Davidoff Cigars extends its collaboration with talented artists and artisans around the world with a spectacular Davidoff Masterpiece Humidor – Damajagua, crafted in collaboration with French artist Rose Saneuil.
Rose Saneuil, a French artist specialized in marquetry, has lent her technical virtuosity to the creation of these highly elaborated Masterpieces
February 2017 (Basel/Switzerland) -- Davidoff Cigars is delighted to present its new limited Masterpiece Humidor Damajagua Edition, crafted by the renowned French marquetry artist, Rose Saneuil.
Conceived as a beautiful ode to Davidoff’s Caribbean terroir, the new Masterpiece Humidor Damajagua follows in the wake of the hugely successful Cave de Paille humidor, created for Davidoff by the Paris-based artist, Lison de Caunes, known for her ‘straw marquetry’ technique.
“We are thrilled to partner with an exceptional French marquetry artisan, Rose Saneuil, to develop this unique Damajagua Humidor Masterpiece. Rose Saneuil has been greatly inspired by Davidoff’s Caribbean heritage, the magical forest of Damajagua and our skill at nurturing fragile tobacco plants to transform them into exceptional cigars. Her Masterpieces are breathtaking as the artist mixed 25 selected materials to create them, using tobacco leaves picked from Damajagua, for the very first time in marquetry,” explains Charles Awad, SVP – Chief Marketing Officer at Oettinger Davidoff AG.
About the Damajagua region In the north west of the Dominican Republic lies Damajagua, a fertile forested oasis, which has provided Davidoff with the perfect growing conditions for its premium tobacco. Davidoff has been cultivating filler tobacco in Damajagua since 2002. Thanks to the humid climate and perfectly pH-balanced soil and helped by the pure forest water, these unique tobacco leaves become red while being cured and have a sweet aftertaste. As they tend to be less exposed to sunshine, the leaves are very thin and of medium strength, giving an exquisitely sweet and creamy tobacco.
About Rose Saneuil’s inspiration The ancient mystery and radiant energy of Damajagua’s majestic forests in the Dominican Republic, its invigorating rivers and the abundance of flora and fauna have all provided the starting point for Rose Saneuil’s inspiration. They are the source of energy and purity, depicted in this art Masterpiece through multiple angles.
Inspired by notions of a colorful jungle, Rose visited the legendary botanical gardens in Paris. Here, like the great post-impressionist primitive painter, Henri Rousseau, she immersed herself in the steamy, verdant atmosphere of the Jardin des Plantes.
The Damajagua Humidor – An ode to Davidoff’s terroir
The drawing is inspired by the Damajagua region and shows a vibrant vermilion bird, a symbol of natural benevolence, swooping protectively over a mystical Caribbean forest and encouraging the tobacco leaves beneath to thrive. Despite the fact that Rose’s technique, developed on her own, is and will remain secret, a closer look to her work reveals that she mixed 25 selected materials to create each Masterpiece. For the very first time in marquetry, she used tobacco leaves (naturally picked from Damajagua), a material that powerfully embodies Davidoff’s heritage and craftsmanship. She learnt how to treat the tobacco so she could tame the leaves and blend them with other materials – wood from sycamore, pear and walnut trees, straw, parchment, shagreen and lamb leather. She labelled her 318 pieces - each of a different texture, suppleness, size and thickness - and then meticulously assembled them, élément par élément, to achieve the final composition.
These Masterpieces reflect once more how Davidoff’s sense of excellence and craftsmanship is closely connected to cigar making, and ultimately the enjoyment and time beautifully filled one feels with Davidoff cigars. This remarkable humidor ensures exceptional cigars maturing in the best possible conditions.
The Damajagua Humidor – A cocoon for your cigars
The interior of the humidors is made of Gabon wood, known as okoumé, from central west Africa. It is odorless and tasteless thus avoiding flavor transfer to cigars. The okoumé is hand varnished to seal the humidity more effectively so that it will not be constantly absorbed by the wood.
Each humidor is equipped with three proprietary Davidoff De Luxe regulators which guarantee the stable humidification between 70 and 72%.
Capacity: 190 – 250 cigars
Features: 3 Davidoff de Luxe regulator, 1 removable basket
Dimensions: 21.7" x 14.0" x 7.1" (550 x 356 x 180 mm) - Geant humidor
Launch and availability
The Damajagua Masterpiece Humidors will be available at Davidoff Flagship Stores and selected Appointed Merchants in late April 2017.
The first Davidoff Masterpiece Humidor (# 1 / 20) The first Masterpiece Humidor of the 20 limited editions, numbered # 1 / 20, will be proposed at the Auction of the Procigar Festival 2017 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. It will come with a Master Blender’s selection of 50 Toro Damajagua cigars (made of 30% Damajagua tobacco).
The charity auction benefits three different organizations helping children, elderly and preserving the Dominican Republic heritage: the Voluntariado de Jesús con los Niños (non-profit organization for ill children), the Hospicio San Vicente de Paul (retirement home for low income elders) and the Monumento a los Heroes de la Restauración.
The starting bid is US$: 25,000 (50 Toro Damajagua cigars included)
About the Damajagua cigar Format: Toro Diameter: RG 52 (2.1 cm) Length: 6” (15.2 cm) Wrapper: “Habano” seed grown in Ecuador Binder: “San Vicente Mejorado” seed grown in the Dominican Republic Filler: “Condega Visus”, “Estelí Visus”, “Piloto Visus”, “San Vicente Mejorado Visus” and “Piloto Mejorado Visus”, seeds grown in the Dominican Republic
The Damajagua Cigar - Tasting profile
Although there are five different Visus tobaccos in the filler, the cigar is very well balanced with a complex and rich aftertaste. Damajagua is known to grow tobacco with a pleasant sweetness. The San Vicente Mejorado Visus from Damajagua delights with sweet flavors, together with oak wood and sweet corn, leaving an enjoyable and clean taste on the palate. Additionally, the shiny and veinless Ecuadorian “Habano” seed wrapper adds an extra creaminess to the overall blend. In the second and last third, the strength increases slightly and an additional spiciness from the Nicaraguan Estelí Visus helps make the taste experience more intense. Until the last puff, the Davidoff Damajagua cigar remains balanced and like a Caribbean forest, never leaves a dull moment.
About the history of Davidoff Humidors Just like fine wine, premium cigars need to be stored in the right environment in order to emerge matured and improved. It was Zino Davidoff who first invested time in researching and developing optimum ways for storing the finest quality cigars. The time spent in the humidor during the aging process requires absolute control of humidity and temperature. Taking such factors into consideration, he built his first, famous cigar cellar in 1930. However, not all connoisseurs have a cigar cellar at their disposal; thus he pioneered the first humidor so that cigar-lovers could store their prized possessions on a smaller scale. Innovation in the craftsmanship and the science of humidors has gone hand-in-hand in Davidoff’s array of possibilities for humidor design. The Davidoff regulator, for instance, broke new ground with the first, secret self-regulating system, dispensing with the need for a controlling hygrometer to care ultimately for a beautiful cigar, ready to be enjoyed at any time.
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