I don’t come from a lineage of cigar makers. I didn’t grow up in the fields. My first job was cleaning toilets at my parents’ antique shop in New York. Working there, I was surrounded by culture. Art Nouveau, Americana, Art Deco, Primitives, and so on. I lived and breathed it all in for my entire childhood and came to appreciate every relic that came through the shop. No matter how old, how strange or obscure – each piece had a story to tell and a young JD wanted to know every detail.


I was an avid collector as a kid. Comic books, G.I. Joes, Kiss memorabilia – if I liked something I immersed myself fully. I devoured it. I wanted to learn, explore, and share my passion with others. My parents instilled in me that deep sense of curiosity that continues in the pioneering spirit of Drew Estate.


I still collect to this day … old school graffiti, the early legends of aerosol art, and of course, premium cigars. I also seem to collect people. I’m a people collector. And especially people who love premium cigars. I collect cigar people who search for family, a home. Drew Estate is the land of misfit toys. We are a people company. If I’ve ever met you on the road or at an event somewhere, I’m sure you understand.

Basic mathematics – everything has a start, a beginning. I feel the need to understand what makes people tick and I often drills down to their beginnings, their roots. In my early 20’s I realized that cigar brands also have beautiful roots and I felt the need to unpack them … all of them … every single cigar brand in the world.

Being introduced to cigars during my internship at the United States Senate in Washington DC was the equivalent to receiving the key to my parents antique shop … a kaleidoscope of hospitality and spirit, where flavor met story and journeyed men met their destiny. Cigars have short lives, and sometimes long lives, depending how you look at it. Cigars and people are very similar in this regard. They both die. All have stories … some become legends. But they all die. Some have tall tales. Even tall tales die. Everything dies, but some things find rebirth. Drew Estate stands for Rebirth. We don’t seem to die, no matter how they tried to kill us. Go figure.

As I bumbled my way through Brooklyn Law School, my love for cigars turned into an outright obsession. I was focused on the vast world of cigars and soon opened a retail cigar shop – a small kiosk in Tower Two in New York City’s famous World Trade Center. Later, my fraternity brother, Marvin Samel became my business partner.


I decided to name the cigar shop “QC Cigar Company” after the term Queens Counsel, which is the British equivalent to a barrister, basically a lawyer. Even though I was still in Brooklyn Law School, working nights from 10.30pm-7.30am at Skadden Arps Slate, Meagher and Flom in Manhattan, and running my weekend antique flea market booth on 6th Ave and 26th Street – cigars and young JD were fast-friends. I wanted to learn everything. If you name a job in the cigar business, I did it within those early years. I became a solid cigar merchant and developed a reputation for having an extraordinary eye for discovering hot new brands.


Soon, I was working as a company representative for brands like Tabacalera Perdomo (back then called Nick’s Cigars) and Torano Cigar Company. Eventually, our quirky business became a distributor for other brands throughout the U.S., wholesaling cigars to fellow retailers. I owned a small humidor company, as well as co-owned a cigar publication called New York Smoker Magazine, learning the publishing side of the cigar business. There was no domestic segment of the cigar space that I didn’t mini-master. It was time to move on – and deeper upstream to manufacturing, foreign affairs.


I distinctly remember attending the unveiling of Fuente’s now-famous OpusX line at the Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. November 18th, 1996. Listening to Carlito and his father, Carlos, speak and share their passion. Fuente’s vision for the brand, and their dedication to building a legacy for their family inspired me and continues to serve as a North Star for me to this very day. Carlito handed me two torpedo sized Fuente Fuente OpusX from his guayabera pocket during the event … and those two cigars represent one of the most important and impactful experiences of my life.


Soon after, I created our first brand at a small factory on 30th street in Manhattan called La Rosa Premium Cigars. I remember telling my parents about the idea over dim sum at the Golden Unicorn under the Manhattan Bridge … I left the dinner, ready to conquer this new frontier, and my very first brand was born. Theoretically, I guess Drew Estate was also born on that day, even though we kept the name Jonathan Drew Inc as the holding company right up to the day of sale in 2014. We continued growing La Vieja Habana, eventually moving production to 7111 West Flagler Street, Miami, then finally, to Perdomo’s factory in Nicaragua. I had just moved from Brooklyn Heights to East 87th Street in Manhattan. I was visiting Nicaragua often, learning my way around the nameless streets of Esteli. I really liked Estelí and Estelí seemed to like me back.


In 1998, Hurricane Mitch came through and devastated Central America. A horrific tragedy – Mitch took countless lives throughout Nicaragua and Honduras.

Drew Estate was in desperate financial straits. Our production of La Vieja was destroyed, and we were facing imminent doom. It was then I made one of the most important decisions of my life. I took the last money I had to my name, and I moved to Nicaragua to begin rebuilding and leading our own cigar production. Rebirth.

After moving to Estelí, the rugged cigar city in the north of Nicaragua, I rarely left for the next six years. My early days in Nicaragua were difficult and extremely lonely. I was the only gringo in town. I didn’t speak any Spanish, and I had very few dollars to my name. I arrived with a small bag of clothes and a cassette with C-N-N’s The War Report that Scott “ACID” Chester made for me as a going away gift. It turned out to be one of the most important gifts of my life and helped me push through torturous loneliness and abandon. I feel bad that I’ve never thanked him to this day. Thanks Scott.

I opened our first factory in a small house we rented from a short man named Trini for $75 a month. There were six of us in the house, and we had absolutely nothing to our name. We had infrequent electricity, no telephone, short materials … and no one yet rooting for our success but us. But we hustled. All that was about to change, kind of.

ACID was the first line to come out of Nicaragua, and with it, Drew Estate’s reputation for breaking the status quo began. When I started smoking cigars back in the early nineties, it was reserved for stuffy businessmen and D.C. lawyers in exclusive, smoky backrooms. Drew Estate democratized the cigar lifestyle. I wanted to share this hobby with my fellow common man – the firefighters, the police officers, the construction workers. I wanted to bring them in, build a community, and create a space where all were welcome and united by our passion for great tobacco and making memories, building bonds, with good folk.

This is a major component of the secret sauce behind “The Drew Estate Way.” By removing the white gloves and black tie and focusing instead on connecting with people on a real, fundamental level, we were able to build a movement people wanted to be a part of. Making great cigars is important. It’s at the heart of everything we do. But equally important is building a community and connecting with those around us.

When I started in Nicaragua, the local Estelianos didn’t know who we were. They thought we were a graffiti crew, not a cigar company. But I got to know them. And one at a time, they got to know us. I think something magical happens when New York lands in Central America and this was our time – as history revealed.

I attended the weddings and births of the people in our factory. We took great pride in supporting local churches and getting them what they needed.

I attended their church services, sang and worshipped together, and became a part of their lives. We worked with crews to repair bullet holes in the buildings of Estelí and help mothers get proper medical care for their children. I found almost fifty graffiti artists in Managua and moved them to Estelí, eventually hosting Nicaragua’s first-ever graffiti festival (really Central America’s first-ever graffiti festival, to the best of my knowledge).

Throughout it all, I believed we were building something great – something purposeful and massively transformational that would literally change the landscape of the country of Nicaragua and the culture of premium cigars in the U.S. Honestly, we tackled more setbacks and adversity than I care to admit, sometimes by my own stupid doings. But I had a fire in my belly and Drew Estate was unbreakable.

After years of growth, Drew Estate was operating from 11 small to mid-size factories spread throughout the city of Estelí and we were ready for the next step: La Gran Fabrica.

Our crown jewel of a factory, La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate was fully constructed by September 2008 and stands as a testament to the spirit of New York City and Nicaragua – united – a cultural landscape where cigar lovers can connect with the tobaccos and lifestyle that we are all so passionate about. The New York spirit of Drew Estate bleeds into each and every cigar that leaves our door.

With La Gran Fabrica, we continued to defy the status quo. It was here that our “Born on the Factory Floor” Undercrown blend emerged, and where Liga Privada became the powerhouse frontmark that it is today. La Gran Fabrica saw our innovation with Kentucky Fire Cured Cigars, our creative and authentic barrel-aging process we use for Pappy Van Winkle, and our collaboration with Metallica on the Blackened line.

Drew Estate today has taken its rightful place at center stage of the cigar industry, and we’re continuing to break through every single wall placed in front of us.

Today, Drew Estate stands as the biggest premium cigar brand in the world. So what happens now? What does one do when you go from breaking the status quo to becoming the largest in the world?

We stay hungry and concentrate on making great, consistent cigars, priced for the regular folk. Drew Estate continues to push through boundaries, innovating, spreading The Drew Estate Way everywhere we go.

And where do I fit in? I see myself as a steward for the Drew Estate brand. Today, I serve as Founder, President, and Chief Innovation Officer for Drew Estate – a role I’ve operated in alongside our CEO, Glenn Wolfson, for the last ten years. I’ve overseen decades of growth at Drew Estate, and continue to lead the Rebirth of Cigars to this day.

At its core, Drew Estate remains a curious, founder-driven company. We care about people and value their energy, both our internal staff and our loyal fan base. This won’t change. Many of you have supported me and this company throughout the years, even through our ups and downs. Whenever you smoke a Drew Estate cigar, I want you to know I’m right there with you – and working hard to ensure every stick that we make is really right, easy drawing, big taste … We got this.

Today I am a proud father, and I look at my son, JD2, as the next big chapter of the Drew Estate story. I hope you’ll stick around with us, with him, to see what’s in store . . .