Habanos Festival auction highlights revealed

The Habanos Festival came to a close on Sunday (5 March), and what a huge occasion it was… again!

An excited crowd of more than 1,200 attendees were there to battle it out for seven custom humidors, each dedicated to one of Cuba’s top cigar brands. The event successfully raised £1.10 million in the closing show of the 19th Festival de Habanos in Havana. Funds raised throughout the auction were subsequently donated to the Cuban public health system.

It wasn’t just the Festival’s auction that made the closing night party the success it was. A rather exciting announcement via cigar brand Montecristo helped to whet the appetites of stogie fans with the release of the Montecristo Linea 1935 line.

More on the Linea 1935

The fresh, ultra-premium addition to the Montecristo family will be available in three different sizes: the Leyenda (6 1/2 inches by 55 ring gauge); the Maltes (6 by 53); and the Dumas (5/18 by 49). The cigars have been carefully blended so that they are stronger than the regular Montecristo. Furthermore, they have an additional band with the Linea 1935 logo to add to perfect finishing touches.

More on the auction from the Habanos Festival

Montecristo stole the night, no doubt about it, but as far as the auction was concerned it was Cohiba who took the spoils with the top-priced humidor realising a winning bid of £329,000. The humidor came brimming with some 580 Cohiba cigars, including 20 each of the prized Behike BHK52, BHK54 and BHK56, which were joined by 20 Robustos Supremos, 20 Cohiba 1966 EL from 2011 and 25 of the new Majestuosos.

The second highest bid of £191,000 came in the lot that featured a Montecristo humidor, which looked like a sculpture showing the bow of a wooden boat climbing out of the sea. The impressive piece was home to 450 cigars in total, including the three new vitolas of Monteristo Linea 1935, the famed Montecristo No. 2, the rarely seen Montecristo Double Corona, as well as other stogie-fan gems, such as the Montecristo Especial No. 1 and a Maravilla No. 1.

The H. Upmann brand came out in a beautiful wooden rendition of a bank vault. The top bid for this item was at £173,000. The 350 cigars found inside featured 50 Sir Winston Churchills, 20 H. Upmann No. 2s, 20 Royal Robustos, as well as four Magnum sizes: 46, 50, 54 and 56.

Romeo y Julieta were well-represented with a humidor that fetched £130,000. The humidor was packed with 370 cigars, including famed Churchills, Short and Wide Churchills, Fabulosos and Julietas.

A Hoyo de Monterrey humidor raised £87,000 and had 360 cigars inside. This particular humidor was housing the iconic Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona.

A Partagás humidor, filled with 400 cigars, highlighted by the Lusitania Double Corona, the unusual 109, the Sobresaliente and the Serie P No. 2, eventually going under the hammer for £100,000.

A novel touch that many enjoyed at this year’s Festival was a Bolivar humidor that was the first of its kind in the Festival’s history. It was also the first humidor to kick the auction proceedings off this year. It finally sold for a winning bid of £78,000.

Image courtesy of Ajay Patel/YouTube.