Bill Paley Revives Vintage La Palina Brand

Source from:  CigarAficionado.com 06/18/2010

You may associate the Paley name with William S. Paley, veteran broadcaster and founder of CBS. But his son Bill has decided to go in a different direction and return to his family's roots not through broadcasting, but by getting into the cigar business and resurrecting an old family label. This week, La Palina cigar will make its revival debut in New York City. The brand first appeared in 1896 via the Congress Cigar Co., an American cigar manufacturer founded by Paley's grandfather, Samuel. The new La Palina cigar cannot be made with Cuban tobacco, as was the original, so it consists of Nicaraguan and Honduran filler, Costa Rican binder and Ecuadoran wrapper. It's made by the Graycliff cigar factory in Nassau, The Bahamas, where Graycliff cigars are made. "I've always been a cigar lover and got quite obsessed with cigars as I got older," said Paley. "I have a house in the Bahamas I used to stock with Cubans, but the prices for Cuban cigars in the Bahamas have become so high that it's cheaper to buy them in the U.S." The launch event will take place this Thursday evening in New York City on the pool deck terrace atop the Empire Hotel. Enditem