Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic Am­bas­sador Welling­ton Darío Ben­cosme Cas­taños, along with his wife Rachelle Guil­iani, host­ed the “Cig­ar and Rum Night” event at the Club Room, The Re­nais­sance, in Shore­lands, Glen­coe, on Oc­to­ber 20.

The event warm­ly wel­comed guests to in­dulge in a se­lec­tion of ex­quis­ite Do­mini­can cig­ars and pre­mi­um rums, ac­com­pa­nied by live mu­sic per­formed by Au­drey Hold­er and Vic­tor Al­fon­zo.

At­ten­dees had the unique op­por­tu­ni­ty to savour renowned Do­mini­can cig­ar brands, in­clud­ing La Au­ro­ra, the old­est cig­ar fac­to­ry in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, as well as La Au­ro­ra Cig­ars (115 An­niver­sary Edi­tion), InTaba­co, and Fratel­lo.

Through­out the evening, mas­ter cig­ar roller Mag­daleno Bonil­la, from La Au­ro­ra, show­cased the art of craft­ing cig­ars, al­low­ing guests to wit­ness the in­tri­cate as­sem­bly process and rel­ish the fi­nal ar­ti­sanal prod­uct.

The night al­so treat­ed guests to a de­light­ful sam­pling of pres­ti­gious rums, such as Rum Pun­ta Cana, Bru­gar rum, and Rum Barceló Im­pe­r­i­al, among oth­er dis­tin­guished va­ri­eties.

This har­mo­nious pair­ing of ex­cep­tion­al cig­ars and fine rums beau­ti­ful­ly ex­em­pli­fied the rich cul­tur­al her­itage of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

The re­sound­ing suc­cess of the “Cig­ar and Rum Night” has so­lid­i­fied its po­si­tion as a flag­ship event host­ed by Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic em­bassies world­wide, and the Trinidad and To­ba­go edi­tion is ex­pect­ed to be­come an an­nu­al tra­di­tion.

The Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic takes great pride in be­ing the lead­ing Caribbean ex­porter of pre­mi­um hand­made cig­ars, con­tribut­ing ap­prox­i­mate­ly 33 per cent of the world’s cig­ar ex­ports. With an im­pres­sive an­nu­al ex­port of over 350 mil­lion cig­ars, the coun­try’s un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to crafts­man­ship and com­mit­ment in pro­duc­ing ex­cep­tion­al qual­i­ty cig­ars con­tin­ues to earn in­ter­na­tion­al ac­claim.

GML free­lance pho­tog­ra­ph­er Mariela Bruzual was at the venue to cap­ture the high­lights of the night.