Dominique Gyselinck started her first cigar shop in Sint-Martens-Latem 22 years ago. She now runs 30 branches in Belgium, Great Britain, Switzerland and Tenerife. Portrait of a go-getter with taste.
Text: Pierre Darge Photos: Pierre Darge, Halfwheel
The born Ghent native was obsessed with space travel as a child, read books about planets and ultimately wanted to become an astronaut. She was good at drawing but was no good at mathematics and eventually studied interior design at Sint Lucas.
“Anything that is creative appeals to me. Sketching, working with watercolor, and I am still busy with that now, I draw my own cigar bands. But I also wanted to discover the world and eventually ended up at Cross, a specialist in writing instruments, where I became responsible for the Benelux. In Uccle I visited a small customer, an elderly lady in the Parvis Saint-Pierre. Her shop was no bigger than my kitchen. She sold Montblanc, Cartier and she… owned a humidor. I had never smoked before, but was intrigued. She gave me three cigars and showed me how to cut and light them. During the weekend at the seaside, I took Frédéric, my husband and cigar lover, with me and the adventure could begin.
I liked the experience, a robusto from Hoyo de Monterrey turned out to be the very best. I returned to Uccle, went to Caron in Ghent and then decided to start my own cigar shop. Philippe thought I was crazy, but I had some money of my own and took the plunge: Plumes et Cigares in Sint-Martens-Latem became my baptism.”
“Cuban cigars will always remain top, just like French wines.”
PD: Yet Dominique did not lay all her eggs in the same month. She continued to work at Cross, worked in the shop at the weekend and discovered an audience of walkers. But she also realized that more people are moving to the sea...
“I soon started a second business in Knokke where I had to compete against the competition for the first time: as a young entrepreneur, this involved trial and error. And be under no illusions, luxury is expensive to boot. Filling a humidor worthy of the name can quickly cost a lot of money. In short, I would continue to put money into it for the first ten years. Because I put all my energy in Knokke, I closed the shop in Latem, trained in Cuba and even became Hombre del Habano in 2016 - I received my diploma from the president of Habanos S.A. I was very proud among all those alpha males and have been received with all the respect ever since. Every time I go there, I am greeted with a “welcome daughter, back to your country.”
PD: That same year, Dominique opened a store in Uccle and the counter stood at 6 stores, after Knokke, Ghent, Hasselt, Kortrijk and Bruges. She is now the largest customer of Habanos S.A. worldwide. and heads 30 stores in Belgium, Great Britain, Switzerland and Tenerife. She may not have become an astronaut, but she shot up like a rocket. And yet Cuba is not the world...
“Cuban cigars will always remain top, just like French wines. But there are also delicious world wines and to discover these other cigars I traveled around Central America. Many Cuban expatriates live there with a thorough knowledge of the product. Cuba is often ravaged by hurricanes, and last year the drying sheds of Vegas Robaina were simply wiped off the map. Just to say that scarcity lurks around the corner every year. Davidoff himself emigrated to the Dominican Republic, taking seeds with him to plant locally. Young people emigrated to Nicaragua and started Plasencia. Of course there are differences because you cannot take the terroir into account and that explains why the Nicaraguan tobacco tastes more like pepper and leather and is slightly smoother. Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Honduras also produce beautiful cigars. Each country has its own accent: Brazilian tobacco is slightly sweeter, Ecuadorian and Costa Rican tobacco is very heavy, and that has everything to do with the high altitude at which it is grown. Plasencia produces much darker cigars, which makes people wrongly think that it is much heavier. However, they forget that the outer leaf, which provides the color, only determines 3 percent of the taste.
Cuba remains at the top, but the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua follow closely. Frederik and Guido Vandemarliere took over Oliva's plantations in Nicaragua in 2016 and breathed new life into the business. It has become a special company that honors the philosophy from crop to shop: they build schools and crèches for the children of the employees and even a hospital. Of course, a small church was essential for the very religious population. Multi-colored American school buses are used for connections with the regions, everything is organized more efficiently at the Vandemarliere home.
My search in other countries initially alarmed the Cubans. I had to explain to them that I also wanted to put those products on the map because I employ 200 people and have to keep my business running.”
PD: It is sometimes suggested that cigarettes are smoked but cigars are enjoyed. There would be no comparison.
“In both cases it concerns tobacco products, but that is where the comparison ends. Both the production process and its consumption are very different. In cigarettes, shredded tobacco is wrapped in a paper wrapper, which simply burns down. Cigars, on the other hand, are a natural product, without sauce, just five tobacco leaves: inside a seco, around it the binder and on the outside the volado – for flammability, taste and continuity. Three tobacco leaves provide the flavor and the leaves closest to the top of the plant and that receive the most sunlight are used. They are picked at different times and then hung in the drying sheds for forty days. There they are slightly moistened and evolve from green to yellow, golden yellow, beige and brown. They are then wrapped in palm branches or stored in jute bags and fermentation can begin. These are placed in layers on pilons and 'turned' regularly. You can control that process yourself – depending on whether you choose very intense or soft. The time of fermentation also determines the price.
In the next stage, the midrib is removed and both halves are selected for color and quality. A master blender determines what and when, but the roller knows nothing about that composition. He only knows the size and diameter – he only rolls, up to 120 pieces per day. A difficult job because the ambient temperature is 39 degrees, with 88% humidity. The process is completed by rolling the top sheet, after which the yarmulke is attached to the back with gum Arabic.”
PD: The rest is in the hands of the buyer…
"Sure. It is important that a long filler is stored in the right environment, because it needs moisture. If the humidity is too low, the essential oils disappear and thus the flavor of the cigar.
You 'draw' a cigarette down to your toes and become addicted to the sauce, while a cigar releases the flavor of the tobacco mixture - without additives and without having to inhale the smoke. You have to take your time and go through the ritual of choosing, lighting and tasting. Smoking a cigar looks like a moment of reflection and attention, I sometimes compare it to a woman – you have to be busy with it.”
PD: Cuban cigars may be top notch, but they come with a hefty price tag.
“I want to put that into perspective. A nice Cuban cigar for relaxation such as a Quintero or a José L. Piedra, packaged in a bundle and made by machine but with a binder and a wrapper that was rolled by hand, might cost 2 to 3 euros. I sell them to let the curious discover the world of cigars. Because our audience is very broad, from young to old, and, so to speak, from poor to rich. Our business in Ghent is centrally located next to the Ghent Sint-Baafs cathedral, and in recent years we have seen more and more young people come by for pipes, which start at 40 euros. Or they want to try a cigar right away and we are happy to guide them. We often recommend a Romeo y Julieta No. 2 or an Epicure No. 2 from Hoyo de Monterrey – light and accessible cigars. Then they buy some cigars together with a friend, get to know the differences and, above all, the taste and nature that suits them. Because they don't go for junk, they go for a quality product and look forward to the moment of pleasure. And it's a pleasure to watch them evolve. Just to say that a cigar is not just for an older man.”
“My search in other countries initially worried the Cubans. I had to explain to them that I employ 200 people and have to keep my business running.”
PD: What's the better work?
Top brands for Cuban cigars are Cohiba and Trinidad. These undergo a special fermentation and the leaves used come only from the highest quality plants. La Corona, in the center of Havana produces Montecristo, Cuaba and Bolivar.
The brand with the most powerful taste is Partagas, but Bolivar also produces strong ones. Montecristo and H. Upmann have a more medium taste. A rule of thumb is that the larger the diameter of the cigar, the softer. The thinner, the more intense – because the flue is much narrower. A thin cigar is therefore not a woman's cigar, as is often thought. Don't rely on the cigar model, but on what you want: strong, medium or light. Its color doesn't matter..."
“Don't rely on the cigar model, but on what you want: strong, medium or light. Its color doesn't matter..."
PD: The community is otherwise increasingly critical of smoking.
“That is correct and furthermore, we are not allowed to advertise and smokers are no longer allowed to come close to others. That is still possible in Switzerland, in Basel I run a business with a fumoir, equipped with decent extraction equipment. In our own country we only see smokers on the terrace. La Terrasse du Zoute in Knokke recently opened a cigar terrace. Gasthof Halifax in Astene is a customer, as is the Nénuphar in Afsnee and star chef Danny Horseele in the Ghelamco arena. Personally, I think the whole situation is a bit exaggerated for cigars because there are many more accidents when gambling or abuse when drinking alcohol.”
PD: It is now known that you do not only sell cigars…
“Three years ago I took over some English colleagues and started Dominique London. The package also included a distillery in Wales, Snowdonia, where we make our own whisky, gin, vodka and rum. For the gin we only use fruits from our own fields around the distillery. We are also an independent bottler of single malt whiskeys and created our own brand – Ron Morrison. We are also very proud that our gin Foragers has become the house gin of the Hof van Cleve, while our whiskeys have won various prizes here and there.”
