In 2010 I found myself in the Tatuaje booth at the IPCPR Convention & Trade Show—a far cry from the structure that Pete Johnson’s brand now calls its own—and we were talking about a Dominican cigar. Only, it wasn’t Johnson’s cigar. Rather, Tatuaje was distributing a cigar called Schrader Hispañiola Sparky DOCO-EST MMIX-I. As with so many things Pete Johnson, it had to do with wine. The cigar was produced for Fred Schrader of Schrader Cellars, a Napa Valley winery that has had its fair share of success. Johnson, a wine geek, was distributing the cigar, a salomon made in a factory called Para Ti. Not much was known about the factory then, but in the years since it has become known that the Para Ti factory was actually a corner of Quesada’s tobacco storage facility in Licey. That tobacco storage facility has grown dramatically, with Quesada moving all of its rolling operations to the Licey location in 2012. Since then Schrader has been relatively quiet on the cigar side, at least until earlier this year when it became known the company was preparing for its sophomore cigar release, this time a collaboration with Nat Sherman produced at the Quesada factory. Formally, the new cigar ...
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