MonthlyClubs.com 30 Year Aniversario San Andrés Churchill Gordo

Created exclusively to celebrate MonthlyClubs.com’s 30th anniversary, the RCC 30 Year Aniversario is a fittingly substantial 7 x 56 Churchill Gordo. It was crafted in the Dominican Republic at the legendary El Credito factory, where Master Blender Yuri Guillen selected premium, extensively aged tobaccos to create a cigar with plenty of richness and complexity while keeping the overall strength manageable. The blend begins with a slowly fermented Mexican San Andrés Maduro wrapper selected for its maturity and depth. Beneath it sits a Nicaraguan Jalapa binder surrounding aged Nicaraguan and Dominican Habano fillers. The smoke delivers generous notes of earth, leather, sweet tobacco, and subtle spice, along with a zesty aroma and an intriguing charcoal-like quality. Despite all that flavor, the strength stays around the medium range, making this hefty cigar surprisingly approachable. Pour Eagle Rare 10 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon alongside it. Bourbon’s caramel, vanilla, toasted oak, and gentle spice naturally complement the cigar’s Maduro sweetness, leather, and earth. It’s a rich, celebratory pairing perfectly suited to an anniversary smoke.

Though tobacco is indigenous to Hispaniola, the tobacco industry in the Dominican Republic existed in the shadow of Cuba’s dominance through the 1960s. When the exodus of Cuban cigar makers began in the wake of the revolution, many decided the Dominican Republic would be ideal for the resumption of their livelihoods. Unrest in Nicaragua in the 1980s fueled the Dominican cigar industry further. The country now makes more than half of the premium cigars imported into the U.S.

The Cibao Valley and the nearby city of Santiago are the center of cigar production in the Dominican Republic. Three main varieties are grown here: the mild and native Olor Dominicano; the intense Piloto Cubano, brought from the Vuelta Abajo of Cuba; and San Vicente, a milder and more acidic Piloto hybrid. Dominican puros were once unheard of as it was widely thought impossible to grow quality wrapper leaf on the island, but new growing techniques are now allowing some exceptional puros to be produced.