The Sua Altezza cigar was born over lunch in London’s fashionable Notting Hill. While smoking a cigar, the founder had the bright idea of creating a luxury cigar – as no other brand does. From here, Sua Altezza was born. “We strived to create a product that would represent Italian elegance mixed with French know-how, along with British prestige,” says founder Alexis Colletta. “Not only did we decide to wrap our cigars with gold but we knew we needed to introduce even more luxury to the important cigar market, something absolutely unique.”

“We strived to create a cigar that would represent Italian elegance mixed with French know-how and British prestige.”

The name Sua Altezza – which means his or her highness in Italian – has a strong relationship with the city of Florence, which is where the gold leaf originated. Historically, Florence has always been one of the world’s capitals for gold and jewellery. The Medici family, who were governing Europe for over 600 years, attached great importance to gold and Lorenzo the Magnificent was himself a collector of gold jewellery who hugely influenced the city in the 1400s.

Later, Catherine of Medici (born in Florence) was suffering from headaches so Jean Nicot sent her tobacco plants. She was so enthusiastically impressed that she proclaimed that tobacco was henceforth to be named Herba Regina – “the Queen’s herb”. The rest, as they say, is history. It seemed only natural for the fledgling brand to draw on Florence’s tradition for gold and cigar appreciation, wrapping their Sua Altezza cigars in the city’s finest 24-carat gold leaf from Europe’s oldest goldsmith. The result is cigars that are striking, distinctive, and unique.

“It mattered a lot to us to use only the best materials to create our unique pieces of luxury,” says Colletta. “That is why we decided to choose Europe’s oldest goldsmith to supply us with the leaves needed to wrap our cigars. Based in Florence, The Giusto Manetti Battiloro is a historic Florentine which produces and sells gold leaf. Leading it today is the fifteenth generation of the Manetti family, who have been practicing the art of goldbeating since 1602. The artisan workshop founded in the 17th century and supply the purest 24k edible gold leaves on the market. “Created in 1820 and still run by the same family generation after generation, they still use the method gold processing invented by Leonardo Da Vinci himself and every single leaf is hand checked 10 times to make sure it meets the highest standards.”

The cigars feature a blend of tobacco leaves hand-rolled in Costa Rica, using fine leaves from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, and Nicaragua. The wrapper hails from Ecuador, the binder from Peru, and the filler from Peru, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The owner of the manufacture Sua Altezza is working with have worked for over 20 years for Habanos. Together with some of the most well-known cigar sommeliers, Sua Altezza has created a blend suited to their target audience – medium bodied cigars with flavours of chocolate, roasted coffee beans and earth sweetness.

The manufacture is run by experts who have mastered the art of cigar rolling down the generations, and each leaf is meticulously selected to meet the highest standards. Sua Altezza currently makes two types of cigar – a long robusto named Sinful Outrage of Monte-Carlo and a long lancero called Scandal of Florence. Both cigars provide a light yet complex smoke, leaving a warm feeling on the tongue and a medium-light draw.

“In short, the idea was to create cigars with complex structures but nonetheless easy to smoke in order to match with our client’s preferences,” says Colletta.

Sua Altezza has invented and patented the newest touch of luxury that can be added on cigars: replacing traditional paper rings with exotic leather rings, handmade in France (Lyon) and using high-quality leather. Not only do these leather rings make the cigars distinctive and unique, the patent ensures this aspect of the Sua Altezza cigar cannot be copied – placing it in a league of its own.

The leather rings, available in a number of colours and exotic leathers, can also be personalized with an owner’s initials or with a company logo. “We offer clients the possibility to choose between black Python or Stingray leather rings as a standard, but possibilities can be almost infinite,” says Colletta. “Our artisan based in France can work with any type of leather – python, alligator, crocodile, stingray, lizard and ostrich. The possibilities in term of colours are even larger. The only condition required for the use of this kind of leather would be a minimum order.”