Drew Estate Joins ProCigar as Its 12th Active Member Ahead of Its Dominican Factory

Drew Estate has spent three decades making cigars in Estelí, Nicaragua. The next chapter is in the Dominican Republic, and the country’s manufacturers have now officially made room for it.

On Nov. 9, the association of Dominican cigar manufacturers approved the membership application of Drew Estate Dominicana, the company’s new Santiago operation. The Premium Cigar Association reported the decision the following day. Drew Estate Dominicana is ProCigar’s 12th active member, and the first new active member since Arnold André joined in February 2023, according to Cigar Coop. It essentially takes the seat left when TABADOM Holdings (Davidoff) left the organization earlier this year.

That is a meaningful welcome. ProCigar is not a marketing club you join by filling out a form. It is the association of established Dominican manufacturers, and membership puts Drew Estate in the same room as companies that have defined that industry for decades.

A Santiago Factory, a Farm, and a 2027 Target

PCA’s membership announcement describes a 76,000-square-foot facility in Santiago. When Drew Estate first announced the project in April as Drew Dominicana, it described a 73,000-square-foot manufacturing compound that would also include a consumer experience “unlike anything in the cigar world” and a signature farm in Villa González. We are presenting both figures as the company and the association have published them, rather than papering over the difference.

The April announcement was the first time Drew Estate committed to producing cigars outside Nicaragua. La Gran Fábrica Drew Estate in Estelí remains the company’s home base, and most current production is expected to stay there. The Dominican factory, farm and visitor experience are meant to give the company its own footprint in a country it has already been buying leaf from.

Founder, president and chief innovation officer Jonathan Drew Sann welcomed the ProCigar invitation in a statement released with the membership news:

“Drew Estate has always been deeply committed to the celebration, elevation and growth of premium cigar culture and manufacturing quality. As we begin this new chapter in the Dominican Republic, we are honored that Drew Estate Dominicana has been invited to join PROCIGAR and work in partnership with the exceptional Dominican cigar manufacturers that comprise this distinguished association.”

In a separate conversation with Cigar Aficionado, Sann put a clock on the project: “We are, at this point, projecting mid to late 2027 to be open for full production.” He also framed the move as more than a second factory. “We’re not coming to the DR for a factory—we’re coming to the DR to land on Plymouth Rock. This is really significant.”

PCA says membership will also pull the Dominican operation into work beyond the factory floor, including training the next generation of cigar workers, industry advocacy, and promoting Dominican cigars internationally.

Who Is Already at the Table

Cigar Coop lists the 12 active ProCigar members as:

• Arnold André
• Casa Carrillo
• Drew Estate Dominicana
• De Los Reyes Cigars
• General Cigar Dominicana
• La Aurora
• La Flor Dominicana
• PDR Cigars
• Quesada Cigars
• Tabacalera Arturo Fuente
• Tabacalera de Garcia
• Tabacalera Palma

That is a serious peer group. General Cigar Dominicana, Fuente, La Aurora, LFD, Quesada, PDR and De Los Reyes are names most smokers already know. Drew Estate arriving as an active member tells you the Dominican industry is treating this as a real manufacturing presence, not a side project.

If you have been mapping cigar travel around the factories and growing regions that actually make the cigars, the Dominican Republic has long been one of those stops. We have written about that in our guide to top cigar travel destinations. A Drew Estate visitor experience in Santiago, if it opens on the timeline the company is now discussing, would add a very different kind of address to that map.

What Will Actually Be Made There

The April announcement already named the first brands scheduled to move. Deadwood Tobacco Co. Dominicana and Undercrown El Tigre Dominicano are the only lines Drew Estate said would shift from Nicaragua to the Dominican Republic, and it said the blends and packaging would stay the same. Those cigars have been using Dominican tobacco; they have just been rolled at La Gran Fábrica in Estelí. The new factory and farm are how the company says it plans to go deeper into that leaf, rather than only buying it and shipping it west.

The farm side is not a footnote. Drew Estate said the Villa González farm will be led by Manuel Peralta, a Dominican grower and seed developer with more than 50 years in tobacco, and that the leaf grown there will be exclusive to the company. Maarten Van der Linden, Drew Estate’s head of tobacco procurement, said at the time that Dominican tobacco has “incredible depth and character, but only when you invest properly.”

None of that means Liga Privada, Undercrown’s core lines, or the rest of the Nicaragua-made portfolio is packing up. The company has been explicit that Estelí remains home base. What changes is the map: Drew Estate will be a multi-country manufacturer for the first time, with a Dominican association membership to match. We have covered the Nicaragua-made side of that catalog for years, including Liga Privada H99 and the Único Serie “A”. Those cigars still come from Estelí. The new question is what a Santiago-made Drew Estate cigar will taste like once the factory is actually running.

The Cigar Guys’ Take

Joining ProCigar is the diplomatic half of a construction project. The factory is not open yet, full production is being talked about for mid to late 2027, and the first brands on the moving list are the Dominican-themed ones already in the catalog. That is a careful way to enter a country that takes its cigar identity seriously.

The more interesting part is the company saying it is not just renting space. A farm, a factory, a consumer experience, and a seat at ProCigar is a statement that Drew Estate wants to be a Dominican manufacturer, not a Nicaraguan company with a Dominican footnote. We will believe the cigars when we can smoke them. Until then, this is the clearest sign yet that the project is moving from announcement to industry acceptance.

Keep it locked to The Cigar Guys Podcast for more cigar news every week.

Sources: Premium Cigar Association: Drew Estate Dominicana Joins PROCIGAR as an Active Member (Nov. 10, 2026) · Cigar Coop: Drew Estate Joins Procigar (Nov. 10, 2026) · Cigar Aficionado: Drew Estate Joins ProCigar (Nov. 10, 2026) · Drew Estate: Announcing Drew Dominicana (April 17, 2026)