There was a lot to celebrate in Dortmund in September: the award for the best Cuban cigar and brand for 2014, Cigar Journal’s 20th-year anniversary, and the successes of the industry during a promising year.
Alberto Turrent Honored for Lifetime Achievement
Alberto Turrent, tobacco farmer and founder of the emblematic brand Te-Amo, was honored for his impressive life’s work.
Hendrik Kelner Honored for Lifetime Achievement
Hendrik Kelner is probably the most well-known tobacco expert in the world and a living legend. For more than 40 years he’s been cultivating the best tobaccos and, with his name vouches for, among other things, the quality of the luxury brand Davidoff.
Nestor Plasencia Sr. Honored for Lifetime Achievement
Nestor Plasencia Sr. is one of the best known tobacco growers and cigar-makers in the cigar industry. When his Lifetime achievement Trophy was announced in Orlando, the entire room rose to their feet with applause.
Carlos Toraño Honored for Lifetime Achievement
This year, Carlos Toraño was honored for his life’s work. Over the years, he has worked for many well-known brands and today his own brand is counted among the best in the world.
Benjamin F. Menendez Honored for Lifetime Achievement
With more than a half century in the business, Benjamin F. Menendez has been exalted to legendary status in the cigar industry. Born into a tobacco family in Havana, Cuba in 1936, Benjamin F. Menendez smiles when he says that tobacco is in his genes.
Don Rolando Reyes Honored for Lifetime Achievement
Rolando Reyes Sr. embodies the term “old school” and is known as a cigar legend by his peers and loyal customers around the world. This year, the “World’s most talented cigar maker” was awarded by Cigar Journal for his impressive life’s work.
Heinrich Villiger Honored for Lifetime Achievement
Following the awards ceremony in New Orleans, twelve more honours were awarded during InterTabac 2009 in Dortmund. Heinrich Villiger earned heartly applause by the audience as he accepted the Cigar Trophy Lifetime Achievement 2009 for his impressive life’s work.
José Orlando Padrón Honored for Lifetime Achievement
When José Orlando Padrón arrived in Miami in 1962 he had to live on the 60 dollars a month that the US government granted Cuban refugees. Today he employs more than 600 people and his cigars are amongst the best in the world. We bow to this lifetime achievement.
Dr. Ernst Schneider Honored for Lifetime Achievement
In recognition of what the Davidoff brand has come to stand for today throughout the world, this year’s Cigar Trophy for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to Dr. Ernst Schneider.
Stanford J. Newman Honored for Lifetime Achievement
In 2006, the Lifetime Achievement award went posthumously to Stanford J. Newman, who died suddenly on 15 August this year, shortly after his 90th birthday. Stanford J. Newman was one of the most significant cigar personalities of the world, playing a major role in the definition of the cigar culture for seven decades.
Avo Uvezian Honored for Lifetime Achievement
It would be impossible to imagine today’s international cigar market without the AVO brand: Avo Uvezian, musician and living legend of the cigar industry, was honored for his impressive life’s work with Cigar Journal’s newly introduced Lifetime Achievement Award.
