Almost a year ago, halfwheel was covering the 2014 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show, and Brooks Whittington and I were assigned to cover the Drew Estate booth. We got to spend a few moments with Willy Herrera, who just months prior was named the company’s master blender following the departure of Nicholas Melillo. Herrera told us that in addition to his recently announced Norteño project, he would be growing the Herrera Esteli line to include a number of new projects, which he described as store exclusives, unique projects and unique blends. Just a few weeks after the trade show turned off the lights and packed the booths up, Drew Estate announced the first of a new project from Herrera, a line of store exclusives called Tienda Exclusiva, Spanish for store exclusive. The project would be limited to just a few releases per year, made in extremely small batches and limited to one retailer per release. The first release went to Barrister Cigars in Union, N.J. in September 2014, and the second one will debut later this week at Riverside Cigar Shop & Lounge in Jeffersonville, Ind. As expected, this blend is completely different from the first, which used a Mexican San Andrés ...
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