Alejandro Robaina, grower for top Cuban cigars, dies

Alejandro Robaina, a Cuban tobacco grower who received international acclaim for the quality of his leaves, which wrap some of the finest cigars in the world, died April 17 at his home near the town of San Luis. He was 91 and had cancer.

Robaina was a member of one of the island's oldest tobacco-growing families, and his career as a planter stretched nearly nine decades. He was long a roving ambassador for the Cuban cigar industry.

Such was his standing that when Cuban leader Fidel Castro urged him to join a collective farm to increase productivity, Robaina firmly said no - and got his way.

"For me, tobacco growing had to be in the family, done with love. Because in the big cooperatives, everyone's the boss. Nobody worries as much as the grower," Robaina told CNN in 2008.

Robaina made some of the best wrappers in the world, and they lent delicacy to the traditionally full-bodied Cuban cigar.

Tobacco is a temperamental plant. Robaina lovingly tended his plants, used only organic manure, planted under a waxing moon and harvested when it waned. The wrappers he produced were smooth, unblemished and consistent.

Rather than harvest all of his plants, Robaina allowed the best to flower and spread their seeds for the next crop.

When state agronomists announced the development of a new tobacco plant with more than 20 leaves, Robaina shrugged. "A lot and good do not walk together," he told Cigar Aficionado in 2006.

Robaina's grandson Hiroshi has run the plantation for the past three years.

Cigar enthusiasts ventured from afar to meet Robaina and tour his farm, and he would sit with them on the porch of his modest home and smoke.