Cigar Preview: Matilde Quadrata

Vitola: Toro Bravo
Size: 6.5″ x 54 ring gauge
Price $9.00 MSRP
Pre-release sample

Background

This cigar was announced recently as the new line from Matilde Cigar Company.  This is their third release since Jose Sejas left Altadis cigar company and started up this new one with his son Enrique.  The blend on this cigar is fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, a Dominican binder with and an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper.  They will come in 3 sizes, a 5.25 x 50 robusto, a 6 x 52 torpedo and the subject of this preview a 6.5 x 54 box pressed toro.  This was the first one of these I smoked.

Prelight

The salmon colored band makes it very easy to distinguish that this is a different blend than the previous two.  The wrapper was a ruddy brown with some darker mottling to it.  There were lots of oils to it as my fingers felt a little slick after handling it for a short period of time.  The box press was well executed and when I gave it a squeeze there was only a slight amount of give without any soft spots.  Putting my nose to the wrapper I noted the aroma of hay with barnyard coming from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw I not notes of cinnamon and sugar with a good draw.

Flavor

It starts off with a nice amount of spice on the retrohale and tongue.  After taking a few puffs I started to get flavors of cinnamon, curry, leather and earth with a slight saltiness on my lips.  It starts off medium strength.  As I moved into the second third the spice started to tone down but not disappear completely.  The flavors during the second third were cinnamon, sugar, salt, curry, leather and earth.  The strength pretty much stayed the same in this third.  Once I moved into the final third the spice did start to build back up with the strength increasing as well.  By the end of the cigar my lips were tingling just a bit.  The flavors in the final third were less sweet and more earthy, with leather, earth, coffee and cola being the main ones.

Construction

The draw was pretty much perfect throughout.  The burn was slightly wavy but only needed minor correction.

Value

I’m glad to see another company release a regular cigar at this price point.  I know that price point is pretty crowded but that makes more options available for me.  Hopefully the FDA can be stopped.

Conclusions

It did taste a little bit young and a little more age would probably improve it.  Since this is a pre-release that shouldn’t be a problem when they start showing up in your local shops.  I know I will pick this up when I see it and if you like a cigar that is strong but isn’t too strong I’d suggest you try it too.