A NEW ERA OF OLIVA

New owners Vandermarliere have doubled production while maintaining quality

BY GREGORY MOTTOLA

In 2016, shortly before the Trump administration began, there was another regime change taking place as well, only it was in the world of premium cigars. Family-owned Oliva Cigar Co. was acquired by J. Cortès Cigars N.V., a family-owned Belgian company known for producing machine-made, mass-market smokes. Its young CEO—named Frederik Vandermarliere—merely 34 years old at the time, vowed to maintain Oliva’s quality while strengthening the brand. Now, seven years later, it seems he’s done all he can to keep that promise. A line of palm trees on the Pan-American highway move in the wind. It’s a clear day in Estelí, Nicaragua, and you can see mountains in almost every direction, but it’s unusually breezy this January afternoon. Another gust of wind rustles the palm fronds, only this time, the breeze…

You're reading a preview of

Cigar Aficionado (Digital) - 1 Issue, July/August 2023

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.