Martello Cigar Co. Ships First Release, Ortolan

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Martello Cigar Co. has begun shipping its first cigar to retailers. Ortolan, a 6 x 50 toro, is now leaving Miami and heading into shops after a late summer launch that the company first flagged in July.

This is the opening product from Michael Martello Jr., who is putting his own name on a brand after what he has described as a long relationship with cigars. The cigars are handmade at El Titán de Bronze in Little Havana, the small Miami factory known for short runs and for using medio tiempo in some of its blends.

Ortolan is built as an Ecuador Habano wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan filler. Part of that filler is medio tiempo. Those leaves are not a separate seed variety. They are an extra priming that appears on only a small share of plants, sitting above the ligero. Because they grow at the top of the plant they tend to be smaller and more concentrated than the leaves below them. Several Titán blends have used that leaf. Martello is using it on a first release rather than saving it for a later line.

The packaging is part of the pitch. Ortolan ships in porcelain jars of 10, not a standard wooden box. Production is capped at 750 jars. That works out to 7,500 cigars in total. Suggested retail is $26 per cigar and $260 per jar. City of Palms is the distributor, so the first wave of inventory is going through that network rather than a broad national dump.

The name is a reference, not a flavor claim. An ortolan is a small songbird long associated with a rare French table custom. In that tradition the bird is eaten whole, and the diner often covers the face with a napkin. Popular culture later picked up the image, including a scene in Succession. The jars use a drawing of the bird.

Martello has talked about the project in kitchen terms. In a July statement he said he had always had a relationship with cigars, then found parallels between tobacco work and the structure, discipline, and respect he learned in restaurants. He also said he never felt a dish belonged only to the chef, because many people had already cared for the product before it reached him, and that tobacco felt the same.

Ortolan is a limited debut, not the start of a multi size line. The cigar is a single 6 x 50 vitola, produced at El Titán de Bronze and packed in porcelain jars rather than standard boxes. Production is limited to 750 jars at $26 per cigar. Distribution is through City of Palms. Retailers outside that network are less likely to receive allocations.