An unranked editorial retrospective of lines available by 2015, informed by manufacturer accounts. These selections are not historical award results or firsthand tasting notes from cigars produced that year.
Recognizing a brand is the beginning of understanding a cigar. In 2015, Escurio brings Brazilian tobacco into Davidoff’s developing range, Undercrown Shade takes a gentler direction, and Cuatro Cinco Reserva Especial revisits an anniversary with a revised blend. La Nox adds a strikingly dark expression from La Flor Dominicana. Our selection of the best cigars of 2015 follows these changes closely, looking at what happens inside a portfolio when a maker gives a familiar story a new expression.
Davidoff Escurio
Launched in 2015, Escurio draws attention to Brazilian tobacco within Davidoff’s blend. It gives the developing range another geographical center after the 2013 arrival of Nicaragua. Beneath the related black-band presentation, a different source of leaf becomes the starting point for another clearly identified cigar family.
Davidoff Winston Churchill The Original Series
Davidoff relaunched its Winston Churchill range in 2015 in the generation now called The Original Series. The name had an earlier history, but this particular expression begins a fresh chapter here. That renewed range gives the Churchill theme another place in the portfolio, distinct from both its predecessor and the later lines it will inspire.
Undercrown Shade
Undercrown Shade brings Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper to a gentler expression of the family. Drew Estate retains the connection to the factory-centered Undercrown story while pursuing another blending aim. The extension expands the range of preferences the brand can address, with a specific outer leaf giving the change a clear starting point.
Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco Reserva Especial
Reserva Especial follows Joya’s 2013 limited edition with a Dominican binder alongside Nicaraguan tobaccos, including barrel-aged filler. The anniversary name continues, while the composition changes. That revised recipe gives the regular-production release a distinct chapter, carrying the Cuatro Cinco story forward through new blend decisions.
La Flor Dominicana La Nox
La Nox joins Brazilian maduro wrapper, Mexican binder and Dominican filler beneath a dark visual presentation. La Flor Dominicana draws on three countries to build the expression, making the complete composition as interesting as the outer leaf. The cigar gives the year a memorable appearance supported by a specific set of tobacco choices.
AJ Fernandez New World Oscuro
AJ and Ismael Fernandez give New World Oscuro a father-and-son foundation and a Nicaraguan tobacco focus. The line carries its exploration theme through a blend drawn from one country. Among the year’s multinational compositions, it keeps attention on the range a maker can seek within a single national growing tradition.
E.P. Carrillo La Historia
La Historia brings E.P. Carrillo’s family account into a blend of Mexican wrapper, Ecuadorian binder and Nicaraguan filler made in the Dominican Republic. Those roles matter individually, giving each country a particular contribution. The personal story on the band rests on the practical work of assembling materials from several origins.
Ashton Symmetry
Ecuadorian wrapper surrounds Dominican and Nicaraguan filler in Ashton Symmetry. The composition opens another view of the Ashton–Fuente relationship through a deliberately separate line. Its interest lies in the combination: an established partnership working with more than one filler origin to develop another expression within the range.
San Cristobal Elegancia
Elegancia offers an established gentler direction through Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper and a Nicaraguan blend. Its Ashton–Garcia background gives Undercrown Shade a revealing contemporary companion. A shared wrapper category leads into different manufacturing relationships and brand histories, leaving room for each cigar to be considered individually.
Perdomo 20th Anniversary Sun Grown
Perdomo gives the Sun Grown twentieth-anniversary wrapper additional bourbon-barrel treatment, making preparation a central part of the expression. Joya’s use of barrel-aged filler elsewhere in this selection brings that detail into sharper focus. The technique reaches a different part of the cigar here, with the chosen leaf remaining essential to the description.
Looking back at 2015
The year’s most revealing changes are often beneath a recognizable band. A new wrapper, a revised binder or another tobacco origin can give a familiar family a different direction. The selections of 2015 reward that closer attention, allowing each new expression to be understood through the work that actually changed.
Brand background, where linked, lives on Ashologist™ — The Study of Cigars.