EP Carrillo Short Run Ships, Europe-Only Cigars Now in U.S.

Source from:  Cigar Aficionado 03/10/2015

The 2015 Short Run, a small-batch cigar series from Ernesto Perez-Carrillo's EPC Cigar Co., is making its way to cigar stores now, weeks after the company released two formerly European-exclusive brands to the U.S. market.

The new Short Run, which has been a different blend each of the past five years, is rolled with binder from Nicaragua, filler from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, and a Criollo '98 wrapper grown in Nicaragua's Jalapa Valley.

Packed in boxes of 24, the Short Run 2015 will be available in three sizes: Napoleon, measuring 5 inches by 50 ring gauge, Vencedores, 6 by 52, and Imperios, 6 by 60. Only 1,500 boxes of each size are being released, and the sizes range in price from $6.75 to $8.75.

In fall of 2014, EPC Cigar Co. released two new brands, New Wave Reserva and E.P. Carrillo Cabinet, exclusively to the European market. Observant cigar smokers may have seen the new brands in cigar shops in the United States as the company released 200 boxes to its top accounts in December 2013. Earlier this year, EPC Cigar released the brands to U.S. cigar shops as their newest full-production lines.

The New Wave Reserva's blend features a Connecticut broadleaf binder and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. It is covered by Ecuadoran Connecticut wrapper leaf that comes from high on the tobacco plant. According to Perez-Carrillo, the wrapper is darker and stronger than the Ecuador Connecticut leaf used in the original New Wave Connecticut, which inspired the Reserva's creation.

Reserva is available in four sizes and packed in boxes of 24: Robusto, measuring 5 inches by 50 ring gauge, Toro 52 by 6, Supremo 5 1/8 by 56, and Inmensos 6 by 60. The price range of the cigar is $6.65 to $8.60. The company says the cigar is medium-bodied.

E.P. Carrillo Cabinet, which the company says is a bit fuller bodied than Reserva, uses the same Ecuadoran Habano Corojo '99 wrapper that appears on the company's Inch C-99 line, which debuted at last year's IPCPR trade show. The binder and filler tobaccos both hail from Estelí, Nicaragua. This is different than the European version of the Cabinet, which was rolled with Dominican binder.

While the line uses the same wrapper as Inch C-99, it does not approach the large ring gauges found in that line, as the thickest Cabinet is merely 60 ring. The four sizes of Cabinet are Robusto, 5 by 50, Toro, 6 by 52, Supremos Extra, 5 7/8 by 56, and Wide Toro, 6 by 60. Each will be packed in 25-count boxes and retail from $6.30 to $8.30. Enditem