Vitola: Gran Toro- 6” x 52 ring gauge
- Price: Unknown
- Provided by Company
Background
This is how it started: Mike Hunter, my boss and owner of Burns Tobacconist, went to the annual TAA convention in Cabo San Lucas earlier this year and spent some time talking with Sam Morales of Drew Estate. By now it’s no big secret we’re working on a “big event” with them (dates and times to be announced!) and a lot of the conversation centered on that…but Sam also gave Mike a couple sticks to give to me as a preview of an upcoming release.
I smoked one and put the other back for a few weeks to make sure it was humidified right (the wrapper on the first one cracked pretty badly). About the time I decided to take it out and write about it, I made sure to contact Sam again and make sure it was okay to go public with this…and he said to do it! So…I’m here to tell you that the Undercrown Sun Grown is a thing and it will probably be widely released later this year. (I did see that a small release was covered by halfwheel in January…and I did notice that at least one online retailer has a placeholder for it already.)
This particular cigar just has a plain white band with the number “2571” on it…could it be a prototype of the final? Maybe not the final final cigar? Who knows. And I don’t have any information on the blend. All I can say is that, despite the initial cigar’s wrapper blowing up on me, I did enjoy it…so I’m looking forward to this one as well.
(I wrote the above a couple weeks back but have gotten some additional information between then and now…the “big event” we are working on will be toward the end of October and will be a replacement for the annual Chattanooga Tweet-Up–yes, you heard it here first! Also, there was no certainty expressed that the Undercrown Sungrown will be shipping by the time that event happens…they either don’t know and won’t say.)
Notes
The wrapper had a look and feel of tanned leather, with just a slightly oily feel. The wrapper had notes of natural tobacco, earth and cedar, while the foot had a slightly richer earthiness and notes of cocoa powder.
The Undercrown Sungrown fired up with a natural tobacco note with slight twinges of citrus sweetness and mild red pepper. One source listed the use of some Dominican tobacco in the blend and I can believe that based on the first few puffs, as there was also a slight bready note on the finish.
After five minutes or so, the peppery part of the profile amps up a bit, though it’s short-lived, not lingering around that long.
I paired the cigar with a goodly splash of Charred Oak Rye Whiskey, which is mildly peppery, as well, so it doesn’t add a huge amount of spice to the proceedings.
The peppery notes increased as I went along, but so did the sweetness. The bread notes that I associated with Dominican leaf continued on, though were subdued quite a bit past the first third.
I enjoyed this new version of the Undercrown…more than the Shade version, as a matter of fact. I felt like it showed a good amount of complexity and overall pleasing flavor profile. If it emerges in this form or a slightly tweaked one, it will definitely be another hit from Drew Estate and will quickly become a fan-favorite.
