In response to a few emails and questions regarding both the Navarre Cigar (Part I) and the Navarre Robusto cigar review I wanted to try to fill in a few of the details behind this exceptional undertaking of creating a new cigar made with 100% French tobacco. The first of these Robustos became available throughout France in early January.

It should be noted that the Navarre tobacco plantation is situated in the region of the Béarn in southern France. While the climate in this region is far from tropical, it has been well known for many years for its production of blond tobacco, and is the home of the Tobacco Institute of Bergerac founded in 1927, the only European research center which is totally devoted to the tobacco plant, its production and its post-harvesting treatment.

The challenge for Noël Labourdette was to grow dark tobacco in the area for cigar manufacturing, and for that he turned to the obvious resource—Cuba. You see, since France has trade relations with Cuba, the Navarre is able to benefit from the island’s expertise. In fact he was able to sign up with a Cuban tobacco grower from Pinar del Rio who was willing to come to France and join in on the venture. Having both the “know how” and the resources, the challenge then becomes creating the right conditions for growing good quality dark tobacco in place of the blond strain that is normally produced there. In this case, the Tobacco Institute of Bergerac provided tobacco strains identical to Cuban tobacco plants. It took a couple of years and a good amount of modern technology to arrive at the right conditions for growing the plants, and eventually for curing, drying, and fermenting the leaves. Finally in 2003 the crop was deemed appropriate for launching their introductory cigar in January.

For the moment, the cigar is pretty much only available in France since it is being produced in small batches so that even in France, in some cases, only one tobacconist per city is able to stock them. They are slowly increasing production, but still insist that they are in the quality business not quantity. They do hope to enter the export arena some time in 2007, reaching northern Europe, the U.K. and Spain. I think that if they realized the extent of the Cigar cult in the U.S., not to mention the Cuban embargo, they’d be foolish not to tap that export opportunity before the embargo eventually collapses.

The cigar so far has been received with a great deal of criticism from the average French cigar smoker, which, having lived in this country for six years, does not surprise me. “The French”, as Chirac has noted, “have a habit, which perhaps contributes to their charm as well, of underlining their difficulties and failures”—a brave observation of the basic pessimism of the French public, especially when trying something new.

While it is true that the cigar has some weaknesses (like inconsistent combustion) that have to be addressed, I am very optimistic about what Labourdette has done, considering how incredibly difficult it is to reproduce the tobacco manufacturing art. Granted, right now the cigar is way too expensive for its league, but we’re talking about tobacco that is only grown from May to August in very limited quantities. I expect that the price will have to come down in order for the European public to even consider smoking it, since they have a wide variety of great Cuban cigars to choose from, and seem to have a “Cuban only” fixation. The cigar, however, would do better in the U.S. since in general the public is more open to tobacco from other regions.