Kentucky's Cigar Industry Grows
Eric McAnallen helps Commonwealth reclaim part of its tobacco heritage

Facing a future with tobacco playing a much smaller role as a cash crop, Kentucky’s farmers have taken different routes to further diversify both their crops and income.

But some farmers continue doing what they’ve always done – growing tobacco. A larger portion of Kentucky’s burley crop is grown on contract for cigarette manufacturers now, rather than for auction. But now other varieties of tobacco are also being more widely considered for planting. Instead of burley, which is usually used in manufacturing cigarettes, some farmers now grow broadleaf tobacco, usually used for the wrapper level of cigar construction – the portion of the stogie that contributes the most to its taste.

A century ago, more than 20 cigar manufacturers were headquartered in Kentucky. By the mid-1990s, there were none. At the beginning of the boom in the premium cigar industry in the mid-1990s, new cigar makers sprung up like dandelions throughout the Caribbean and Florida. However, many of the new companies were either acquired or mismanaged into oblivion.

Though the boom is now over, there are hundreds of thousands of new consumers who enjoy a good cigar. Two new cigar firms have been founded in Kentucky to capitalize on the trend. These are Trimble County farmer Mark Barrow, who grows his own cigar wrapper (see “Stogie Story” in the November, 2001 issue of The Lane Report) and Lexington entrepreneur Eric McAnallen, whose Black Patch Cigar Company celebrates Western Kentucky’s tobacco-growing tradition.

“I grew up in Pikeville, but my wife Medina grew up in Caldwell County near Princeton,” McAnallen said. “That area is known as the Black Patch, where, almost a hundred years ago, local farmers took up arms and fought the Black Patch War against the tobacco monopoly that was taking advantage of them.”

On the Caldwell County farm of McAnallen’s father-in-law, he noticed dark aired tobacco being grown. “I developed a real curiosity about the uses of non-burley kinds of tobacco and that’s where my plan to start a cigar company was formed,” McAnallen said.

Researching ways to make and market cigars, McAnallen contacted J. Nestor Benedit, a Florida-based cigar industry executive who is originally from Cuba and has spent a lifetime in the cigar industry.

Drawing on the years of experience offered by Benedit and his father, McAnallen started planning the manufacture of Black Patch Cigars.

In the search for a good blend of tobacco to fill and bind Black Patch cigars, Benedit recommended that McAnallen utilize the factory and filler tobacco provided by the Carbonells, one of the oldest families in the Caribbean cigar trade.

“It was decided that the fillers that we would use for our cigars would come from the South Bonao region of the Dominican Republic,” said McAnallen.

McAnallen says the taste resulting from the Kentucky dark-aired tobacco wrapper and the South Bonao filler and binding tobacco is exceptional.

“We’re using a quality Kentucky-grown wrapper,” he said. “There are 78 grades and 14 varieties of dark-aired tobacco. We use only one grade and variety. This kind really holds the oils, which does a lot for the cigar’s taste.”

Not yet produced on a large scale, Black Patch cigars are available in perhaps a half-dozen retail outlets in major markets in Kentucky and the Eastern United States. The fact that McAnallen only allows the cigars to be sold after they’ve been properly aged has posed a challenge to keep up with sales.

Production of Black Patch Cigars will increase, but will still remain limited.

“In 2000 we bought enough wrapper to double our production, which is probably around 9,000-10,000 boxes a year,” McAnallen said. “I don’t want to make more than 10,000-15,000 boxes a year. The big guys make around 20,000 boxes a month. We’re not worried about the availability of cigar filler tobacco. There’s plenty of filler out there; Carbonell sells what he doesn’t use. But it’s the wrapper that makes this cigar unique – and that’s what we tightly control. We could possibly make 40,000 to 50,000 boxes a year, but I don’t think that’s what we want to do.”

Producing a high-quality cigar is McAnallen’s first priority.

“The boom is gone,” he said. “But what it did was bring in a few converts and refine the tastes of cigar smokers. They now want something that has a little more body – something to smoke on an evening with a glass of port or bourbon. Nestor Benedit’s father loves these cigars. He was raised in Cuba and believes our Black Patch cigars are better than other premium brands.”

Claude Hammond is editorial director of The Lane Report.
editorial@lanereport.com

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