De Los Reyes Cigars

The Reyes family has been in Dominican tobacco since the nineteenth century. The factory, though, is recent: Augusto Reyes opened it in 1995, at Santiago de los Caballeros.

The division of roles is clear-cut, and that is what makes the house interesting. Leo Reyes, Augusto's brother, grows. Nirka Reyes, Augusto's daughter, runs the factory. Much of the leaf that enters the workshop comes from Leo's fields — and the oldest of those fields deserves a stop, because it turns up everywhere in the house's history.

The Navarrete farm takes its name from a town north-west of Santiago. Leo Reyes created it in 1961, on twenty to thirty acres — about ten hectares, which is small. Cigar Aficionado calls it the first plantation in the Dominican Republic to have grown Piloto Cubano, the varietal the island took up from Cuba after 1959 and which today forms the backbone of most Dominican fillers. Negrito, a dark wrapper, is harvested there too. That is where Arsen's wrapper comes from, and it is the field the house later enlarged with other plantations. Few Dominican houses hold both ends this way, from seedbed to rolling table.

The workshop turns out between two and two and a half million cigars a year. Its own brands are Saga — with its Golden Age, Blend No. 7 and Short Tales series — Don Julio, and the line that carries the founder's name. It also rolls for others: Debonaire, Fittipaldi, Patoro and Indian Motorcycle are made there.

Don Julio is not an invented name. It stands for Don Julio Samuel Reyes Fermín, a third-generation grower in the family, and the brand is made entirely of Dominican tobaccos from the Reyes fields in the Cibao valley. It has two main lines: Punta Espada, released in 2014, and Sang Bleu, the first new regular-production line in ten years, which arrived in 2024.

Arsen is a brand of this factory — but it was not born here. Arsen Gasparian launched it in 2010: a former press secretary at Armenia's foreign ministry, he had come to cigars as publisher of the Russian magazine Hecho a Mano before having his own made in the Dominican Republic. It uses the Navarrete wrapper. That is why it appears here: a brand conceived by an outsider and rolled in this house — the same case as Zino at Oettinger Davidoff and Oliveros at Boutique Blends.

Range Depth

• Saga

  Wrapper Dominican blends · Strength Medium

  The brand the house exports most. It runs several series — Golden Age, Blend No. 7, Short Tales — on tobacco from the fields of Leo Reyes.

  Robusto · Toro · Corona · Lancero

• Saga Blend No. 7

  Wrapper Brazilian Cobra wrapper from the Reyes farm · Strength Full

  The Saga series most often looked up by name. A Brazilian wrapper from the family farm, a Dominican Habano binder, Dominican and Central American filler, in three sizes only.

  Robusto · Perfecto · Toro Gordo

• Don Julio

  Wrapper Dominican tobaccos from the Cibao · Strength Medium-Full

  A man's name: Don Julio Samuel Reyes Fermín, a third-generation grower. Entirely Dominican, on tobacco from the family fields in the Cibao. Two lines — Punta Espada (2014) and Sang Bleu (2024), the first new regular-production line in ten years.

  Robusto · Toro · Churchill

• Augusto Reyes

  Wrapper Dominican blends · Strength Medium-Full

  The founder's name, on the line that stays closest to the house's own tobacco.

  Robusto · Toro · Churchill

• Arsen

  Wrapper Navarrete wrapper · Strength Medium

  Conceived outside, rolled here. Arsen Gasparian launched it in 2010 — he published the Russian magazine Hecho a Mano — and it uses the wrapper from the Navarrete farm.

  Robusto · Toro