MOLINARI Overture

Tobacco One-off Projects presents

MOLINARI

Untaggable.

Three hundred thousand cigars, rolled by hand from tobaccos bought in 1999 and 2000 and left to mature for twenty-four years. A single run that cannot be made again.

Overture

Act I · Time

He bought the tobacco in 1999. Then he waited.

199917 °C · 70 % relative humidity
  1. 1999Seeds selected by Don Alejandro Robaina are planted in Estelí, Nicaragua.
  2. 2000Whole leaves from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua join the reserve.
  3. 2000 – 2024The bales mature, untouched, in a climate room at the factory.
  4. 2024Rolled by hand at De Los Reyes, Santiago de los Caballeros. Presented at Milan Malpensa in April.

Anatomy

Three leaves. Five lands.

A Nicaraguan wrapper grown from Robaina seed, a whole Kentucky leaf as binder, and a filler of long leaves set by hand for an even draw and a steady burn.

Capa · Capote · Tripa

PROGRAM

I

Big Lucianos

8″ × 51 · Prominente

Coffee, resin and wild cedar over spice and toast, with the iron edge of the Caribbean hills.

Discover Big Lucianos

Worldwide by Tobacco One-off Projects

Act II · Smoke & Stories

Forty years of evenings worth a cigar.

Before MOLINARI there were the people: growers, singers, champions and presidents, met across a lifetime between Rome, Milan and Havana.

Andrea G. Molinari, cigar in mouth, as Fidel Castro bends to sign a humidor
HavanaFidel Castro signs Andrea's humidor.
Signature on the humidor shelf: Fidel Castro, Cuba, 26 February 1999
Cuba · 26 February 1999The signature, still on the cedar.
Andrea G. Molinari talking with Luciano Pavarotti, who holds a cigar
With Luciano Pavarotti.
Andrea G. Molinari shaking hands with Mike Bongiorno under the CIGAIR sign
CIGAIRMike Bongiorno, honorary president of the club.
Don Alejandro Robaina and Andrea G. Molinari smoking at a table
HavanaDon Alejandro Robaina, whose seeds became the wrapper.
A framed photo at La Bodeguita del Medio showing Andrea G. Molinari with Niki Lauda
La Bodeguita del Medio · Nov 1997With Niki Lauda, framed on the wall.
Andrea G. Molinari playing bass beside Compay Segundo
On bass, beside Compay Segundo.

Smoke & stories. The two have always travelled together. Open the archive

Act III · The Sky

The cigar that learned to fly.

In 1991 Niki Lauda asked Andrea to build the Italian Lauda Air. For thirteen years its Boeing 767s carried Milan to Havana and Santo Domingo. In 2001, from that sky, came OneOff: a cult cigar whose peace symbol was also an aircraft. MOLINARI is the next flight.

Read the whole story
Lauda Air Italy Boeing 767-300ER landing at Zurich, 2001
Lauda Air Italy · 2001Boeing 767-300ER
The back of an original OneOff band, printed 1999
OneOff · 1999The original band.
1991Lauda Air Italy founded
767-300ER long-haul fleet
2001OneOff is born
90+Cigar Aficionado ratings, 2002–04

Finale

END.

Worldwide available by Tobacco One-off Projects, to private collectors and bespoke retailers.

The cigarsWrite to Andrea