Brand Profile

Cigar Aficionado magazine rolled out its first issue in the fall of 1992 when it was launched in New York City by Marvin Shanken, the longtime publisher of Wine Spectator Magazine. Shanken launched the puiblication as a large format glossy magazine targeting a higher end reader and advertisers of products targeted that demographic.

Cigar Aficionado started as a lifestyle magazine, including coverage of fine wines and spirits, as well as travel, gambling, and antiques, plus in-depth interviews with leading personalities in the cigar world and articles about the cigar industry itself. The current format of the magazine is a blend of luxury lifestyle reports and cigar ratings and stories. It has been widely credited with contributing significantly to resurgent 1990s cigar boom.