Davidoff

Davidoff is a premium cigar brand owned by Oettinger Davidoff AG of Basel, Switzerland. It is named after Zino Davidoff, who ran a well-known tobacco shop in Geneva. In 1946 he began selling the Château series, made for him in Havana by Hoyo de Monterrey. In the late 1960s Cubatabaco agreed to make cigars under his own name, and the first Davidoff cigars came from the El Laguito factory in Havana.

Zino Davidoff and his partners later fell out with the Cuban industry over quality and the rights to the name. In 1990 production moved to the Dominican Republic, where Hendrik “Henke” Kelner and his company, Tabadom, made the cigars. Cuban Davidoffs ended in 1991.

All Davidoff cigars are now made at the company’s Tabadom factory in Villa González, near Santiago. Kelner shaped the brand’s blends for decades. The company also grows and processes much of its own tobacco in the Dominican Republic.

Lines include the Signature series, Grand Cru, Aniversario, Winston Churchill, Nicaragua, Escurio, and Yamasá. Most Davidoff cigars are mild to medium, though some newer lines are fuller. Davidoff cigars are among the more expensive cigars in American shops.