Jose Seijas

Jose Seijas represents a rare and meaningful tribute within the Altadis portfolio: a cigar named after a living employee. Jose M. Seijas was born in Santo Domingo in 1950 and began his career at Tabacalera de García in La Romana in 1974, where he would spend more than 35 years rising to become vice president, general manager, and master blender of the world's largest handmade cigar factory. He oversaw the factory's transition from machine-made to fully handmade production in the 1980s, and personally developed the blends for some of the most recognized Dominican cigars in the market, including Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, and VegaFina. The single-vitola El Señor de La Romana Grande, a 6.5 x 52 Churchill, uses a Mexican wrapper over Dominican filler and binder, reflecting Seijas's personal preference for fuller-flavored tobacco at a time when most Altadis Dominican production leaned mild. Seijas retired from Tabacalera de García in 2012 and later founded Matilde Cigars with his son Enrique. He passed away in November 2024 at the age of 74.