There was no Festival del Habano in Havana this year. The humidors, though, are still going to auction.
On Friday, Nov. 13, Habanos S.A. and Pacific Cigar Co. will stage the Festival del Habano XXVI Humidor Auction at the MGM Cotai in Macau, with bidding in person or online through Madison Auction. halfwheel reported the details this week, including a notable caveat from a Pacific Cigar spokesperson: the sale “should not be regarded as a replacement for the traditional auction held during the Festival del Habano.”
That is a polite way of saying this is an abbreviated, one-off sale, not the weeklong Cuban festival with a gala tacked on at the end. After months of delay, Habanos acknowledged in July that this year’s festival had been canceled, citing ongoing fuel shortages and electrical grid failures that halfwheel reported were exacerbated by a U.S. blockade put in place earlier this year. The auction is what survived.
Four Anniversary Humidors, Not the Usual Headliners
Four one-off humidors will go under the hammer, each tied to a Cuban brand celebrating a major anniversary in 2026:
- The Diplomáticos 60 Aniversario humidor, made by DeART in black lacquer, leather and satin-bronzed brass, with six Spanish cedar-lined drawers and 160 Diplomáticos cigars.
- The Rafael González 90 Aniversario humidor, also by DeART, finished in black-dyed Vienna straw, antique-brass metal and white lacquer, with three drawers and 190 Rafael González cigars.
- The Cuaba 30 Aniversario humidor, in light wood marquetry, brass and bronzed glass, with shelves behind glass doors holding 300 Cuaba cigars.
- The Saint Luis Rey humidor, built around the debut of a new cigar, with 10 Spanish cedar drawers and 250 cigars.
As with the auctions that usually close the festival in Cuba, organizers say the proceeds will go to Cuba’s public health system.
These are not the brands that typically set the price records. halfwheel notes that last year’s auction raised €16.25 million, and that roughly half of that came from just two humidors, a Cohiba and a Behike. Hoyo de Monterrey, Montecristo and Partagás pieces have also cleared the €1 million mark in recent years. Diplomáticos, Rafael González, Cuaba and Saint Luis Rey are in a different commercial league, even if the objects themselves are elaborate one-offs.
The timing makes that contrast sharper. 2026 is also the 60th anniversary of Cohiba, Cuba’s flagship brand, and Habanos had planned a much bigger celebration. Most of those plans, halfwheel reports, appear to have been derailed with the festival itself. There is no Cohiba or Behike humidor on the Macau list. For collectors who follow those names, we have written before about what a Behike BHK 52 represents at the top of that catalog.
A New Saint Luis Rey, and a Familiar Host
The Saint Luis Rey humidor is also a product launch. According to the humidor guide cited by halfwheel, the new Saint Luis Rey Palatinos will be an exclusive for La Casa del Habano and Habanos Specialists stores when it is released. The same box holds 50 Palatinos and 50 each of four vitolas that were once part of the brand and are no longer in the regular portfolio: Churchills, Serie “B,” Doble Coronas and Pirámides No. 1.
Pacific Cigar Co. is not a random partner for a Macau sale. The company distributes Cuban cigars in more than 30 countries across Asia and Oceania, and it has a history of high-end Habanos collaborations. We wrote about one of those projects when Pacific Cigar staged a fusion of French woodworking, Cuban cigars and Swiss timekeeping. Hosting this auction fits that role: a major regional distributor stepping in after the Havana festival did not happen.
A Pacific Cigar spokesperson put it this way to halfwheel: “While the auction of humidors created for our global brands can take place at different moments throughout the year, the four humidors featured on this occasion hold a particular commemorative significance, as they celebrate important brand anniversaries in 2026. Originally conceived with the intention of being presented at the Festival del Habano, it was considered appropriate that these exceptional pieces should still have the opportunity to reach Habanos aficionados and collectors through this special occasion.”
The Habanos world has had a turbulent year even before this relocation. In early November we reported that Germany’s exclusive Cuban cigar importer, 5th Avenue, entered formal insolvency after EU sanctions froze its assets. That is a separate legal story in a different market. It is part of the same broader picture: the Cuban cigar trade is being forced to reroute, delay and improvise more than usual.
What This Is — and What It Is Not
For American readers, a few boundaries are worth stating plainly. This is a Habanos event in Macau, not a U.S. festival, and Cuban cigars remain illegal to buy or import for most people in the United States. We are reporting the auction because it is a major piece of industry news, not because it is a weekend you can treat like a domestic cigar event.
It is also not a substitute Festival del Habano. There is no week of factory visits, seminars and a Havana gala attached to Friday’s sale. Four humidors will be auctioned, a new Saint Luis Rey will be introduced, and the money is earmarked for Cuba’s public health system. That is the event.
We checked TheCigarEvents.com for a listing and did not find one, which is not surprising for a Habanos auction held abroad. We are not treating a missing U.S. calendar entry as a reason to skip the story, and we are not pointing readers at a ticketing page in place of a listing.
The Cigar Guys’ Take
An auction without a festival is a strange headline, and Habanos’ own partner is already asking people not to confuse the two. Fair enough. The more honest reading is that the 2026 festival was lost, the anniversary humidors were already built, and Macau is where they can still be sold to collectors who can legally bid on them.
The Palatinos debut may matter more to regular smokers than which bid wins which box, because that cigar is supposed to reach Casa del Habano and Habanos Specialists shops later. The humidors are one-of-a-kind objects. The new vitola is the thing that could actually show up in a humidor that is not sitting in a ballroom. We will be watching both the hammer prices and whether Palatinos makes it into those stores as promised.
Keep it locked to The Cigar Guys Podcast for more cigar news every week.
Sources: halfwheel: Festival del Habano XXVI Humidor Auction Taking Place Friday in Macau (Nov. 11, 2026)
