thats a marketing plan that companies use selling to the general public. any cigar geek is not going to fall for that.
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I don't think it's the end of boutique cigars, I think it's coming close to where "boutique" is becoming a cliché in the cigar industry.
Boutique to me means total production - not production in a line, or limited edition. It's a small company that only puts out a small amount of cigars overall compared to the "big guys."
If I started rolling my own cigars, and only made 1,000 per year, they would be boutique cigars. If those were wildly popular and the identical blend, approved by me, was manufactured by General Cigar as Stonecutter2 Coronas, limited edition of only 150,000 - they are no longer boutique, they are produced en masse compared to small time production as they once were.
Everyone espouses the boutique buzzword right now, but they've diluted its meaning. It's not the end of boutique cigars, it's likely nearing the end of calling so many things boutique cigars. There will always be small time manufacturers putting out awesome stogies on a limited availability basis...but they'll get called something new to differentiate themselves.
so to go a small step futher can a large company produce a boutique cigar? same question asked can a large beer company like miller coors make a craft beer? break down tatuaje and look how popular the main lines are but than the monsters, m80s, drinking age, and so on are such a smaller lines but still produced by a larger company
My 2 cents
In my opinion, a boutique cigar company is a smaller company with low production and limited lines. Of course there will be limited availability because of the low production.
Big company, small release with limited availability is just that.... a limited release, a store exclusive, etc... Not a boutique.
Yes, they can produce a 'craft beer' but they cannot produce micro brew beer. I don't care what they say, they're simply not a micro brewery and any attempt to pass themselves or a particular line off as such is pure hogwash.
Same with cigars IMO. To me, 'boutique' means 'little mom and pop cigar rolling operation'. Limited releases by tobacco giants are not boutique cigars. Neither are formerly small operations bought out by said tobacco giants. Goose Island brewing company was bought out by Anheuser Busch. To me, that's the end of their 'micro brewery' status.