Sommelier-turned-Cigar Distributor Launches Own Brand ‘Somm’ with Limited Edition Releases

Vlada Stojanov is a sommelier but besides wines he is also a cigar aficionado and a cigar distributor. He distributes the cigars from of Casa 1910, Despot, Lampert, Xhaxhi Bob and until recently also Casdagli in the United States. He is now combining both passions with a brand of his own, Somm, a refence to his occupation as a sommelier.

The first release is the BDX, a reference to Bordeaux, another nod to his background in wines. The cigars are made at Fábrica Centroamericana de Tabaco S.A., best known as the Cavalier Genève factory in Danlí, Honduras with a Mexican San Andres wrapper over a Nicaraguan Jalapa binder and filler from Nicaragua and Honduras. There is only one size, a 5×50 Robusto. Only 400 boxes of 10 cigars are made.

The second cigar under the Somm name is also a limited edition. It is the Somm Premier Cru, a 6 x 49 piramide made at the KBF Factory in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. A Dominican wrapper from the 1997 harvest over a Dominican binder from the Kelner farm and Dominican fillers. The binder comes with 16 years of age while the youngest leaf in the filler is 5 years old.

There are just 300 boxes of 10 cigars, and because of the aged and vintage tobacco the MSRP is $30.