Congratulations to Wally Reyes, cigars.about.com's 2006 Man of the Year. On November 18, 2006, Wally and his assistants rolled the world's longest cigar, bringing that honor back to the United States. The previous record was a 66-foot cigar rolled in Cuba, but last Saturday at Tampa's Cigar Heritage Festival in Ybor City, Wally Reyes, co-owner of Gonzalez Habano Cigar Company, rolled a "smokable" cigar that measured an amazing 101 feet long! The cigar was one inch in diameter (that's a 64 ring gauge in cigar lingo), and consumed over $5,000 in tobacco. Wally's cigar is expected to be added to the Guinness World Records, unless someone else can build an even longer cigar before the next edition (highly unlikely!).

I had the pleasure of meeting Wally at this historic event while the cigar was being rolled, and he invited us inside his cigar tent to take some fantastic pictures and video of the proceedings. We'll be posting our multimedia coverage of the entire festival right here on this website in the next few days, but in the mean time, congrats to Wally Reyes, our 2006 Man of the Year.


Wally Reyes (left) and Gary Manelski

^{Photo: 2006 © Gary Manelski Licensed to About.com, Inc.}