A Walking Tour Of The Fantastic Fuente Factory

A return to Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia. during the ProCigar Festival in the Dominican Republic

Feb 23, 2024 | By Gregory Mottola

A Walking Tour Of The Fantastic Fuente Factory — Photos/Cigar Aficionado

Carlos “Carlito” Fuente Jr. lights up in front of the courtyard fountain at Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia., his beautiful Dominican cigar factory, just before he begins a tour of the facility during the ProCigar Festival.

When Carlos Fuente Jr. expanded his factory in 2018, he turned his already large facility into something grand and palatial. Cigar Aficionado magazine was the first to document the stunning project, and at the time, Fuente wasn’t offering tours of the factory during the ProCigar Festival. Since then, he’s relaxed his guarded policy. He’s also made quite a few changes.

Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia. in Santiago, Dominican Republic, is the home of such brands as Arturo Fuente, Don Carlos and Fuente Fuente OpusX, our Cigar of the Year (for the Churchill-sized Reserva d’Chateau). It produces between 35 and 40 million cigars a year, all of them by hand, and the new changes are sure to increase efficiency. Firstly, Fuente added an entire new wing for more cigar rollers and more cigar aging rooms. Secondly, he’s taken his tobacco sorting operations out of the main building and used the space for even more rollers. Most significantly, he’s partnered with EGM Tobacco Processors SRL to handle all tobacco processing from sorting to fermentation. EGM is owned by Edmundo Garcia Musa, and Fuente calls the partnership, which started late last year, “monumental.”

The operation is as impressive as ever and this factory is a true must-see for any Fuente fan or cigar enthusiast in general.

Palm trees and a trickling fountain in the central courtyard of Tabacalera A. Fuente bring a sense of tranquility to the surrounding cigar rollers as they make cigars.

Cigars pile up quickly as this roller concentrates on his work in the courtyard, which Fuente refers to as “The Cathedral.”

Rollers here produce brands such as Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente and Gran Reserva.

“Tobacco runs through our veins,” Fuente says as he gives a brief family history during the ProCigar tour.

A worker tightens the crank on a stack of molds so the cigars can take shape. This is one of the new rolling rooms in the factory.

In the aging room. Fuente’s head of operations, CEO Ciro Cascella (left), inspects some Don Carlos cigars with Carlos Fuente III, who is learning the intricacies of the operation and will likely follow in his father’s footsteps.

These rare OpusX LBMF cigars are difficult to find, destined for either Casa Fuente in Las Vegas or a limited release.

The sorting room of EGM Tobacco Processors, which has partnered with Fuente. In a building near the factory, these workers sort through wrapper leaf from the Chateau de la Fuente tobacco farm.

Fuente inspects some fermenting wrapper leaf at the tobacco processing facility with his CEO Cascella (left) and Edmundo Garcia Musa (right) of EGM.

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