Royal Agio is really pushing forward with their Balmoral longfillers. For years they kept quiet on that front but in the last 6 years the Dutch cigar manufacturer released line after line with great results and sales. Everybody is raving about the Balmoral Añejo and XO lines. And since a few years Balmoral is even available in the USA. First through a distribution deal with Drew Estate, and now with Royal Agio USA. Royal Agio Europe still distributes Drew Estate in several European countries, and recently started to distribute La Flor Dominicana in The Netherlands and Germany too.

But that’s not it. Royal Agio is planning on a series of collaboration cigars, and the first one is out now. For the Balmoral Dueto the Dutch company teamed up with no other than the legendary cigar guru Ernesto Perez Carrillo. Perez Carrillo built the La Gloria Cubana and El Credito brands before selling it to Scandinavian Tobacco Group and in 2009 he started his new company under his own name.

For the Dueto the team went with an almost all Nicaraguan blend, except for some Brazilian Mata Norte tobacco in the filler. The binder comes from Esteli, the wrapper from Jalapa.

The cigars come in five sizes. A 5×50 robusto, a 5½x50 Ovacion (figurado), a 6×52 gran toro, 6×60 gordo and a 7×54 Churchill. All cigars are packed in ten count boxes. Even though the cigars carry the Balmoral name, they are not rolled in Agio’s factory on the Dominican Republic but at La Alianza, owned by Perez-Carrillo.