Travel retail veteran Steven Goldstein, a serial entrepreneur renowned for having founded Swiss chocolate brand Goldkenn – a smash hit in the channel – has turned his attention to the burgeoning fine cigar category.
Goldstein has been appointed to develop the travel retail business for Chateau Diadem, a cigar brand founded by Geneva-raised cousins Thierry Farah and Emily Sahakian.
Goldstein told The Moodie Davitt Report that the Chateau Diadem cigars are particularly notable for their rigorous ageing process that helps create an outstanding end product. The passion and perfectionism of the owners has also been key to the brand’s success, he says.
The back story is compelling. While studying at business school in Boston, Farah discovered Cigar Aficionado magazine, spurring him to become even more enamoured by cigars.
After returning to Switzerland in 1996, he built a cigar business from the ground up, launching one of the first online websites dedicated to hand-rolled, long-filler cigars.
Sahakian’s interests and career path took her into the luxury food & beverage industry. But after realising the similarities between wine and high-end cigars, she chose to join her cousin in his cigar business after leaving New York City.
One of their first collaborations was an artisanal line of Swiss chocolates designed to appeal to cigar aficionados by creating a full palette of sensorial experiences. But their joint dream to one day make their own cigars persisted.
Having embarked on more than 800 ‘taste-a-thons’ of Cuban and non-Cuban cigars, Farah launched an online site specialising in hand-rolled cigars, simultaneously creating a currency called ‘CigarCashCoin’ on the Ethereum blockchain in the early days of the cryptocurrency era. Too early as it turned out and Farah concedes the industry was not ready for such a jump in technology.
Their passion, enthusiasm and entrepreneurialism undimmed, and spurred to break free by the confines and constraints of the pandemic, the cousins decided to pursue their dream of creating a cigar brand based on what they believed would be the perfect blend.
Once able to travel they headed to Dominican Republic, the start of a new journey. In Navarrete, a small northwestern municipality some 25 kilometres from Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic’s second largest city, a new cigar brand called Chateau Diadem was born.
“It is our conviction that brought us here, hence the name of our first ‘liga’ (blend) – Conviction,” say Farah and Sahakian. ✈
Contacts:
Web: https://www.chateaudiadem.com/
Email: steven.goldstein@axions.ch
Note: Look out for an extended profile on Chateau Diadem, including an interview with the founders, coming soon.
