It’s hard to talk about the E.P. CARRILLO ENCORE MAJESTIC little cigars without mentioning the person behind the brand.
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo is a cigar maker who has gone through many stages in the cigar industry, a man who has started from scratch several times over his long career. He started out as an employee in his father’s small cigar business in Miami. It was called El Credito Cigar Co. and produced several hundred thousand cigars a year for the locals in Little Havana.
Then, in 1976, when his father was about to sell the business, Ernesto had a premonition that told him he was making a mistake. The sale has been canceled. His father died in 1980, and Perez-Carrillo took over the management of the company, investing most of his efforts in a brand called E.P. CARRILLO ENCORE MAJESTIC little cigars, which became one of the top brands of the 1990s. The brand caught the eye of General Cigar Co., which acquired La Gloria in 1999.
Perez-Carrillo worked with General for ten years before leaving again to start his own business and created the EPC Cigar Co. in 2009 with their children. Since opening his own factory in the Dominican Republic, Perez-Carrillo has launched a large number of brands, some more successful than others, but none as brilliant as E.P. CARRILLO ENCORE MAJESTIC little cigars.
He has worked with Nicaraguan leaves for a long time, but E.P. CARRILLO ENCORE MAJESTIC little cigars were the first time he has made a cigar exclusively from Nicaraguan tobaccos.
Astute retailers might recall that he first announced Encore at the IPCPR trade show in 2016, but Perez-Carrillo decided that the cigar was not quite ready, so while continuing to work, he made the decision to put the cigar on hold and give it more time. for aging, almost two years. It wasn’t until last March that he felt the cigars were finally ready and his decision paid off. Cigar flavors range from oak and tea to caramel sweetness with tangy citrus notes. Is elegant and sophisticated, and is also the culmination of a long career in the cigar business and the result of a man who has never been afraid to follow his instincts.