Excalibur

Excalibur is a non-Cuban line from the Hoyo de Monterrey family. According to the trade press (June 2022), it was created by Villazon & Co., the Tampa house run by Frank Llaneza: originally a version of the Hoyo in a Connecticut shade wrapper, rolled in Honduras. Villazon was then making the non-Cuban Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey, whose American rights it held, inherited from the lines that Fernando Palicio had sold to the Villazon family after the Cuban nationalisation of 1959 (Wikipedia, a single-source page). The pages read say nothing about the origin of the name Excalibur.

Frank Llaneza, who died in 2010, says he first visited Honduras in 1960, two years before the embargo, when the industry there was already developing; the trade press counts him among the first to make premium cigars there.

The date of birth differs from page to page. In May 2021, the trade press announced the brand's 40th anniversary “this year”: that leads to 1981, but no founding year is written there. A Cigar Coop test (February 2012) and retailers place Excalibur's introduction in the 1970s. The registered-trademark page could not be read (403). The Dark Knight line came out of the 1066 range in 2010 according to Cigar Coop.

The sale of Villazon to General Cigar is dated 1997 by the trade press (Dan Blumenthal's obituary, 2011) and 1996 by a Llaneza interview published in 1999, which gives 91 million dollars; the two versions cannot be settled here. Excalibur has belonged since then to General Cigar, a subsidiary of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, which makes all the non-Cuban Hoyo de Monterrey. In May 2021, the trade press places manufacture at the HATSA in Danlí; Cigar Coop (2012) wrote Cofradía. In 2022, Dion Giolito (Illusione) and STG released a limited-edition Excalibur rolled in Nicaragua.

Range Depth

• Excalibur No. I

  Wrapper Connecticut shade

  The line's large format; in Excalibur Black it measures 7¼ × 54 inches (trade press, May 2021). The original line has a Connecticut shade wrapper.

• Excalibur Robusto

  Wrapper Connecticut shade

  The Robusto, 5 × 50 inches in the Black line (trade press, May 2021); the original line has a Connecticut shade wrapper.

• Excalibur Dark Knight

  Wrapper Connecticut Broadleaf maduro

  Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper (Stogie Review, 2007; Cigar Coop, 2012), not San Andrés. Released from the 1066 range in 2010 according to Cigar Coop, with four formats including a Dark Knight I of 5.75 × 54 inches.

• Excalibur Black

  Wrapper Connecticut broadleaf · Strength Medium

  Launched in June 2021 for the brand's 40th anniversary: Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, Honduran and Nicaraguan filler, presented as medium and fuller-bodied than the base blend. Robusto 5 × 50, Toro 6 × 52, No. 1 7¼ × 54 inches.

👤 Associated figures

• Frank Llaneza

  President of Villazon & Co., which made the non-Cuban Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey; the trade press counts him among the first to have made premium cigars in Honduras. He says he first went there in 1960. He died in 2010, having recently created for Altadis U.S.A. the Siglo and Frank Llaneza 1961, rolled in Nicaragua.

✨ Notable limited editions

• Excalibur Illusione (2022)