Ok, maybe someone knowledgable can comment on this.
I've been under the impression that Castro ran out all the top cigar families (capitalist pigs) and screwed up the tobacco fields through years of over fertilization. So now, Cuban cigars have little value aside from a status symbol and the old families that were displaced around the region, like Dominican Republic, have been producing superior cigars but they just don't have that marketing edge of being "Cuban".
I wasn't too surprised when he said the best cigars do not come from Cuba. He did say they were made by Cubans in the Dominican Republic and somewhere else.
I thought that was typical that anything communist would be naturally rated as the best by the media, especially since Castro has always been their darling.