[darkleeroy]

As long as there are specialty cigar stores, I wouldn't say our beloved boutique cigar makers need to have an internet presence. Cause honestly, cigars speak for themselves. Sure, there's fancy bands and what not. But ultimately a "serious" cigar smoker makes his decisions based on the qualities of the cigar itself.

Likewise, a bored B&M owner is going to sit there and smoke all of the cigars he has in stock, and he's going to develop an opinion on what's good and what's bad. And as a result, those boutique brands still get sold.

I've been away from the online cigar community for a couple of years, in that time, I still knew the boutique brands by stopping by my B&M every couple of weeks.

Online media aids, it doesn't define. If there was no online media, I still think our boutique brands would be kicking.

Ultimately, General, Altadis, and JC Newman still sell more cigars a month than boutiques sell a year.