Dr. Helmut Romé (1939–2021)

The Cigar Journal team is mourning the loss of Dr. Helmut Romé, founder of Cigar Journal. In Helmut Romé, the world of cigars and wine has lost a connoisseur who has no equal.

A native of Styria, Romé earned a doctorate in law from the University of Graz in 1966, but then took the path of a journalist – in the field of business journalism. Parallel to economic-political topics, among others, as a correspondent for the Arbeiter-Zeitung Romé published articles on the topic of wine already at a young age and thus got deeper and deeper into this subject. After finally publishing his book Die großen Weine Österreichs (“The Great Wines of Austria”), he founded Falstaff magazine with fellow journalist Hans Dibold. Over the years, Romé thus had a strong influence on the Austrian wine industry.

In 1994, Romé launched another magazine; it was called European Cigar Cult Journal – what today is our Cigar Journal. With the same passion as for wine and with great verve, he devoted himself to the subject of cigars. The journal quickly developed into the most important German-language trade magazine; his decision to publish the journal bilingually – in English and German – led to the magazine also gaining a large readership throughout Europe, thus spreading cigar knowledge far and wide. It is not least this setting of the course that has led to the Cigar Journal being the only global trade magazine today; it is published in English, Spanish, and German and is printed on three continents.

Romé was happy to pass on his extensive knowledge and his passion for the finer things in life – in our case cigar and wine – to the next generation, never conceitedly or arrogantly, but always with the greatest pleasure and openness, even patience.

As always, when someone leaves us who has been formative, a great emptiness sets in, combined with the wish that they may continue to smoke a fine cigar and drink a special wine in another place, in another room. Goodbye and a good smoke, Helmut