Scotty. We found the problem after the cigar hit the street. Mostly due to the humidity level in the cigar. What I failed to mention in the interview was that the wrapper was delicate and needed more humidity when the cigars were packed. From what we can tell, some of the damage was being caused during the grading process.
Being a vintage product and a new thing for me, I didn't understand until I started using the 2009 tobacco and seeing the 2010 tobacco, how much the growing season would change the tobacco texture. This was after the 2008 was on the street. I only saw the problem once in the factory out of a few hundred cigars I smoked or the few that were smoked around me before they were shipped and thought it was a fluke. Danillo probably remembers it because is was AJ's cigar when we were smoking in the conference room.
After I started hearing of the few wrapper problems on the street, I started asking Jaime about the growing seasons and how much moisture they got in 2008. My fault for not paying attention in the first place.
This has been a very isolated and I've only seen it on random boxes and have made good on every cigar returned to me. Which I can tell you has been about 200 sticks from the 45,000 plus cigars out there. Again, most of the issue was stemming from the humidity of the wrapper during packing.
I try and be as open as possible and wanted to explain to people that 2008's growing season was not the best for wrapper. Was it great, yes but not the best but this is also information I did not think about until after I heard of a few problems.
If you have some 2008's that you think you won't be happy with, I will gladly trade them out for you with regular production product. Contact my office to let them know you'll be sending them in and we will send you the equal value with your choice of regular production product. This offer goes for anyone.
I can tell you that everything we produce is with the best intentions and you will always receive the truth from my company. I'm not in this business to grab a quick buck and lie to you to get it. This was a minor issue I didn't see coming because I didn't understand it yet on my first vintage. Now that I know, it's something I'm going to watch for in the future and document in every vintage. Cigars are not a game to me and my reputation in this business and integrity mean more to me than a quick buck.
BTW, futures are a way for customers to get involved with the growth of this project and also get the cigars to you at a much cheaper price. I reduce my margin drastically just to get people involved. The people who buy early obviously believe in the project and appreciate buying in early. The people who wait shouldn't complain that they had to pay the full street price when the newer vintages finally release. And, I don't expect anyone to buy into them early. It's only an offering.
