Collection: Hoyo de Monterrey

From José Gener to Zino Davidoff, over a century of cigar history unfolds with Hoyo de Monterrey. At the origin is a determined Catalan—tremendously ambitious and autocratic as a tsar. José Gener was just 13 years old when he emigrated to Cuba. At 33, in 1851, he partnered with his uncle to found his first factory and launched a new brand, La Escepción (spelled this way by its original registrants), which quickly became a success. Gener then purchased a famous vega (tobacco plantation), Hoyo de Monterrey, located in the municipality of San Juan y Martinez—a place whose gateway still stands today. In 1867, he split from his uncle and founded the company José Gener with his brothers, launching the Hoyo de Monterrey label, whose cigar bands were sometimes personalized with a client’s coat of arms.

Three years later, another rupture: the despotic José Gener took sole control of the business, relegating his brothers to mere employees. For the next thirty years, José Gener remained at the helm of José Gener y Batet, marketing Hoyo de Monterrey, José Gener, and La Escepción for the American market. By the time of his death in 1900, the Hoyo de Monterrey factory had become the largest in Cuba.