Los Angeles – Highlights of the 76th International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association convention and trade show in Las Vegas:

>> Both Altadis U.S.A. and General Cigar showed off their long-anticipated, all-Dominican brands.

The Altadis line is called Mi Dominicana ("My Dominican") and was blended by Tabacalera de Garcia chief Jose Seijas. Always quiet and modest, he dropped all pretense about this blend: "Everything that is beautiful about the Dominican Republic has gone into this puro," said Seijas. "Superior tobaccos and the pride and artistry of our most experienced rollers have created what I believe is the perfect smoke." Wow.

The Mi Dominicana is offered in eight sizes and packed in elegant white boxes with the Dominican flag on the top. The cigars range in price from $7.50 to $9.00 each before local sales and tobacco taxes; there’s also an eight-cigar size sampler at $66.50.

General Cigar president Daniel Nunez, a native Dominican, has been devoted to the creation of a Dominican puro for more than a decade and finally has it in the Cohiba Puro Dominicana. It includes leaves from several of General’s Dominican farms. The unique flavor comes, in part, from aging of leaves in charcoaled wooden barrels and is described as "smooth" and "ultra-refined." It comes in five sizes at retail prices of $13.50 to $20.50 each.

>> Philip Wynne debuted a unique cigar – "the best I have ever made" – for his Petrus line, the Petrus Prestige Sublime. It’s made from real Cuban seeds . . . seeds that came from Cuba about a year ago! Grown in the Dominican Republic, the wrapper and binder are from seeds used for planting in the Vuelta Arriba regions in the central and eastern areas of Cuba and the filler is from seeds used in the famed Vuelta Abajo.

Wynne blended this tobacco to create a flavorful and medium-bodied blend in four shapes in boxes of 20, with pricing from $5.00 to $12.00 per cigar.

>> Another echo of Cuba came from veteran cigar maker Juan Sosa, who introduced a new blend called "Santa Julia." It’s a special cigar for Sosa, whose family grew tobacco in Cuba until that industry was nationalized in 1961. The name of the family’s farm was Santa Julia.

Sosa left Cuba and eventually started making cigars. His newest release is medium in body and features a Nicaraguan-grown Corojo wrapper, Dominican binder and Honduran filler in six sizes. Like all Sosa products, the prices are as agreeable as the cigars, with suggested retail prices from $3.25 to $5.50 each.

>> Perhaps the most unbelievable cigar on the show floor was the new C.A.O. Holiday Press Cameroon. It’s a single, unique size: a trapezoidal cigar made from a special mold that was originally created for the company’s holiday gifts.

Housed in a gold-colored box which resembles a gold bar in shape, the Holiday Press has a flat bottom (think of a tongue depressor), two short sides and then two longer sides that meet in a plateau at the top. Strange? Yes, but wild and well made. The blend is the same as in the popular C.A.O. l’Anniversaire Cameroon line, but the Holiday Press are six inches long by 71 ring gauge along the bottom. It’s not too wildly priced, however, at $8.60 per cigar, not including local taxes.

>> Davidoff fans have been clamoring – rather loudly at times – for a Davidoff blend that features a maduro wrapper. Their wait is over.

Introduced very quietly, with samples covertly slipped into bags and pockets, the Davidoff Maduro Robusto will debut in the next month as the first of new series of Davidoffs that could include up to six shapes. The wrapper was specially created for this blend and was sun-grown in Nicaragua, a departure from the usual Davidoff wrapper from Ecuador. Combined with a Dominican San Vicente binder and four types of Dominican-grown filler leaves – San Vicente Visus, Piloto Seco, Piloto Visus and Olor Visus – the flavor of this 5-inch by 52-ring cigar is described as well-balanced and subtle with a nut-like element. It will be offered in boxes of 25 at a price to be announced.

New Davidoffs at the show also included the rapidly-returning-to-popularity Lancero size in the Millennium Blend line (7 1/4 x 40) and the 2008 Limited Edition called the "Reserva 12." Named for some of the filler leaves, which are 12 years old, the 5 1/2-inch by 52-ring robusto has an Ecuadorian sun-grown wrapper and is being offered in boxes of 10.

>> Altadis U.S.A. also introduced one of those "why didn’t I think of that" accessory items: golf ball makers adorned with cigar-brand logos!

The eight Cigar Savor ball makers have an enamel finish and eight different logos are available: Gispert, H. Upmann, Montecristo, Por Larranaga, Quintero, Romeo y Julieta, Saint Luis Rey and Trinidad. Each has a clip that allows attachment to a cap or bag; individual markers are priced at $4.95 each or $39.50 per set of eight.

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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company of Los Angeles, California, USA. Copyright 2007; All rights reserved.