Matilde

José Seijas ran for decades the La Romana factory, one of the largest in the sector — tens of millions of cigars a year, and the responsibility for a consistency few people appreciate. He founded Matilde in 2013, with his sons Ricardo and Enrique, after leaving that post.

The name does not come from the family but from the country's history: Tabacalera La Matilde was a Dominican factory active from 1876 to 1910. The Seijas were looking for an old name that belonged to their island rather than one more family surname — and they brought that one back to life.

The contrast of scale is the very subject of the house. After spending his career guaranteeing the constancy of industrial volumes, Seijas set up a brand of short runs, where every blend is his own and where the annual production amounts to what his former plant turned out in a day.

The style carries that experience: very carefully built cigars, of a classic Dominican balance, with a consistency of manufacture that gave away the man who made them. José Seijas died in 2024; his sons keep the house.

José Seijas died in November 2024, aged seventy-four. He had been hired by Consolidated Cigar in 1974, at twenty-four, and it was he who, in the 1980s, took the La Romana factory from machine-made to hand-rolled.

This atlas owes him more than this entry: he blended or oversaw the Dominican Montecristo, the Dominican Romeo y Julieta, VegaFina, the Dominican H. Upmann and Don Diego. Five brands listed here rest, in part, on the work of the same man — and Matilde is the only one that carries his own choosing.

Range Depth

• Matilde Renacer

  Wrapper Ecuadorian Habano · Strength Medium

  Cedar, café au lait, a restrained softness. Very carefully built — the consistency gives away the man who spent his career guaranteeing that of industrial volumes.

  Robusto · Toro

• Matilde Oscura

  Wrapper Connecticut Broadleaf · Strength Medium-Full

  Dark broadleaf wrapper, cocoa and earth. The full-bodied side of a house that never looks for excess.

  Toro

🥃 Pairings

• Dominican coffee

  Coffee

  The pairing by proximity, and the aptest on a blend built on balance.

• Lightly sweetened old rum

  Spirits

  On the Oscura, a dry rum avoids pressing on the cocoa.