Fuente y Padrón Legends: A Groundbreaking Collaboration

Fuente y Padrón Legends are the most anticipated cigars to debut in decades. Arturo Fuente brand owner Carlito Fuente collaborated with Padrón brand owner Jorge Padrón on an ultra-rare project that epitomizes their respective family legacies and their love for their fathers. Carlito blended a cigar to honor Jorge’s father, José Orlando Padrón, and Jorge blended a cigar to honor Carlito’s father, Carlos Fuente Sr. The pair began work on Legends in 2020. Here’s a quick look at how the collaboration came to be and what to expect following the project’s unveiling at the PCA (Premium Cigar Association) trade show in Las Vegas last summer.

Common Bonds: Passion & Perseverance

Carlito Fuente and Jorge Padrón are the heads of two of the most prominent cigar brands. They are competitors, but they are also friends who share much respect for one another. Both cigar-makers have been instrumental in building their brands intimately with their fathers, whose passion for tobacco gave them the determination to overcome fierce obstacles and rise to the top of the industry from humble circumstances. Carlos Fuente Sr. died in 2016 at the age of 81. José Orlando Padrón passed at the age of 91 in 2017. Between their collective 172 years, they assembled mammoth legacies synonymous with the finest cigars in the world, and Fuente y Padrón Legends is a tribute to both men from their sons.

The Fuentes and Padróns faced catastrophic hurtles on the road to success. In 1924, a massive fire destroyed the cigar factory Carlos Sr.’s father, Arturo Fuente, established after building it into a 500-employee enterprise. Arturo wouldn’t make his own cigars again until the 1940s when he resurrected his brand, rolling cigars with his family on his back porch in a modest operation that sold cigars on a cash-only basis to local cigar lovers. In turn, Carlos Sr. purchased the company from his father for $1 in 1958 and grew the Arturo Fuente brand with his son, Carlito, into the prestigious, global force it is today. More fires, hurricanes, and the political instability of Central America didn’t stop the Fuentes from persevering and settling in the Dominican Republic where they would build today’s world-famous Chateau de la Fuente estates, where they grow tobacco crops reserved for coveted Fuente Fuente Opus X and Ashton ESG cigars.

Fidel Castro drove the Padrón family from Cuba after confiscating their tobacco farms, along with the entire cigar industry, in the wake of the Cuban Revolution. At 36, José Orlando Padrón arrived in Miami in 1962 to start over from scratch. For a short time, he survived on government assistance offered to Cuban refugees and eventually found work as a carpenter – a detail celebrated in the famous hammer logo found on Padron cigar boxes and bands. José Orlando worked and saved just enough to open a tiny cigar factory in Miami in 1964, also making cigars for a local clientele. Business grew at a measured pace in the following decades. The company’s Miami headquarters were bombed in 1978 by Cuban exiles in response to José Orlando’s meeting with Castro to negotiate the release of prisoners in Cuba.

In the 1980s, the Padróns were forced to abandon their Nicaraguan operations when the Sandinistas took control of the country. They returned to their factory in 1990 after the Nicaraguan trade embargo, initiated by President Reagan in 1985, had been lifted. During the Cigar Boom of the 1990s, the Padrôns expanded distribution and introduced their cigars to a much larger audience as they debuted the now iconic box-pressed 1964 Anniversary.

Titans of Tobacco

Carlos Fuente Sr. and José Orlando Padrón rose early and subscribed to staunch work ethics driven by an unwavering love of tobacco, never endeavoring to make the most cigars – only the best. This philosophy has clearly been transferred to their sons. This list of illustrious cigars attributed to Fuente and Padrón is staggering.

Arturo Fuente is one of a handful of brands to celebrate a 100th anniversary – and that was a decade ago. Dozens of the bestselling and most sought-after cigars in the world comprise the renowned Arturo Fuente portfolio, including Fuente Fuente Opus X, Don Carlos, Hemingway, Añejo, Chateau Series, Gran Reserva, in addition to blending and producing the popular Ashton brand and more. 

Padrón is the only brand awarded no less than four ‘#1 Cigar of the Year’ titles from Cigar Aficionado, including the 97-rated Padrón 1964 Anniversary Torpedo, which received the accolade in 2021. Padrón is responsible for the 1926 Series, Family Reserve, and scores of special anniversary cigars like the 40th, 50th, and 80th, as well as their bestselling original Padrón blend.

Fuente y Padrón Legends: the Cigars

The biggest question aficionados are asking is when will the Fuente y Padrón Legends cigars go on sale? After unforeseen delays, including a shipping accident, the cigars are finally enroute to retailers in the spring of 2024. This ultra-limited release will be hard to find due to its rarity, but rest assured the first batch has been shipped to select retailers. Although both cigar-makers remain tightlipped about many details, here’s what we can confirm today.

Fuente y Padrón cigars come in a luxurious white box that bears their fathers’ likenesses and signatures in gold print, with a banyan tree in between them, on the top. Inside the lid are two elaborate collages of joyful moments in the lives of Carlos Sr. and José Orlando, smoking cigars and surrounded by family.

Two trays, one for each blend, includes 20 cigars handcrafted in a 7-by-50 Churchill size. The cigars are identified as Carlos Fuente Jr. Honoring José O. Padrón and Jorge Padrón Honoring Carlos A. Fuente. The cigars made by Fuente for Padrón are wrapped in cedar, and the cigars made by Padrón for Fuente are box-pressed, based on photos taken during the product launch. A pair of maroon, black, and gold cigar bands adorns each cigar. 

No specifics regarding the blends have been announced other than that they are crafted from very special and rare tobaccos. Each humidor is set to retail for $7,115, or $178 per cigar with 40 cigars in every box. You can bet they’ll be among the most sought-after cigars ever created. Pride and egos were set aside to pave the way for this masterful collaboration, and a significant portion of the proceeds from Fuente y Padrón Legends will be donated to charity – the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation and the Padrón Family Foundation. At Holt’s, we’re as eager to smoke these elusive bucket-list cigars as many other cigar lovers around the world. We’ll keep you posted the second they arrive!