"Pete Johnson has confirmed to halfwheel that he is moving forward with plans to release the Tatuaje La Vérité 2013 next year, though pretty much every detail about the release is still being hammered out.
When asked about the release, Johnson said that at the moment it looks like pre-orders will start in April 2015, with shipping tentatively beginning in August 2015.
It will be the third release in the La Vérité line, and the first to be released since the Tatuaje La Vérité 2009, which came out in the summer of 2011. That release featured a 7 x 47 Churchill that was packed in boxes of 10, 25, 50 and 100 cigars, as well as the 5 x 50 L’Esprit de Vérité, a slightly tweaked blend that was available in 10 and 25-count boxes.
La Vérité debuted in July 2009 with Tatuaje La Vérité 2008 and L’Esprit de Vérité 2008, also in a 7 x 47 Churchill and 5 x 50 robusto, respectively, and similar packaging formats. Both releases were limited to 30,000 of the La Vérité and 20,000 of L’Esprit de Vérité.
The line, which means the truth in French, is made exclusively from a single year’s crop of tobacco grown on My Father Cigars’ La Estrella farm in Estelí, Nicaragua. The cigars are then rolled and aged in master cabinets for a year or more until the next year’s release is ready.
Update (Nov. 25, 2014) — Early Tuesday morning, Pete Johnson shared a bit more information about the La Vérité 2013 release, saying this upcoming release will go into boxes approximately three months after production as opposed to the almost year-long amount of rest that previous releases have gotten. He noted the the wrapper leaf is still in process but will be ready to roll in January, adding that it was a “really good” growing year at the Estrella farm and as such the tobacco needed a little more time to process, which delayed the start of production until early in the new year. “We wanted to make sure the tobacco process was complete; I found that the blend is so concentrated, I wanted to keep the power in the cigar,” Johnson said, describing his goal of making it “a cigar built to age.” While August 2015 remains a possibility for the cigars to begin shipping, he did note that it could be as late as December 2015."
Halfwheel rated the 08 at 85 and the 09 at 91. Did or have any of you smoked the 09? If so, your opinion would be appreciated.
