In 1931, Don José Gener y Batet moved from Spain to Cuba. He was just thirteen years old, and initially he worked at his uncle’s plantation in the world famous Vuelta Abajo tobacco region. Eventually, Don José founded his own factory and used its profits to purchase... one of Cuba’s best plantations. He used this tobacco to create Hoyo de Monterrey cigars named for the Spanish for “the hole of Monterrey” which refers to the concave terrain on which the best tobacco is planted. The UK became one of the biggest markets for Hoyo de Monterrey cigars and by 1958 the marque accounted for as much as 13% of all Cuban cigar export. When the cigar industry became nationalised, Hoyo de Monterrey’s then proprietor, Fernando Palicio, left for Florida, and sold his cigar lines to the Villazon family which still make the non-Cuban versions of various cigar lines including Punch as well as Hoyo de Monterrey. Connoisseurs prize the brand’s smooth, creamy, complex yet light cigars such as the wonderful Double Corona and Epicure No. 2, the latter being one of the world’s two most popular robustos (alongside Partagas Serie D No.4).