On February 3, 1962, President Kennedy signed the proclamation that changed the cigar world forever. Sixty years later, the cigars that survived tell a story worth remembering.
The morning after John F. Kennedy signed the Cuban embargo into law, Pierre Salinger, his press secretary, revealed that the President had secured 1,200 Petit H. Upmann cigars the previous evening — his personal reserve before the border closed.
It was the last legal shipment of Cuban tobacco to enter the United States for decades. The cigars that survived that transition — squirreled away in private humidors, shipped through intermediaries in Canada and Switzerland — became the genesis of today's vintage archive market.
Today, a pre-embargo Cuban, properly preserved, can command prices that rival vintage Bordeaux. Ramon Allones Superiores from 1958 have sold for more than $4,000 per stick at private auction.