Felipe Gregorio

Felipe Gregorio is the work of Philip G. Wynne, a cigar maker who has spent more than three decades chasing interesting tobacco around Central America and the Caribbean.

Wynne entered the cigar trade in 1990, initially producing his Petrus brand in Honduras. By 1992–93 he wanted something more personal, so Philip Gregory became Felipe Gregorio — his first two names translated into Spanish. The earliest Felipe Gregorio cigars were made with Julio Eiroa in Honduras before Wynne expanded production into Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

What makes Felipe Gregorio interesting is Wynne's fascination with the leaf itself. Rather than building everything around one particular national style, his blends roam all over the tobacco map. The current portfolio includes Ecuadorian Cameroon and Connecticut, Mexican San Andrés, Brazilian Arapiraca, Nicaraguan Habano, Dominican Criollo and some considerably less commonplace tobaccos.

A particular favourite of Wynne's is Pelo de Oro, or “hair of gold”, an ancestral Cuban seed that he has cultivated in Costa Rica. It appears as the wrapper on his Power series, while the dedicated Pelo de Oro range combines Costa Rican Pelo de Oro wrapper, Costa Rican Vuelta Abajo 1941 binder and Peruvian Pelo de Oro filler.

There's plenty of variety elsewhere. Felipe Dominicana sits at the milder end with Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper and Dominican tobaccos; the original Felipe Gregorio Classic is medium-to-full with Habano 92; Art of Power moves into full-strength territory with Mexican San Andrés Negro; and ReFusion uses tobaccos aged together for more than five years in cedar trunks.

It's a brand with a few good stories tucked away too. Wynne was once personally selected to create cigars for Frank Sinatra. When Wynne asked what sort of blend Sinatra wanted, the Chairman apparently gave him remarkably little technical assistance beyond telling him to make the best cigar he could.

That seems to sum Felipe Gregorio up rather nicely. Interesting leaf, unusual blends and a cigar maker who has spent an extraordinary amount of time thinking about what happens between a tobacco seed going into the ground and a finished cigar reaching the humidor.