An unranked editorial retrospective of lines available by 2020, informed by manufacturer accounts. These selections are not historical award results or firsthand tasting notes from cigars produced that year.
Pledge expands E.P. Carrillo’s family of blends, while Fonseca begins a Nicaraguan chapter under the Garcia family. Both give 2020 a reason to look closely at what changes when an established maker develops another line. Our picks for the best cigars of 2020 bring those introductions together with Ometepe tobacco, Tampa hand manufacture and older family expressions. Familiar names lead the way into the year; the specific cigar behind each name supplies the real story.
E.P. Carrillo Pledge
Pledge brings American wrapper to an E.P. Carrillo blend with Ecuadorian binder and Nicaraguan filler, made in the Dominican Republic. The composition adds another clear expression beside Encore and La Historia. Its place in that family is defined through the recipe, revealing a maker developing the range by changing the materials brought together.
Fonseca by My Father
Introduced in 2020, Fonseca by My Father begins the Garcia family’s Nicaraguan expression of the acquired brand. It is a new chapter under a familiar name, distinct from the earlier Dominican cigars and the separate Cuban brand. The lineage of the word on the band is long; this particular cigar starts here.
Joya de Nicaragua Número Uno
Número Uno brings Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper and an unusual route to wider release. Earlier diplomatic gifts and limited appearances preceded Joya’s nationwide rollout in 2019. By 2020, that history gives the cigar an established story of gradual access, with its broader availability following a more private beginning.
Plasencia Alma del Fuego
Alma del Fuego keeps the focus close to the field through tobacco from Ometepe island. Plasencia makes a region within Nicaragua central to the expression, giving the blend an agricultural detail more precise than a national label. The line brings that growing perspective into a year otherwise rich with brand and manufacturing changes.
J.C. Newman The American
J.C. Newman’s The American joins American tobacco to hand production at El Reloj in Tampa. Its relationship to the United States therefore runs through both leaf and factory. Beside Pledge’s American wrapper and Dominican manufacture, the cigar reveals two different ways American agriculture can enter a premium blend.
AJ Fernandez Días de Gloria
The original Días de Gloria places a tribute to an earlier Cuba within AJ Fernandez’s Nicaraguan production. Memory and manufacturing occupy different locations, linked by the maker’s theme. Alongside Fonseca’s new chapter, it gives this year another view of how cigar history travels into contemporary work.
E.P. Carrillo Encore
Encore’s all-Nicaraguan tobacco composition gives Pledge a close comparison within the Carrillo family. Both are made in the Dominican Republic, with different recipes expressing the range of the same manufacturing tradition. The shared factory background makes the change in materials especially clear.
E.P. Carrillo La Historia
La Historia adds Mexican wrapper, Ecuadorian binder and Nicaraguan filler to the Carrillo comparison. Dominican production brings those leaves together beneath the line’s family-focused name and artwork. With Encore and Pledge, it reveals a portfolio developing through distinct compositions while retaining a recognizable personal history.
Davidoff Winston Churchill The Original Series
Davidoff’s Winston Churchill Original Series is the generation relaunched in 2015. Its own renewal under an existing theme fits a year concerned with new chapters behind familiar names. The line supplies an established expression within that history, with its separate identity preserved as the wider Churchill range develops.
Oliva Serie V
The original Serie V keeps Oliva’s Nicaraguan ligero emphasis in the picture. Jalapa tobacco forms part of the maker’s account, giving the blend a regional detail within its national composition. Its longer history adds perspective beside Pledge and the new Fonseca, allowing established work to share the year with recent introductions.
Looking back at 2020
The most useful question in 2020 is a simple one: which cigar does the name describe? Fonseca’s new manufacturing chapter and Pledge’s distinct composition show why the answer matters. Looking at the actual leaves and makers turns familiarity into understanding, giving each line a clear place in the record.
Brand background, where linked, lives on Ashologist™ — The Study of Cigars.