Stanford's 90th Diamond Crown Maximus was created by the J.C. Newman Company to pay tribute to Stanford Newman, the firm's reigning icon, who turned 90 in June 2006, making him the oldest living cigar professional in the business. Unfortunately, Stanford passed away just two months later, but thankfully he lived to see the cigar that now stands as a tribute to a man who started out during the Great Depression handrolling perfectos in the barn behind his parent's' house.
Stanford's 90th, like all J.C. Newman premium cigars, was created by Stanford's sons, Eric and Bobby, and their long-time friends the Fuentes in the Dominican Republic. It uses the Diamond Crown Maximus as its base, but then it takes the Maximus to the max. Instead of the Ecuadorian sun-grown leaf found in the regular Maximus, Stanford's 90th features an incredibly rich and smooth smoking eighteen-year old West Africa's Cameroon wrapper grown by the legendary Meerappfel family. This is especially symbolic, for Stanford was the first to import Cameroon wrappers into the United States after the Cuban embargo. To complement this rare wrapper, the Maximus Dominican filler has been reblended to lend just a touch more sweetness to the flavor.
Only one size of Stanford's 90th is only available in one size, being made, a 7 x 48 Churchill, which was Stanford's favorite shape. There will be one thousand leather-covered presentation boxes available, each containing 20 cigars. Only 850 boxes will be sold in the U.S., with an additional fifty going to international markets, and a remaining one hundred reserved for the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation fund raisers. Lighting up a Stanford's 90th is the perfect way to pay tribute to one of America's premier cigar pioneers.
