Cigar Aficionado

When Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, owner of Cigar of the Year for 2018, he’s had to assign 16 rollers just to keep up with demand.

Normally, his La Alianza factory produces about 2 million cigars a year. If demand for the Encore keeps up, Perez-Carrillo thinks he’ll make about 2.4 million cigars for 2019—but that’s a safe, conservative estimate. It could possibly go up to 2.5 million; however, Perez-Carrillo is a humble guy who doesn’t like to brag.

I visited the factory during last week’s ProCigar Festival tour in the Dominican Republic and Perez-Carrillo showed me some of the production steps necessary for making this most distinguished cigar. I took some photos in hopes of relaying to you the journey that each Encore takes. Some of the steps, however, had to be kept secret, so I couldn’t show you everything.