Slideshow: Harvesting Connecticut Cigar Wrapper

(Cigar Aficionado) The sandy, loamy soil of the Connecticut River Valley and its warm microclimate provide fertile ground for flavorful tobacco and August is harvest time for both shade-grown wrapper and its thicker, darker cousin, broadleaf. Cigar Aficionado's Greg Mottola headed up to Ellington, Connecticut, to check out this year’s crop of wrapper leaves. Most of the shade-grown farms are owned by O.J. Thrall Inc., a private company renowned for its vast acreage of shade-grown tobacco, and the primary supplier to General Cigar Co. Continued