Cigar of the night || Paris Smokeasy
February is about love and doing enough on Valentine’s Day to live another day. Those that made it to February’s smoke, well they did enough for their significant other so they could make it out for some Cigar Love! To jump right into this month’s Cigar of the Night, it was only fitting that Gary Flynn selected a cigar based on love. The love a son had for his mother!
Luciano Meirelles de Azevedo was raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He attended the London Royal Academy of Music and completed his bachelor’s degree in Sao Paulo at Mackenzie Presbyterian University. His business career started with selling insurance policies and annuities to corporations and was 22 when he created his first investment fund. While networking in the private equities and financial markets, he created a very successful Political Consultant Company in Latin America. He represented the cigar industry for the Dominican Republic in its fight against taxation from South American countries, Argentina, and Brazil in 2008. This is when he met Ernesto Perez-Carillo and in 2009, EP is where Luciano got his inspiration to start his own cigar label. In 2018, ACE Prime was started as a partnership and launched its first cigar at the 2019 PCA show. After a collaboration with Crowned Heads ended in 2022, Ace Prime was rebranded to Luciano Cigars and is made at the Luciano Cigar Factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.
Luciano said it took him many years before he blended a cigar inspired by his mother, whom he lost when he was only 12 years old. He said “The late Maria Lucia was as valiant as she was brilliant, as kind as she was unashamedly bold. She was the flower that rises from the cracked pavement, the beauty that survives brokenness, the redemption that overcomes tragedy. This cigar echoes the life of a complex woman who reminds us that even when all odds are against us, we nevertheless have the capacity to hold onto the light.” The really cool part of this story to me, is how the artwork on the box and label came to be. Luciano’s oldest daughter Deborah, an artist and fashion designer in Paris, France (yeah – that other Paris), drew a portrait of a woman she had dreamed of as a teenager. She had never seen a picture of her grandmother before she drew it. Luciano got a package from his uncle years later that contained old pictures and letters. “When I saw the drawing next to old photographs of my mother, I saw the similarity immediately. It was almost supernatural the way things happened. It’s hard to believe it was only a coincidence… And now years later, when I decided to finally create this cigar, naturally, in a full-circle kind of way, we thought there would be no better idea than to use my daughter’s drawing for the box.”
February’s choice of love was the Maria Lucia Double Robusto (Toro) in a 6 ½” x 50-gauge Box Pressed presented to us by Shawn O’Connor, our Luciano cigar rep. From Luciano’s website “Each cigar is meticulously rolled with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, two binders from Ecuador (one grown from Sumatra seed, the other Havana ’92), and a blend of fillers sourced from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Peru. The medium to full strength profile offers a harmonious balance of flavors, ensuring a captivating smoking experience.” It received a 91 rating in January of ’24 from Cigar Aficionado (CA). Luciano’s “The Dreamer” Panetela was the #12 cigar of the year in CA’s Top 25 of 2021. With 62 people present for the event it received a Redneck Ratin of 90 out of 100.
Our sponsor for the night was “The Gritchy”, Abby Kemper, with her new Jewelry line she is designing and that specializes in custom one-of-a-kind pieces. It is comprised of ethically sourced materials and brought together by the process of electroforming. It is on display at the Art Gallery in the Chamber of Commerce building downtown and online at https://fouroaksalchemy.com/. A locally owned and Veteran Operated Business.
Written by Jd Marrs
Hosted by Rigby’s Cigars & Lounge
Photo Cred: Luciano and Rigby’s