What's the Terence Reilly story?
I was introduced into cigars through family. My uncle is Manuel Quesada and I spent a summer working in the factory when I was younger. I really fell in love with the business and a few years later went to work for Quesada Cigars. I spent 10 years there as National Sales Manager before moving on to Casa Fernandez (as Vice President of Sales and Marketing).
What's your favorite cigar memory?
When my son was born and he came home from the hospital on St. Patricks Day. When he went to bed that night I smoked a cigar and enjoyed a Guinness on the back patio of the house. I’ll never forget that moment.
In addition to the Casa Fernandez brand, TABSA produces cigars for others as well. What other brands do you work with?
Right now we have a little bit of a complicated naming and organizational structure that I am looking to rectify: Our growing company is called AGANORSA which provides the leaf we use to make cigars in our factories in Esteli (Tabsa), Jalapa (Sagsa), and Miami (Casa Fernandez). Casa Fernandez is also the name of our distribution company in Miami which imports and distributes our brands which include Casa Fernandez, JFR, Guardian of the Farm, Sabor Aganorsa, etc.
We also more famously make cigars for other companies: Illusione, Foundation, Viaje, Warped, Corona Cigars 20th Anniversary, HVC, Jeremy Jack, and Sindicato all have cigars made with us. My goal is to reduce the names and basically refer to the entire vertically integrated operation as Aganorsa, and moving forward the factories will be referred to as such as well as the distribution company.
What other challenges are you spearheading right now?
Building excitement and brand awareness are a key priorities. Our tobacco is simply outstanding. It’s on another level. When you smoke one of our cigars you can taste the difference between ordinary tobacco and Aganorsa Leaf. It’s palpable. But the best cigar you’ve never heard of is one you never smoke.
As a company, we really need to promote that if you enjoy Nicaraguan tobacco with a clear Cuban influence we are at the top of the food chain.
You regularly see a lot of personalities at TABSA that we only read about. How would you describe the people that collaborate with TABSA and Casa Fernandez?
I think the best examples of the quality of our cigars and our tobacco are the partners we work with. Dion Giolito of Illusione is known for having one of the best palates in business. Nick Melillo of Foundation was the tobacco buyer for Drew Estate for many years and knows tobacco as well as anyone.
Viaje and Warped have some of the hottest brands on the market, many of them made using our tobacco. These guys could make cigars with anyone and they choose us because they know the difference between ordinary tobacco and Aganorsa Leaf.
AGANORSA leaf is surrounded by positive sentiment. What makes this tobacco so special?
Great question! One aspect of what makes us special is what we grow. We grow a lot of Corojo ‘99 seed in Jalapa especially for cover leaf. We do not sell Corojo ‘99 wrapper and it is used only for our own production. Criollo ‘98 is much more commonly grown in Nicaragua. (We grow and use Criollo ‘98 as well but the Corojo ‘99 provides a big part of our signature flavor).
Corojo '99 Leaf, Jalapa
The second aspect is how we grow it. We have a team of Cuban agronomists who spent decades working at some of the highest levels of Cubatobaco. These men are approaching the growing process to attain a taste and flavor reminiscent of the top tier Cuban leaf. While everyone knows that in Cuba they are short on resources and often do not take the proper time required to grow, ferment and age their tobacco, working with us in Nicaragua they are given the time and resources to produce the best quality leaf.
Farmer Chandito Gomez petting one of their Guardians of the Farm
We are not growing primarily for yield or volume but taste and aroma. This brings me to the third aspect: we do not rush the process. I cannot emphasize to you how rare this is. Growing great tobacco requires both a massive cash investment and significant time—years and years—to produce optimal taste and aroma. Very few are in the position required to take the time needed to produce the very best leaf without running into liquidity problems. Because we are have the financial means to be patient and we control the entire process, we can be methodical.
I can get into some of the technical things we do which are unique should you wish, but for the sake of brevity I’ll summarize as follows: our Aganorsa Leaf has an incredible reputation because of the seed varietals we grow, the team we have assembled to grow and process the leaf, and our ability to take as long as necessary to ensure the tobacco achieves the optimal flavors and aromas which are dulled or even ruined when the process is rushed.
What’s one or two things that most people don’t know about Casa Fernandez or TABSA?
I think most people don’t realize that some of the hottest, most respected brands on the market are produced by our factories using our Aganorsa Leaf tobacco. We want people to know if you love the signature flavor of Aganorsa Leaf you should definitely experience Casa Fernandez, JFR, and Guardian of the Farm.
The second point I want to get across is we are vertically integrated: we control the entire process from seed to ash and are therefore able consistently to maintain the quality we are renowned for at the highest level.
Anything exciting to disclose for 2018 with Casa Fernandez and AGANORSA?
I think the most exciting this year will be watching our momentum build. I’ve been here for about 2 months now and we are already at a point I thought it would take 6 months to a year to reach.
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