Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2026 Perfecto

A particularly rainy harvest has produced tobacco that Oliva Cigar Co. says is worthy of being labeled as a Grand Cru release.

Those tobaccos are going into the new Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2026 Perfecto, a uniquely-shaped 5 3/8 x 54 perfecto. If the cigar looks familiar, it’s because you are probably thinking of the Oliva Serie V 135th Anniversary Edición Limitada. While the two cigars share some of the same traits, the new Melanio is not the same vitola; most notably, the taper at the top of the cigars is quite different.

Blend-wise, the Melanio uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra-seed wrapper over a blend of Nicaraguan tobaccos from the Jalapa Valley. The company says that a particularly rainy and warm growing season for the 2023-2024 crop produced the Nicaraguan tobaccos used for this release, which the company says are worthy of being considered a Grand Cru. That’s a term from the wine world, used by French authorities to describe a vineyard, though the term also makes it onto wine labels, used to promote the idea that a particular label is the best of the best. Typically, the Melanio line is offered in box-pressed vitolas but this cigar is round.

Oliva will show off the Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2026 Perfecto at next week’s 2026 PCA Convention & Trade Show in New Orleans. However, it is not expected to ship until the fall.

Because of the gap between now and its release, Oliva says it has not finalized pricing. There will be 9,000 boxes made, 4,000 will be sold in the U.S., while the other 5,000 will go to international markets.

“The Oliva Serie V Melanio is already the top of the top,” said Fred Vandermarliere, ceoof Vandermarliere Cigar Family, the parent company of Oliva, in a press release. “But this limited edition takes the experience to a level one can only dream about as these special conditions cannot be man-made; they can only be handed down by nature. And so, with every aficionado enjoying this remarkable cigar, we pay homage to that powerful bond between the forces of nature and the skills of the craft.”

This is the latest release in a longstanding series from Oliva to create limited edition vitolas for its Serie V Melanio line. The concept actually started with the release of special Serie V Cigars, oftentimes as exclusive releases for the European market. However, it has since expanded into a global affair.

• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2017 (6 x 60) — 2017 — 1,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (15,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2018 (5 x 50) — 2018 — 1,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2019 (6 3/4 x 48) — 2019 — 2,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (25,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2020 (6 x 54) — 2020 — 3,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (30,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Limitada 2021 (4 x 60) — 2021 — 3,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (30,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2022 (6 1/2 x 44) — 2022 — 4,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (40,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2023 (5 1/2 x 52) — 2023 — 14,500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (145,000 Total Cigars)
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2025 (5 x 54) — 2024 — Undisclosed
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Edición Año 2026 (5 3/8 x 54) — 2026 — 9,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (90,000 Total Cigars)

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. Previously, I started TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors blogs of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry since 2010, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. Beyond writing, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff from weighing cigars to coordinating the tech. Outside of work, I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.