new pepin brand?

[NCRadioMan]

Originally Posted by dunkel

Hopefully it won't be high priced like every other stick with DPG's name associated with it.

Ashton Benchmade, Holt's Fumadores and Little Havana Overruns are quite inexpensive and quite good. And remember, the cigars he produces in Little Havana cost alot more to make. He has to pay his people there much more than in Nic. He does have tons and tons of grade b and c tobacco that hopefully he will use to make more less expensive cigars too.

Originally Posted by taltos

He's turning into a bigger marketing whore than Rocky Patel.

I have to disagree as well, brudda. That will never happen. Pepin knows his limits and he is a tobacco man first. His whole life has been devoted to tobacco. As most know, Rocky is/was a lawyer and in the movie business before getting into cigars on a whim. He only got into cigars much later in his life at the start of the boom. Dealing in movies, I'm sure he mastered "hype" marketing. He depends solely on others to grow tobacco and blend cigars where as Pepin now has fields of tobacco and, of course, is one of the world foremost blenders and has been for many years. Pepin has said he produces almost 6 million cigars a year and has the capacity to produce 7 to 8 million. After that, the product quality would suffer and he said he will not do that.

I'm not saying the Rocky hasn't learned alot since he has been in the business, it's obvious he has. I like the Vintage line, ITC and CI's Connecticut but not any of the others. I don't fault him for trying to make a buck but when I think of Rocky today, I think he has become the modern day Perdomo. Churning out alot of cigars whether they are good or not. Whereas Pepin seems to hit a homerun with every new cigar he produces. I personally think the Cubao and the LADC EE are some of his best blends to date.