H. Upmann Ingot The Banker Private Holding Shipping This Month
H. Upmann has gone to the gold standard. Cigar company Altadis U.S.A. is launching a limited-edition extension to its The Banker by H. Upmann cigar line called H. Upmann Ingot The Banker Private Holding. The cigar is blended with vintage specific tobaccos and will ship to retailers later this month in eye-catching boxes that resemble solid gold bars, or ingots, that might typically be found in a bank vault.
The cigar wears a Mexican Criollo '98 wrapper from a 2012 harvest, a binder of Nicaraguan seco tobacco from a 2011 harvest, and all-Nicaraguan filler tobaccos from three harvest years: 2011, 2010 and 2009.
The packaging is a special nod to Carl and Herman Upmann, the pair of German bankers who established the Cuban cigar brand H. Upmann in 1844. Each box of The Banker Private Holding is individually numbered and contains eight Toro cigars, at 6 inches by 54 ring gauge. The cigars are wrapped in a gold foil sleeve and complemented by two matte-gold cigar bands. Only 4,500 boxes of the limited-edition brand have been produced. Individual cigars will retail for $9.25.
H. Upmann Ingot The Banker Private Holding is manufactured in the Dominican Republic at Altadis U.S.A.'s Tabacalera de Garcia S.A.S. factory. This is the company's second H. Upmann branded release in the span of just a few months: In February, Altadis debuted Yargüera H. Upmann, a cigar line featuring a new strain of proprietary Honduran tobacco.
The H. Upmann The Banker line was first introduced in 2014. The Private Holding Ingot is the first offshoot series since The Banker brand debuted.
This article first appeared in the May 3, 2016 issue of Cigar Insider.
