In 2003, when the then-25-year-old Pierre Rogers attended a cigar dinner commemorating the seventy-seventh birthday of celebrated pianist and cigar maker Avo Uvezian, he bought a limited-edition box of Avo 77 cigars, a highly rated, medium-bodied cigar that packs Dominican binder and filler, is hand-rolled in Ecuadorian wrapper and, according to enthusiasts, emits silky notes of nuts and earth in its signature gummy smoke.