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Kentucky gentleman rolls quality cigars for industry

By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. — Kentucky is known for many things, horses, bourbon and tobacco being three of the most notable. But not necessarily for cigars.

Given cigars are made from tobacco, it would only seem natural that they could or would be made here, but stogie aficionados know good cigars come from Cuba or the Dominican Republic – unless you’re Allen Mobley, that is.

For someone who worked as a real estate investor in California, buying and fixing up property then reselling it long before doing so became popular on cable television, making cigars seemed to be a stretch for Mobley. During his free time, on fishing trips in Mexico, however, one of the things he and his friends all loved were good cigars – sometimes to the tune of $2,500 a trip.

Mobley, a Harrodsburg, Ky., native, had no plans of another start-up business despite his love of cigars and the tobacco in his blood (his family had raised the crop here for generations). After retiring, however, and on the advice of his oldest son, he decided to try something new to Kentucky.

But, where does one start in the cigar business? Most of the state’s leaf is burley tobacco, used in cigarettes, or dark tobacco, used in smokeless tobacco products.

With the help of his wife, Mobley set out to find the best place to learn the art of cigar rolling and ended up in Austin, Texas, at the Bobalu Cigar Co., learning from Cuban cigar rollers.

“I almost came home after a couple of days. I thought ‘What am I doing here?’ But I stayed with it,” he said.

Once he learned to roll a cigar he knew the next step was learning how to blend tobacco to make his product unique. So, he and his wife headed off to the Dominican Republic to, yet again learn from the best.

Again, he wondered if he had made the right decision after seeing some of the places he would need to go to find the right people to teach him.

“I could see the headlines: ‘Kentucky couple gets killed in the Dominican.’ But I found a guy rolling on the street” – as luck would have it, a master in the art of blending cigars – “and I asked him what it would take for me to stay with him for five or six months to learn blending.”

Mobley certainly had found the right person and stayed for nine months going to large and small businesses to gain all the knowledge he could to get his cigar business off the ground.
That was in 2002, but it would be two more years before the Kentucky Gentlemen Cigar Co. would sell its first cigars. In fact, Mobley said he gave thousands of cigars away before selling any, just to get his product out to the public.

But word did get out and his cigars began to show up in industry articles and at various events, thanks mostly to a grassroots marketing campaign that took him to festivals and fairs and any place he could set up and sell. He would travel across the state and eventually, across the country, introducing people to his product.
If the cigar world had been accustomed to equating the product to Cuba and the Dominican, Mobley was determined to add Kentucky to that list, bringing Bluegrass products into the mix to help promote his many varieties of cigars.

This is where horses and bourbon enter the story. Mobley was using bourbon barrels to store tobacco. One particular batch of tobacco he had imported was not up to his expectations, so he threw it in the barrel and left it.

Sometime later, he took the barrel out to throw the tobacco out and discovered it had picked up the aroma of the bourbon from the barrel. It was then Mobley had the idea of working with a Kentucky bourbon maker to create a cigar that didn’t taste like bourbon, but would go with it.

After searching for the right partner, he reached an agreement with Blanton’s Bourbon, which is produced at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Ky. Mobley created different blends of cigars to go with the many varieties of Blanton’s, using the Blanton’s Horse, a longtime symbol in the bourbon industry, as part of the packaging of the cigar.

Mobley has also made cigars for such events as the Kentucky Derby and its mint julep cigar and commemoratives for racing venues such as Keeneland Race Course.

More than just cigars

Another unique part of the business is the use of customized cedar boxes to package the cigars. These boxes are also created onsite and can be inscribed with anything from the name of an event or recipient to a photo, all compliments of a laser cutter used to engrave the boxes.

Even the place where Mobley makes his products emits all things Kentucky. He has converted a horse barn into his cigar production facility, which is located on his Ripplewood Estate, built around 1900 and having once served as a thoroughbred horse farm.

While he uses tobacco varieties from other parts of the world, he has managed to incorporate Kentucky tobacco into his products, such as using dark tobacco as tips because of the good flavor. He is also producing Cuban seed tobacco and Connecticut broadleaf for use in his products once that tobacco has reached the proper age.
Mobley has developed relationships with “Kentucky Proud” products and the state’s tourism industry along the way, helping to grow his business to the point of producing tens of thousands of cigars a year.

“I would like to get to a million or two each year, but I don’t want to be the biggest, just the best.” he said.

It may take a while for Kentucky to become the cigar capital of the world, but Mobley is helping change the mindset of the industry and has done it by knocking on one door at a time and perfecting his craft.

To make an order or learn more about the Kentucky Gentlemen Cigar Co., visit its website at www.kentuckygentlemencigars.com

10/16/2008