AJ Fernandez Cigars
AJ Fernandez is a boutique cigar-maker best known for producing the San Lotano, New World, Bellas Artes, and Last Call brands, in addition to a number of Cuban-legacy editions for Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, Punch, and more. Born and raised in Cuba’s legendary tobacco-growing region, Pinar del Rio, AJ Fernandez began learning to grow, harvest, and ferment premium tobaccos before he turned thirteen. Today, AJ Fernandez produces a well-received portfolio of predominantly Nicaraguan blends, including the 93-rated San Lotano Dominicano, 93-Rated New World Puro Especial, and the 93-rated AJ Fernandez Last Call.
CIGARS
AJ Fernandez Bellas Artes
Price Per Cigar:$7.74 - $11.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan9 Reviewsread more
AJ Fernandez Bellas Artes Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$8.24 - $12.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Brazilian Maduro15 Reviewsread more
AJ Fernandez Dias de Gloria
Price Per Cigar:$8.49 - $12.906 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan11 Reviewsread more
AJ Fernandez Dias de Gloria Brazil
Price Per Cigar:$11.49 - $16.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Brazilianread more
AJ Fernandez Enclave
Price Per Cigar:$6.49 - $9.506 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Habano11 Reviewsread more
AJ Fernandez Enclave Broadleaf
Price Per Cigar:$7.49 - $10.506 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf10 Reviewsread more
AJ Fernandez Last Call
Price Per Cigar:$5.19 - $7.106 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Habano21 Reviewsread more
AJ Fernandez Last Call Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$5.39 - $7.606 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Pennsylvania Broadleaf21 Reviewsread more
New World by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$6.99 - $9.208 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan45 Reviewsread more
New World Cameroon by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$6.24 - $9.008 options availableStrength: FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Cameroon42 Reviewsread more
New World Connecticut by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$6.59 - $8.708 options availableStrength: Mild-MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Connecticut Shade17 Reviewsread more
New World Dorado by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$9.49 - $13.408 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan14 Reviewsread more
New World Puro Especial by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$7.24 - $10.506 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Nicaraguan7 Reviewsread more
San Lotano Dominicano by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$7.49 - $10.004 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: Dominican RepublicWrapper: Brazilian9 Reviewsread more
San Lotano Habano by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$6.74 - $10.508 options availableStrength: FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Habano9 Reviewsread more
San Lotano Maduro by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$6.74 - $10.508 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: San Andres5 Reviewsread more
San Lotano Oval by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$6.99 - $11.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Habano11 Reviewsread more
San Lotano Oval Connecticut by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$7.49 - $11.006 options availableStrength: Mild-MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Connecticut3 Reviewsread more
San Lotano Oval Maduro by AJ Fernandez
Price Per Cigar:$6.99 - $11.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf6 Reviewsread more
SAMPLERS
ACCESSORIES
AJ FERNANDEZ BRAND HISTORY
Boutique cigar-maker Abdel Josef Fernandez, best known as AJ Fernandez, hails from Cuba’s famous Pinar del Rio region, in an area called San Luís. There, Fernandez’s father, Ismael, and uncle worked in agriculture for the Cuban government in its tobacco sector. AJ’s early exposure to tobacco began with his family and also through a local tobacco farmer, Riccardo Ledezma, who took Fernandez under his wing at the age of thirteen. Under Ledezma, Fernandez learned the intricacies of planting, harvesting, priming, fermenting, and sorting premium tobaccos. His love of growing tobacco quickly outshone other interests.
In the mid-1990s, Fernandez’s father left Cuba to work for his cousin, Nestor Plasencia, in Nicaragua. In 2003, AJ followed and took a job with a tobacco grower in Nicaragua who sold tobacco to the Plasencias. Fernandez began making his own cigars in a modest fashion on three rolling tables in his house. During this time, AJ began to experiment with fermentation and eventually added another fifteen rolling tables beneath a canopy on the outside of his house. He produced 20,000 cigars per month for Nestor.
AJ’s first big opportunity came from Rocky Patel who contracted him to make a series of brands, including his seasonal releases, Rocky Patel Winter Collection and Rocky Patel Summer Collection. Fernandez was crafting up to 60,000 cigars a month for Rocky and eventually opened his own factory.
In his own space, Fernandez began to pick up business making inexpensive house brands such as Diesel and Man O’ War for catalog companies. He bought his first farm, a 28-acre plot in Estelí, Nicaragua. By 2006, Fernandez was producing roughly 4 million cigars per year.
For the next decade, Fernandez continued to expand his farming footprint, buying additional lands. In 2012, he completed work on a large new cigar factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. Within a few short years, the factory was at capacity and AJ purchased an additional 117,000 square-foot facility in 2016 which he renovated in Ocotál, Nicaragua. Today, AJ Fernandez produces more than 30 different cigar brands across his burgeoning operation. These include a mix of inexpensive catalog brands and bundles, small-batch private labels, and several Cuban-legacy editions for Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey, and H. Upmann. Fernandez also produces his own core brands: San Lotano, New World, Bellas Artes, and Last Call.
AJ FERNANDEZ BRAND OVERVIEW
Thriving cigar-making sensation AJ Fernandez got his start making cigars for others, but today he produces a portfolio of his very own top-rated brands on an ever-growing network of farms and cigar factories in Nicaragua.
The first cigars to bear the AJ Fernandez brand name were released in AJ’s San Lotano line. Originally, the brand was to be called San Lutano, but the trademark registration office had mistaken the u for an o, and Fernandez decided not to change it. San Lutano is the name given to the locals in the San Luís area in Cuba where AJ grew up. San Lutano is also the name of a cigar brand his grandfather made for a time.
AJ’s first blend, San Lotano Oval, gained popularity for its semi-pressed oval shape. The cigar’s contours rest comfortably in the mouth without the sharp corners of a standard trunk-pressed cigar. The original 91-rated blend debuted in 2011 with an Ecuador Habano wrapper leaf over a medium to full-bodied amalgam of Nicaraguan and Honduran long-fillers. The San Lotano Oval line has grown to include a 90-rated Maduro, with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, as well as an elegant and nutty Natural blend, finished in a golden Connecticut wrapper.
AJ also released a trio of San Lotano cigars rolled in standard, non-oval shapes. San Lotano Dominicano is a Brazilian-wrapped blend handmade in the Dominican Republic. San Lotano Habano is blended with a Cuban-seed Nicaraguan wrapper, and San Lotano Maduro is finished in a dark San Andrés leaf. Today, the San Lotano franchise includes a profile for nearly cigar lover, with mild and creamy options as well as AJ’s classic, bold, and earthy smokes.
New World Puro Especial by AJ Fernandez scored 93 points and a ‘Top 25’ ranking from Cigar Aficionado in 2017. The all-Nicaraguan profile delivers a woody and nutty kick with notes of hickory, smoked almond, and pepper. The popular profile is also drafted in a 90-rated blend with a Cameroon wrapper that delivers full-bodied notes of cedar and coffee bean. A milder edition is available, New World Connecticut, which features a silky Connecticut Shade wrapper with a creamy taste and aroma. The original New World cigars offer complex, medium to full-bodied notes of espresso and cracked black pepper with a touch of sweetness, courtesy of an oily Nicaraguan wrapper leaf. In 2022, AJ’s 94-rated New World Dorado also impressed the Cigar Aficionado critics who ranked it in their ‘Top 25.’ Dorado is blended entirely from Nicaraguan tobaccos AJ grows himself, including its Cuban-seed wrapper. The cigar is named for AJ’s Dorado farm where most of the cigar’s tobacco is harvested.
AJ Fernandez Bellas Artes consists of an intricate recipe of long-filler tobaccos from Nicaragua, Honduras, and Brazil beneath a succulent Nicaraguan wrapper leaf that come together in a medium to full-bodied profile of cedar, spices, and earth. The Maduro version is blended from a balanced core of long-fillers from Nicaragua and San Andrés beneath a dark and shimmering Brazilian wrapper.
One of AJ’s most popular brands is Enclave, which is blended with a Cuban-seed Rosado wrapper over Cameroon and Nicaraguan long-fillers. The 92-rated cigar scored a ‘Top 25’ ranking in Cigar Aficionado in 2016. AJ also released Enclave Broadleaf, which is finished in a succulent Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro over potent Nicaraguan long-filler tobaccos. The critics bestowed a 93-point rating upon Enclave Broadleaf.
AJ Fernandez Last Call also scored an impressive 93-point rating in its smaller format with a reddish-brown Ecuador Habano wrapper leaf and an all-Nicaraguan core of long-fillers. Last Call is AJ’s value-based line, known for its chewy and leathery taste. The blend is also available with a Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper leaf in AJ Fernandez Last Call Maduro.
Dias de Gloria translates to “Days of Glory” in Spanish and is a reference to the pre-embargo glory days of cigar-making in Cuba. AJ created the Dias de Gloria line as a tribute to his native Cuba, and the cigar is available in an oily Nicaraguan wrapper as well as a thick and dark Brazilian Mata Fina.
Today, AJ Fernandez produces dozens of cigars within his own portfolio, as well as a wide variety of cigars under contract for some of today’s best-known brands, including Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, and H. Upmann. Small-batch companies, like Foundation and Southern Draw, also rely on AJ to produce their cigars. Explore the burgeoning AJ Fernandez collection and get acquainted with one of Nicaragua’s fastest-growing brands.
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