorian, like most wrappers of this style today — gives notes of hazelnut and mountain honey from the first puffs. The Dominican filler, built on Carlos Fuente Sr.'s personal recipe, develops through white cedar and dried fruit before a finish of unusual length and cleanness. There are no rough edges. At no point does the cigar ask anything of the smoker beyond attention.

Range Depth

• Cabinet Selection

  Wrapper Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade · Strength Medium

  Aged Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper, Dominican tobaccos aged two years in cedar at Fuente. Notes of refined hazelnut, mountain honey, white cedar. Medium-bodied, elegant. Each number (No.1 to No.10) is a different format — Ashton's most complete range.

  No.1 · No.2 · No.3 · No.6 · No.7 · No.8 · No.10

🥃 Pairings

• Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs

  Champagne

  The purity of Champagne Chardonnay accompanies the Ecuadorian delicacy of the Ashton Cabinet in a pairing of absolute elegance.