Capitol

Capitol is not a house in the sense this atlas gives the word. It is a brand of the Tabacalera group, and its making is shared between three distinct parties — which makes it a textbook case of the trade as it is now.

The blend is Rafael Nodal's, the man behind Aging Room and Boutique Blends, who also heads product at Altadis USA. The manufacture is Plasencia's, in Estelí, at Nestor Plasencia's factory. Ownership and distribution belong to Tabacalera. The first two have their own entries in this atlas; the third is a group, not a factory.

The cigar is Nicaraguan throughout: wrapper, binder and filler. The catalogue holds three sizes — Jack, Casino and Gala — and there are no others.

The name and the packaging come from the 1920s. Nodal says he put his taste for jazz into them, Duke Ellington in particular: this is a brand built on a decade and a music, where others are built on a family or on a soil.

The year it was launched is established by no consultable source, and this entry prefers to say so.

Range Depth

• Capitol Jack

  Wrapper Nicaraguan throughout · Strength Medium-Full

  The shortest of the three. Like the other two, wrapper, binder and filler all come from Nicaragua.

  Robusto 4¾ × 52

• Capitol Casino

  Wrapper Nicaraguan throughout · Strength Medium-Full

  The middle size. The name continues the 1920s imagery that stands in for the brand's identity.

  5⅓ × 54

• Capitol Gala

  Wrapper Nicaraguan throughout · Strength Full

  The largest of the three, and the fullest. Three sizes make the whole catalogue: that is little, and deliberate.

  6 × 56