TL;DR - toasted wood, light cocoa and a rich smoke. Outstanding. 👍 Aged 9 mos ⏳️ Pre-light deep, rich tobacco and barnyard. Dry-boxed. Goldilocks draw. Beautiful construction. Light-up is toasted wood, cocoa, and spice to the gums; steadily continuing into the first third. Wavy burn-line comes and goes. Transition to second third maintains profile. Very smooth with light almond making appearances. Finishing up, this was everything I hoped it would be for a 96 rated Cigar of the Year winner (2019).
Aged 2 months. Started very spicy but calmed down into a smooth creamy smoke after first third. Draw perfect. Burn great. Flavors of chocolate, coffee, and cedar and a touch of earth. Paired great with the Glendronach 12-Year-Old
Wow what a great cigar. I can see why it is rated so high. It has that nice classic nutty chocolate flavor, but combines spices in a way that makes it taste very interesting. It's head and shoulders above many cigars I've tried.
Great smoke at a good price. Fairly loose draw and needed a touch up and a partial relight. Ash was also loose; fell on its own twice and I tend to ash earlier than I need to. But great flavor and an overall enjoyable smoke.
Slight oil sheen on wrapper, small imperfections, and some slightly loose seams and cap segments. Heavy chestnut off pre-light wrapper.
After light chestnut, cocoa, white pepper enters on middle third.
Tight white ash and great draw through first two thirds. Perfect burn through first two thirds, small canoe at end of second third. Some tightness in draw through final third.
Very enjoyable! Nothing crazy loud on flavor but a good coco, coffee and leather. Well made cigar. Easy draw. Good smoke but not the creamy chewy smoke I enjoy. I understand the hype.
The burn was fantastic. Very even and clean. I felt like the draw was lacking a bit, but it easily could've been because I used a v-cut and it was my first time doing so with any cigar. Flavor was fine. Very smooth, but I didn't really taste notes of anything too powerful. Overall, a really solid smoke.
The construction looks good, and the draw is near perfect. However, the bands pulled some of the wrapper off, which is unfortunate. It starts off woody and nutty with tons of black pepper, the retro is stuffed with stinging black pepper. The smoke output is full and slightly creamy. A couple of minutes later a slight cocoa joins the mix. The flavour is full-bodied, while the strength is not that notable (7/10). The first third ends with the pepper falling to the background with light sweet spiciness in the forefront joined with some nuttiness and cocoa. The retrohale is improved greatly and while pepper is still the main flavour the balance is much better (9/10). The strength is stepped up to a full body as well, matching the flavour. Last third thins the body and leaves only a nutty and spicy smoke, with a bitter aftertaste (5/10). Overall a good cigar, especially in the middle third, however, the whole deal doesn't suit me that well (6/10).
Wow, right out the gate chocolate, pepper, caramel and nuts held to gather with a great creaminess. As the smoke continues the chocolate lessens and the caramel, nut and cream pick up with the pepper staying the same. 1/2 ay thru the complexity seems to be waining. The tatse is still very nice but it's pretty much just holding. The burn needed attention towards the end and the flavor has stalled. A good smoke but not a GREAT one
Dark brown toothy wrapper, unfortunately had a whole poked in from a stem near the head. Earthy chocolate and hay aroma. Flavours remained mostly unchanged with earthy leather, black pepper, and chocolate in order of prevalence.
For cigar of the year CA 2019 that must have been a really good harvest used for that year because the newer batches I get ahold of are unremarkable and completely average.