The Little" Grand" Story of Opus X

We offer at the Wall of Cigar a good range of 14 references from Arturo Fuente.

The Fuente Story

At 24 years old, young Cuban immigrant, Arturo Fuente established his name with the launch of self-named brand of cigar in Tampa, Florida.
However in 1924, his dream was destroyed by a fire. Hope was lost and his 500 workers lost their job.

Restored 1903 Fuente Factory in West Tampa, Florida

Little is known on what happened after, but the brand re-emerged in 1946 with a limited production made by himself and his family and few friends who joined. From a large production, it became 22 years later a Family Affair with only a few thousands cigars a year.
The son of Arturo, Carlos Fuente took over in 1958 after buying the company from his father for $1.
In 1962, the US Embargo cut the supply of Cuban Tobacco and Carlos had to find new source of tobacco, from Porto Rico to Colombia or even Mexico.
In 1970, the booming of the Nicaraguan cigar industry facilitate the opening of a brand new Fuente factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.
But in 1979, during the Nicaraguan revolution, the tragedy striked again the Fuente Family and the factory was once again burnt to the ground.
However, Carlos moved to Dominican republic shortly after and could open a new factory in 1980, Chateau Fuente.
Carlos created and launched a new cigar called Hemingway which was a revolution in the world of cigar with its special shape.

His son Carlos Jr., known under Carlito (Little Carlos) joined him in the operation.
As per today, Father and Son oversee a production of 30 Million Cigars a year.

The Opus X Story

“I wanted to prove that I deserve to exist in the Fuente family,”
Such strong words behind the motivation to create one of the "Great Cigar" of our time.

Carlito has never been happy in just continuing the family legacy, he wanted to revolution it.
Instead to look forward in looked at the cigars of the past,  he wanted to re-introduced the forgotten cigars from Cuba, those full-flavored bold cigars that Aficionados loved so much.
During his youth, Carlito learned the business in Dominican Republic in a factory owned by a Cuban Family. It is there that he discovered bold Cuban cigars.
He was certain that the tobacco  from Chateau Fuente could match the bold Cuban tobacco
The Profession thought that Carlito was crazy and would ruined the Fuente family reputation as his project would failed and the loss of money would be so big that it would destroyed the legacy.
For 4 years he tried many blends to finally find the perfect blend made with 5 distinct tobacco.
He then created a very elastic and oily wrapper, a Dominican grown wrapper, which had a reddish brown color.

Now that the blend was ready, who could roll this new cigar but being positive in the success of it and who would roll it the exact way Carlito wanted?
Carlito did what no one would have dare to do, he recruited youngsters between 18 & 21 years old without any experiences in rolling. During months he taught them how to roll the Carlito's way but he taught them also Cuban Culture, he made them listening Cuban Music, he read them Cuban Literature. he wanted them to understand Cuba so they could understand how to roll a Cuban style cigar the Cuban way.  The average cigar production per roller is 200 cigars per day but those rolling the New Cigar only rolled 50-75 a day.
Then the name had to be chosen. Opus is the Latin translation of the Spanish word obra, which means work of art, and the X is what was left from the original name which was Project X.
For the design he inspire himself from lithography from the 19th century.

When it was released in 1995, perhaps no single cigar has ever been as universally hailed as the Fuente Fuente Opus X.

Cigar Aficionado magazine nicknamed it “Seeds of Hope” and gave the cigar the highest rating any new cigar had ever received–92 out of 100.
Tobacco International magazine named Carlos and Carlito the “Tobacco People of the Year.”
The greatest praise the Fuente Fuente Opus X received, however, was when their competitors began producing cigars with the bold flavoring of years past as well.
Carlito revolutionized the cigar industry, just as he set out to do.
 As per today Cigar Aficionado branded Opus X as "the most sought-after cigars in the world".

It is said that the Opus X is extremely rare and difficult to find but at The Wall of Cigar you will find some of them. such as the Belicoso XXX, the Perfecxion X, the Robusto and soon the Reserva D'Chateau.

Not only a great cigar but also visually stunning.

Download our Arturo Fuente Price List Here

In 2012, Arturo Fuente celebrated 100 years of History !

The Fuente Story Video

The Fuente Family : An American Dream Documentary by James Orr