Foundation Cigar Company

Foundation Cigar Company is Nick Melillo's company, based in Connecticut. He moved to Estelí in 2003 and spent more than a decade at Drew Estate, working in production and tobacco at La Gran Fábrica during the Liga Privada years. He started Foundation in 2015. He still blends the cigars. The factories roll them, and he buys them finished.

The first cigar was El Güegüense, named for a Nicaraguan folk drama and usually translated as the wise man. It was a Nicaraguan puro, rolled from 2015 at TABSA, Aganorsa Leaf's factory in Estelí. The original Wise Man Maduro followed about a year later on the same floor. The debut corona made Cigar Aficionado's Top 25 for 2016. In 2024 Melillo retired both blends. Foundation no longer rolls at TABSA.

The Tabernacle and Charter Oak both arrived at the 2016 IPCPR show, rolled at A.J. Fernandez's San Lotano factory in Estelí. The Tabernacle is the premium Connecticut Broadleaf cigar, with a Mexican San Andrés binder and filler from Honduras and Nicaragua, including leaf from Fernandez's La Soledad farm, where Melillo lived when he moved to Estelí. Charter Oak is the lower-priced broadleaf line from that same show. Olmec is the Mexican San Andrés line from that factory, and Highclere Castle is rolled there too. Metapa was renamed Aksum in 2024 and stayed with A.J. Fernandez.

In 2024 the Wise Man name returned as two new blends, rolled at My Father in Estelí by Pepín García. These are not the old Aganorsa cigars moved across town. The Wise Man Corojo is a Nicaraguan puro, with filler from the García farms in Condega, Estelí, and Jalapa. The Wise Man Maduro uses a Mexican San Andrés wrapper over Nicaraguan tobacco. Retailers saw both at the March 2024 PCA show, with shipping set for that April.

Who owns Foundation? Nick Melillo. Swisher has owned Drew Estate since 2014, and Foundation is not a Drew Estate cigar. Steve Saka's Dunbarton came out of the same team and is a separate company. Foundation is not an STG brand.