Perdomo Cigars: Four Generations and the Bourbon Barrel

Perdomo is the most vertically integrated operation we carry. The family grows its own tobacco on more than 1,200 acres across Estelí, Condega and Jalapa, rolls it in a 14 acre Estelí complex with over 750,000 square feet of factory and warehouse, holds more than 20,000 aged bales, and employs roughly 4,800 people. Almost nothing about a Perdomo passes through someone else's hands. Our Perdomo collection carries Lot 23, the anniversary lines and the bourbon barrel range.

This profile covers the four generations, the barrel ageing programme month by month, every line with its wrappers and sizes, and the awards.

Four generations

Silvio Perdomo worked at the H. Upmann factory in Cuba and later at Partagas. His son Nick Perdomo Sr. entered the Cuban cigar industry in the late 1940s. Nick Perdomo Jr. was an air traffic controller before founding Nick's Cigar Co. with his father in August 1992, moving the operation to Nicaragua in 1995. The fourth generation is in the business now: Nicholas III serves as national director of sales, alongside Natalie.

The company does not use a formal master blender title. Blends are credited to Nick Perdomo Sr. and Jr., with Lot 23 developed by the two of them starting in 2000. The United States office is in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Lot 23, the everyday line

Tobacco grown on a single plot in Estelí and aged five years, in four formats.

The bourbon barrel

This is the thing Perdomo does that almost nobody else does at scale: it finishes wrapper leaf in charred white oak bourbon barrels, and it publishes exactly how long for each wrapper.

That schedule applies to the Habano Bourbon Barrel-Aged line and to the 20th Anniversary. The Double Aged 12 Year Vintage goes further: ten years of bale ageing followed by two more in bourbon barrels.

Three wrappers, one architecture

Perdomo's core lines share a single structure and differ by wrapper. Every one uses Cuban seed Nicaraguan binder and Cuban seed Nicaraguan filler, under one of three wrappers:

• Ecuadorian Connecticut — the mildest. See the wider Connecticut range
• Nicaraguan Sun Grown — the middle, with more spice
• Nicaraguan Maduro — the darkest and sweetest. See our maduro cigars

That consistency is genuinely useful. Once you know which of the three wrappers suits you, you can move up and down the price range without re-learning the brand.

The anniversary lines

The lines and their sizes

Also in the range: 30th Anniversary, Estate Seleccion Vintage, Legacy, Inmenso Seventy and Fresco. The Habanito at 4 by 38 is the smallest format and a genuinely good twenty minute cigar.

The barrel line, and the sampler

The awards

Perdomo's record is concentrated at Cigar Journal rather than Cigar Aficionado, and we report it as the company does:

• Cigar Journal Cigar of the Year 2021, Perdomo 10th Anniversary Maduro
• Cigar Journal Best Brand Nicaragua, 2019
• Cigar Journal Nicaraguan Cigar of the Year 2014, 20th Anniversary
• Cigar Journal Best Value Brand of Nicaragua 2012, Lot 23

We could not verify a Cigar Aficionado Top 25 placement for Perdomo, so we do not claim one.

What we notice first-hand

Perdomo is the most reliable brand we sell, and reliability is the point rather than a consolation. When one family owns the farms, the barns, the factory and the boxes, a blend does not drift, and Perdomo boxes taste the same year after year in a way that brands buying leaf on the open market cannot promise.

Lot 23 is the line to start on and the one that stays in most people's rotation. At its price it is the best everyday Nicaraguan we carry, and the Maduro Robusto in particular is a cigar we sell by the box to people who came in for something else.

On the barrel lines, one honest observation: the bourbon influence is subtle rather than obvious. If you are expecting a flavoured cigar you will be disappointed, and that is a good thing. What it actually contributes is a rounder sweetness and a softer edge, most noticeable on the Maduro where the leaf has had fourteen months to take it up.

The Connoisseur Collection sampler is the efficient way to compare the anniversary lines side by side rather than buying four boxes to find out.

Perdomo at Cigar Inc., live

Browse all Perdomo

The bottom line

Pick your wrapper first, Connecticut, Sun Grown or Maduro, then pick your price. Lot 23 for every day, the Habano Bourbon Barrel-Aged when you want the barrel to show, and the Double Aged 12 Year when you want twelve years of patience in one cigar.

If you want to compare Perdomo against the other Estelí houses, our Oliva and Plasencia profiles cover the same city from two other directions. Or start with the Cigar Finder.

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