Balmoral

Balmoral is a Dutch name on a Dominican cigar. Royal Agio, the house from Duizel, has made machine cigars for a century — Panter, Mehari's — which this atlas does not carry; but in 1990 it opened a factory in San Pedro de Macorís, in the Dominican Republic, and that is where it ended up rolling by hand. The premium line came late: the Añejo 18 in 2014, then the Añejo XO in July 2015 — Brazilian sun-grown wrapper, Dominican olor binder, fillers from Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua —, distributed in the United States at the time by Drew Estate. Boris Wintermans, Agio's boss, then signed a four-handed Serie Signaturas: Dueto with Ernesto Perez-Carrillo in 2018, Paso Doble with Litto Gomez in 2019 — two houses of this atlas.

In January 2020, Scandinavian Tobacco Group bought Agio, mostly for its machine cigars. On the following 1 May, STG withdrew Balmoral from the American market — sales too low, and the doubt that any of its lines existed before 15 February 2007, the date that exempts a cigar from FDA rules — and converted the San Pedro de Macorís factory to machine cigars only. Balmoral continues elsewhere, in Europe first, rolled since at General Cigar Dominicana, in Santiago.

This atlas therefore classifies here a group brand, like Bolívar Honduras: Dominican by rolling, Dutch by name, Danish by owner, and absent from the country where the trade press had described it. The entry carries only the hand-rolled.

Range Depth

• Añejo XO

  Wrapper Brazilian sun-grown · Strength Medium-Full

  July 2015 — Dominican olor binder, fillers from Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Rothschild Masivo, MK52, Petit Robusto FT.

• Añejo 18

  Wrapper Undisclosed · Strength Medium

  2014 — Royal Agio's first premium line.

• Serie Signaturas

  Wrapper Undisclosed · Strength Medium-Full

  Four-handed with Boris Wintermans: Dueto (Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, 2018), Paso Doble (Litto Gomez, 2019).