CUBAN CIGAR CROP LATE, BUT LARGE
A visit to the tobacco fields of Pinar del Río, Cuba revealed many farms with knee-high plants in their fields, despite the late date. This harvest is almost a month late, yet Cuba looks to have a generous and rich crop of tobacco this year, if the weather holds out.
The late harvest was due to extremely wet weather caused by hurricanes in October and November. Most of the tobacco seedbeds in the key growing regions of the Vuelta Abajo were swept away in floods, making tobacco growers pick much later.
The weather in March has been dry, sunny and hot - perfect for ripening tobacco leaves. The growers expect to harvest lots of strong tobacco this year, which will help to buttress blends.
Growers, for premium cigars, on the plantations I visited expected an exceptional harvest, including Alejandro Robaina, who had already picked almost his entire crop when I arrived. "It looks to be excellent," said the 87-year-old legend. "My family and I are very excited."
Robaina is considered the best wrapper grower in the Vuelta Abajo region. His 45-acre tobacco estate near the town of San Luis delivers some of the finest wrappers in the world. Robaina's plantings this year are primarily newer hybrid seeds: Corojo 99 and Criollo 98. "They are much less susceptible to blue mold than Habana 2000," he said, describing another hybrid. "And I like the flavor and quality that these tobaccos deliver."
Last year, about half the Cuban crop was grown from Habana 2000 seed and growers had a terrible time, said one employee from a tobacco institute in the Pinar Del Río region. This year, Habana 2000 is not being used.
The only concern among Cuban tobacco specialists is that Corojo 99 and Criollo 98 are sensitive to a fungus called black shank, a disease that affects the roots of tobacco plants and inhibits their growth. It is a widespread problem, not only in Cuba but also in other tobacco-growing regions in the world. Robaina said he prefers the new tobaccos, claiming they have better texture and flavor than Habanos 2000.
However, he said that his favorite remains Corojo Antigua, the age-old wrapper tobacco that was dropped in the mid-1990s because of low yields and blue mold problems. "High yields are not everything," added the grower. "Flavor and quality were more important." And it seems that something new is in the works. The tobacco institute technician let it slip out that Cuba has just developed a new variety of leaf that it is very excited about.
It's called Criollo 2006. "It's a vigorous tobacco that is both resistant to blue mold and black shank," he said, adding that the plant grows very tall, producing 24 leaves per plant, instead of the normal 16 or so with more popular varieties.
When Robaina heard this, he looked rather skeptical. "It doesn't sound right to me," he said. "We will see."
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