Hoyo de Monterrey brand name is linked to a vega (tobacco growing plantation) located in San Juan y Martinez, at the very heart of the most prestigious tobacco growing areas "La Vuelta Abajo". Today we can still see the iron gate that lead into the plantation next to the main square of the village with the inscriptions "Hoyo de Monterrey, José Gener 1860". Of Catalan origin, José Gener immigrated into Cuba aged 13 in 1831. Some twenty years later he establishes with his uncle the factory "La Escepciõn". By 1900 the manufacture is the largest in Cuba with 350 employees and an annual production of some 50 million cigars. During the 1940's the company developps the famous range des Châteaux de Hoyo de Monterrey for Zino Davidoff (Margaux, Lafite, Latour, Haut Brion, Yquem). It is only in 1967 that Zino Davidoff decides to put his own brand name on these productions. Today the most famous cigars of the brand are: Epicure 1, Epicure 2, Double Coronas and the newest addition the Petit Robustos.
The Hoyo de Monterrey cigars are characterized by a light strength