The story of an unknown beauty, Quai d' Orsay

[laficion]

Quai d'Orsay

The story of an unknown beauty

The story begain in 1974 when the newly elected President of the French republic, Valéry Giscard d' Estaing , convoked his Minister of Economy and told him that he was very interested in creating a new cigar for the French market. The President said,

"France is known the world over for its Perfumes,itsChampagne,

its Foies Gras, its Haute Couture, but nothing in the field of tobacco ".In short, he asked that work would start on creating a

new cigar for France made in Cuba.

Gilbert Belaubre was , at the time, head of the Dept.of new products development at what used to be called at the time"la

Seita",the French monopoly of tobacco which later became

"Altadis S.A.. Belaubre was an expert taster and connoisseur of cigars who had great knowledge of tobacco and the art of blending tobacco. Together with the help of friends at "Cubatabaco" in Cuba, they started to develope the Ligas that would make up the blend of this new cigar that Belaubre called, Quai d ' Orsay, after the name of the street where the Ministry

of Foreign affairs is located in Paris. Quai d' Orsay was now

ready to join the very select club of Cuban cigar brand names that were not of cuban origin, along with Dunhill and Davidoff.

The success of Quaid'Orsay was such that Seita and Cubatabaco

extended the brand in other small niche markets around the world. Since 1992,with the end of the Cuban brands Davidoff and Dunhill, Quai d' Orsay is the only brand left in Cuba with a non- Cuban name. All of the production of Quai d' Orsay is made at the RyJ factory in Havana and the original blend is still

respected, maybe the reason for its drop on the market because

of new demands in different tastes in todays new smokers. The blend is still carefully watched over by two important persons at

the RyJ factory, Rodolfo Amaro and Arnaldo Ovalle, Quality control and head of production. The brand was made in 4 vitolas, Panetelas,Coronas claro, Imperiales and the no longer made, Grand coronas. In 2005, Altadis SA tried to give the brand some new dynamic by a more modern approach and also

by creating an event in Paris . the relauching of Quai d' Orsay

at the prestigious Hotel De Crillon on the Place de la Concorde.

Only people who had a personal invitation were able to attend, such as yours truly, It was a fantastic evening with great Champagnes, great foods and all the cigars, Quai d' Orsay, you

could smoke or take away, with,at the end of the evening, a Quai d' Orsay bag with luxury cigar cutter, other goodies plus a beautiful prsentation EL box of the 4 vitolas Double banded of which only 100 boxes were made.outstanding night but Altadis did not achieve Its goal of pumping up the sales and ended up discontinuing the Grand Coronas vitola. At Habano SA there has been and still today , talks about discontinuing the brand alltogether.It would truly be a shame to see this brand disappear

to Habano heaven like so many others, so, if you have never tried a Quai d' Orsay nor experianced its unique medium taste

with its characteristic notes of honey,nutmeg and hints of café

cream and leather, then maybe you should try them before they are gone forever. Here are some pics. of my El box with the double band, invitation card and the artist who created the special art work. the artist is Marc j. Pasini, look him up on Google, he has become one of the best known French artisit in Cuba. Thank you for reading me out. Cheers.

[Ginseng]

Lovely! I enjoy all the vitolas in this marca except for the Grand Coronas which I have yet to try. Just smoked an Imperiales and Panetelas in the last few days and greatly enjoyed them. My 2006 box of Coronas continues to be uncharacteristically strong and rich.

Wilkey

[Jimmy2]

Great stuff Guy must have been a great night !!! never smoked one before maybe sometime in the near future..

[FlyFishingDude]

Those look very tasty, enjoy. Just thinking of all those years I wasted in Europe, screwed the pooch on those years......

Mike

[El Presidente]

Fantastic stroll through History Guy

It was fellow member Van who takes all the credit for insisting I persist with QD as the nuances of the cigar had always escaped me. I have come to appreciate them for the distinct personality they have.

[Evo03]

Never tried a Quai d'Orsay, but I found a box of Panetelas and I jumped on them. They haven't arrived yet, but hopefully it was a good decision...

[sounddust]

Thanks Guy, the history behind CCs is always a good read. I had a couple of Gran Coronas 2 weeks ago and was amazed at the amount of toasted tobacco I was tasting, along with some herbal overtones. Great burn and construction too.

[Habanos2000]

Guy,

Fantastic story! I too have yet to try one of this brand. But hopefully next year for my 20th wedding anniversay the plan is to get to France and hopefully they'll still be around to enjoy.

[jquest63]

Another Memorable Night with CC's!! Thanks for sharing!

[Guest rob]

Great write up... we need more people like you to keep the history and stories behind cigars alive.

[Ethernut]

WOW! Great story Guy. Thanks for sharing!

[Stalebread]

Thoroughly enjoyed your story, Guy.

Thanks for capturing the history.

[FireDigger]

laficion, thank you very much for the post. I love posts like this that provides information and great pictures.

I had my first Quai D'Orsay exactly a month ago, a Coronas Claro. It had wonderful floral and herbal flavors, and I especially love the simplicity of the band. This is definitely a cigar everyone should try.

[stargazer14]

Thanks Guy, great read. Just how did you get lucky enough to get an invite?

[cigarros]

Fantastic read! Guy, thanx for the post!

[laficion]

Indeed this is a small world. This morning I was looking at some old threads

that were posted some years ago and came across this one posted , at the time, by

BROOZER and it dates from Aug. 2007. He was asking around to find this special box

of Quai d' Orsay. I don't think anyone knew that only 100 boxes were made only for the event

and that there is no mention anywhere, even at HabanoSA, on these rare EL boxes.

http://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/inde...ai+d'+Orsay

I hope you've enjoyed this "History on the move" Thank you all for the responses you

have given on this thread and the interest you have shown

[b0rderman]

thanks a lot for the write up...very interesting history. I will be sure to put some more QdO on my list.

[PigFish]

Great read and pictures too. Thanks for sharing. I love QdO cigars, there is nothing bland about them, they are first class cigars as was the post! Cheers, Piggy

[Van55]

Never tried a Quai d'Orsay, but I found a box of Panetelas and I jumped on them. They haven't arrived yet, but hopefully it was a good decision...

If the Panetelas you bought measure up to the couple I have smoked, you are in for a real treat. I think they're the best of the marca, and I really enjoy the other vitolas very much.

[android]

Guy...thanks for sharing that amazing story with all of us...I have never tried a Quai d' Orsay, might need to get a few.

[Peter11216]

I just came across this post, from a link in another discussion of Quai D'Orsay. Interesting story, and a very intriguing cigar. I hope I can get my hands on some, one day. Piggy's post not long ago, also, really got me interested.

There is something else that I was curious about in the post, "The blend is still carefully watched over by two important persons at the RyJ factory, Rodolfo Amaro and Arnaldo Ovalle, Quality control and head of production." This got me wondering about individual personalities in the industry in Cuba.

I'm going to start a new discussion thread about it.

Best,

Pete

[mkz]

Why isnt this great post in the classic section? :-)

[Wil]

Why isnt this great post in the classic section? :-)

Second that. Great read!

[CaptainQuintero]

The new RE release this year looks like it will get some strong interest from here then!

[Wil]

The new RE release this year looks like it will get some strong interest from here then!

What is it?