New kid on the block

The new Línea Maestra line by Cuba's Partagás is worthy of enthusiasm

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NO 520 Industria Street may not sound like the most evocative or romantic of addresses, but, to cigar lovers the world over, it has the resonance of Tower Bridge, the Taj Mahal and la tour Eiffel. It is, of course, the home of Partagás or, at least, it was. Back in the middle of the 2010s, production moved to what had been the El Rey del Mundo factory when I first visited it, in a warren of streets in Central Havana near the Romeo y Julieta factory.

Although the building no longer made cigars, it continued to sell them at the sprawling cigar shop. However, in 2020, at the height of the covid pandemic, this, too, closed and has now reopened at a very convenient location in the old town, roughly equidistant from the Kempinski hotel and the famous Floridita, creating a perfect golden triangle of hospitality, cigars and cocktails.

The old building is still just about standing, across the street from the back door of the Cuban Capitol. If the Capitol is a gleaming edifice of bright stone, with a gilded cupola that seems to glow, however, the Partagás building looks at best dishevelled and at worst downright dangerous. When I drove past in February, even the black-market cigar vendors that used to cluster outside had relocated. Partagás is more than a building, no matter how historic, so I was reassured and happy to find that the 23rd festival of Havana cigars was devoted to the marque.