Allen Mobley is a business owner and his job can be stressful at times.

At the end of a long day, when the phones have stopped ringing and the sun is setting, Mobley heads to his porch. He sits with a glass of Kentucky bourbon, lights one of his hand-rolled cigars, and lets his cares drift away.

Mobley, 61, is the owner of Kentucky Gentlemen "Handrolled Cigars," a Lawrenceburg business at 1056 Ninevah Road he started two years ago. People's reactions were less than encouraging when he told them he was going to start a cigar company here in Kentucky.

"Everybody told us we were crazy," Mobley said.

Last year he sold 100,000 cigars.

"We didn't even have a sales force last year," Mobley said. "We were just on the Internet and had no retail stores."

Mobley expects to sell a million cigars next year with the help of his National Sales Director Greg Lynd. Lynd has 10 years of experience in the retail of party goods such as beer, liquor, wine and cigars.

"I had no intention of changing what I do for a living until I came down here and smoked one of these cigars," Lynd said. "That's when I knew I had to be part of this."

Mobley's roots in the tobacco business date back several generations. His grandfather owned two tobacco warehouses, and his father worked tobacco fields with horses.

Mobley grew tired of working on his father's farm as a teenager, and left Harrodsburg for California when he was 14.

"I thought there was something better out there," Mobley said.

He ran a construction business in California, but decided to leave when his twins were 7 years old.

"It wasn't a good place to raise children," he said.

Mobley didn't know what he was going to do for a living when he returned to Kentucky until one of his fishing buddies suggested he start a cigar company.

"It was time Kentucky made a good cigar," Mobley said.

This decision led Mobley to Texas where three Cubans taught him how to roll cigars. Mobley later went to the Dominican Republic and lived with a family to further his skills in cigar rolling.

He has converted one of his barns into a cigar shop where he stores tobacco he has handpicked from places like Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Mobley also puts a little bit of Kentucky in every one of his cigars.

"You can't use too much because Kentucky tobacco is so strong," Mobley said.

Mobley says he has the only cigar company that ferments its tobacco in whiskey barrels. Once it has fermented he takes about six whole leaves and rolls them in a binder leaf. He then places them in a mold and presses them. Finally, he uses a thin, pliable leaf for the wrapper.

"I'm coming up with a wrapper leaf grown here in Kentucky, but it's too strong right now," Mobley said. "It won't be ready until four years down the road."

Mobley has sent his cigars all over the world via the Internet. Former President Clinton has smoked them, and they were at the governor's ball the night before the Kentucky Derby.
Mobley has continued his family's tradition with the tobacco business and wants the next generation to do so as well.

"Hopefully my younger son will do this when he gets older," Mobley said.