Eladio Diaz La Diana Brevas (4.5" x 46)

There are cigars that tell a manufactured story, and then there is the Eladio Díaz La Diana Brevas, whose history reaches back to the very beginning of one of the Dominican Republic's great cigar-making careers. Eladio Díaz was only seven years old when he began learning the craft at a small factory called La Diana, working under his first mentor, Francisco "Panchito" Biloria Vencosme. More than five decades later—and after an extraordinary career that included years as one of Davidoff's most important blending figures—Díaz returned to those beginnings with La Diana, handcrafted at his own Tabacalera Díaz Cabrera in the Dominican Republic. The 4½" x 46 Brevas is the smallest and arguably most concentrated expression of the blend. An Ecuadorian Habano 2000 wrapper covers a Mexican San Andrés binder and an unusually sophisticated filler recipe dominated by Dominican Corojo, Criollo '98 and Negrito, with Peruvian Pelo de Oro adding another dimension. In this tighter format, the tobacco speaks quickly and with authority, developing a dense interplay of wood, espresso, leather, pepper and dark natural sweetness. There's real strength here, but also the polish you'd expect from a blender with Díaz's résumé. The La Diana Brevas isn't merely the short smoke in the collection. It's an intensely personal cigar distilled into a traditional 46-ring format—one that puts wrapper, binder and filler in close conversation and lets you experience the blend with very little dilution. For the experienced smoker who appreciates Dominican tobacco with genuine backbone, this may be the most revealing La Diana of the three.