Montecristo No. 2 House Reserve Aged & Rare 90th Anniversary Special Release

• Length: 156mm
• Gauge: 52
• Flavour: Med-Full
• Cuban
• 10 Cigars Per Box
• Box 70 of 135

This isn’t your everyday Montecristo. This one’s a slice of cigar history, polished and preserved like a museum piece. The Montecristo No. 2 House Reserve Aged & Rare, released in honour of the brand’s 90th Anniversary, is the kind of cigar that makes collectors weak at the knees and accountants faint. Montecristo’s story begins in 1935, when a fellow by the name of Alonso Menéndez bought up a small Havana factory and named his cigars after The Count of Monte Cristo, a novel the torcedores loved having read aloud while they rolled. That blend of romance and rebellion still clings to every leaf that bears the Montecristo name. The No. 2 pirámide is the brand’s crowning achievement — a 6⅛" × 52 ring gauge masterpiece, famously one of the most recognisable Cuban shapes ever made. It’s rolled only by the most skilled hands in the island’s factories, the kind of rollers who’ve spent decades perfecting the taper on that pointed head. And this particular example? It’s been sleeping in perfect warehouse conditions for more than ten years, under the guardianship of Hunters & Frankau, Montecristo’s long-standing UK distributor. It's called the House Reserve Aged & Rare series — and they mean it. Each box is part of a tiny batch of just 135 numbered sets, bearing the mark “Revisado” and a signed certificate confirming its age and inspection. The cigars wear a handsome “Aged & Rare” foot-band, and the box itself feels less like packaging and more like a record of time. Only four vitolas were selected for the 90th Anniversary, and the No. 2 sits right at the heart of that celebration. Light one, and you’ll see what ten years can do to a Havana. That famous Montecristo backbone — cedar, cocoa, and that steady Cuban spice — is all still there, but the years have softened it, mellowed it. There’s a sweet leathery warmth, the kind of rounded smoke that comes only from patient ageing. The draw is clean, the combustion faultless, and the aroma — well, it’s the kind of scent that lingers politely. These aren’t cigars to smoke casually or rush. They’re to be cherished, cellared, and perhaps shared only once in a lifetime — when the company’s right and the whisky’s old enough to hold its own. Whether you light it or lock it away, this is a piece of Cuban heritage, a story wrapped in tobacco leaf, nine decades in the making.

For those who buy not just to smoke but to keep — these cigars hold genuine collector’s value. Condition, certification, and EMS verification will determine their resale worth in years to come. Store at a steady 70 % humidity and around 21 °C, and they’ll only grow more refined.

This isn’t simply indulgence. It’s preservation — of history, craft, and the taste of a Cuba that no machine could ever recreate.