La Aurora announced on Friday the annual release of two of the brand’s most anticipated limited-production lines, La Aurora Preferidos Hors d’Age 2025 LE and Puro Vintage 2016. This year, in addition to the Toro format for Hors d’Age, a lancero format will be released for the first time ever with a differentiated green band and box from its Toro counterpart.
La Aurora Preferidos Hors d’Age 2025 LE features a Sumatra (Ecuadorian) wrapper and binder, with long-filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Nicaragua. The company says every leaf in the blend has been aged for a minimum of twelve years.
“From seed to cigar, the journey for this release began 12 years ago,” says Manuel Inoa, La Aurora Master Blender. “As a result, we named it Hors d’Age, which is taken from the French cognac designation, literally translating to ‘beyond age.’ Just as Hors d’Age cognac represents exceptional quality developed through time, we set out to create an annual release that reflects the highest level of quality through expert aging and blending.”
The lancero format takes this a step further. “The combination of these aged tobaccos in a format that accentuates the Ecuador Sumatra wrapper is something that I’ve smoked personally each year; however, I am now excited to share this format with the rest of my friends in the U.S.” Entrusted to only the most seasoned rollers at the La Aurora factory in Santiago de los Caballeros, the lancero is particularly difficult format to roll due to the quality needed for it to smoke properly. That is, its small ring gauge means a lower tolerance of error—vs. a larger format—and requires perfect placement of the binder and filler leaves to provide for an optimal burn.
Hors d’Age 2025 LE will be available in both a Toro format (5.75″ x 54) as well as a lancero format (6.875″ x 40) and packaged in fifteen-count boxes. Only 700 boxes of the Toro, and 500 boxes of the lancero will be allocated to the U.S. market. The cigars are expected to ship to U.S. retailers in late October and are anticipated to be highly sought after by collectors and aficionados. The Toro MSRP is $472.50 per box ($31.50 per cigar) and the Lancero MSRP is $375.00 per box ($25.00 per cigar).
Also returning for its annual release is La Aurora Puro Vintage 2016, a collection that has earned a devoted following since its introduction in 2008 in international and U.S. markets. Despite its name, Puro Vintage is not a Dominican puro. Rather, the collection represents Master Blender Manuel Inoa’s annual exploration of exceptional tobacco crops—or “vintages”—sourced from around the world. Each year, carefully selected tobaccos from different harvests and growing regions are brought together to create a cigar defined by rarity, age, and complexity.
Puro Vintage remains one of Manuel Inoa’s favorite releases, particularly because of the distinctive Salomon format. That journey begins with tobacco cultivated across diverse growing regions. Ecuador, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic each contributed to the cigar’s development, with their distinctive varietals and microclimates helping shape the character of the selected tobaccos. The final blend utilizes aged filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Nicaragua, bound with a Brazilian binder and finished with an oily Ecuadorian Havana wrapper. Puro Vintage 2016 delivers a rich and complex smoking experience, with layers of dark wood, leather, walnuts, and wild honey, complemented by the bittersweet character of dark cocoa and subtle hints of dried tropical fruit. Developed through years of cultivation and aging, the cigar offers a deep, earthy profile marked by exceptional balance and complexity.
“The Salomon format gives this cigar a very special smoke,” says Inoa. “Its shape, the doble figurado, makes it evolve differently as it opens and closes the ring during the burning, accumulating strength at the end. A real festival of taste from around the world.”
The release will be presented in an elegant Salomon format (6.5″ x 50/60), with only 700 boxes produced worldwide. Each box contains eight cigars and carries an MSRP of $224 per box ($28.00 per cigar). U.S. shipments are expected to begin arriving at retailers in mid to late October.
