Foundation Highclere Castle Victorian Robusto Cigar - 1 Single

Length: 5"
Ring Gauge: 50
Strength: Mild to Medium

Packaging: 1 Single
Vitola: Robusto
Smoking Time: 45 Minutes

Wrapper: Habano Ecuador
Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Nicaraguan (Jalapa, Estelí, and Ometepe grown Corojo and Criollo)

FOUNDATION CIGARS

In 2014 Nick Melillo faced a stark choice - He could well have stayed on as Executive Vice President of International Operations and Head Blender of Drew Estate (a role he had held since 2003), or he could seize the chance to finally use his 20 years of hard-earned experience and his access to the highest quality cigar tobacco to make his own cigars – the cigars of his dreams!

The choice was easy, and in 2015 Foundation Cigar Company was born, all for the love of the leaf.

Nick’s cigar journey started in high school, on Saturdays he would go for a smoke with his grandfather and brother at their local shop in New Haven, Connecticut. After memorising all details of every cigar in the humidor; Nick persuaded them to give him a weekend job.

Nick’s passion for working with cigars was immediately apparent, but following four years at Calabash Shoppe, the wide world was calling, and Nick took off to travel the globe. Following a lengthy global trip remarkably reminiscent of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, it was in 2003 that Nick received a call from Jonathan Drew...

Jonathan needed someone who knew and loved cigars and was willing to move to Nicaragua to oversee the setup and operations of his new cigar company - Drew Estate. Nick jumped on board and immediately started blending cigars and fermenting tobacco; cigars and tobacco that completely changed the cigar industry in the early 21st Century.

In 2015 Melillo branched out on his own, finally forming the Foundation Cigar Company.

Famously and without being prompted, paid or promoted, the cigars are now regularly being championed as the best cigars available by Joe Rogan (the world’s most popular podcaster) and winning awards and ratings such as #1 Best Buy (Cigar Afficionado), Cigar Of The Year (Cigar Snob) and #3 in Cigar Afficionado’s top 25 2019.

But what is at the heart of Foundation Cigar Company is the cigar smoker themselves – that smoke-filled moment of pure presence, that quietly thunderous connection to ancient heritage, modern science, and genuine passion for the leaf. This is something that Melillo and Foundation Cigar Company will provide endlessly to any who will sit and take audience. All for the love of the leaf.

HIGHCLERE CASTLE VICTORIAN

Lord Carnarvon, Adam Von Gootkin and Nicholas Melillo (Foundation Cigar Company) are men with great historical insight, pinpoint attention to detail and veritably vast vision, and it is with these qualities that they embarked on their mission to follow the Highclere Castle Edwardian.

Their goal was incredibly simple yet seemingly impossible – using records meticulously kept at Highclere Castle, they would re-create the kind of cigar that was smoked at Highclere Castle during the 19th century - The very first Cuban cigars smoked in Great Britain, the very kind of cigar that was smoked in celebration by the 4th Earl following the very founding of Canada, the very kind of cigar that was smoked by a young Edward VII on his numerous social and political visits to Highclere Castle, the very kind of cigar that was smoked in those hallowed walls by royalty, aristocracy, politicians, artists and musicians, all at their very peak during the Victorian era.

The Highclere Castle Victorian is the successful fruit of this noble endeavour.

Rated 93 by Cigar Afficionado and reaching their top 25 of 2020, the Highclere Castle Victorian is a distinctly unusual, delicately balanced, and notably refined smoke. Boasting the very finest upper priming Ecuadorian Habano wrapper that is simply brimming with oil and beautifully presented in a rosado colorado shade, rare and meticulously selected Mata Fina binder, and fillers of astounding corojo and criollo from Nicaragua’s Estelli, Jalapa and Ometepe. Yes, this is yet another astounding and groundbreaking blend from Nick Melillo of Foundation Cigar Company, made to the exacting nature of Highclere Castle Cigar.

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These exceptionally unusual and perfectly balanced tobaccos create a phenomenal flavour profile, one which many strive for yet few achieve.

Whilst being as a mild to medium bodied cigar, the Highclere Castle Victorian is incredibly full in flavour, with great development. Distinguished espresso, oak, caramel, maple and black pepper all meld in to a viscous and creamy feel on the palate, changing distinctly with each third and developing to a gloriously mineral rich finish.

The Highclere Castle Victorian is a true expression of the beautiful nature of cigars in the 19th century, a cigar straight from an era when cigars changed the world, encounter by encounter.