Cigar Previews, Part 10

MURCIAS ESPECIAL by Caldwell Cigars

This is the final piece of the Iberian Express trio of cigars that Caldwell Cigars is using to replace the old Junior Varsity line. In case you were out the last time I mentioned these…the Junior Varsity line was fine in many ways, but the name made too many people think they were “seconds” from Caldwell, instead of first-quality cigars, just a step or two below the Caldwell Collection. So they were sent back to the drawing boards…tweaked blends, adjusted names, brand new packaging. Murcia Especial has Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, a Dominican binder, and a Brazilian wrapper. Also, while the old sticks were done in the William Ventura Factory in the Dominican Republic, Robert Caldwell has set up his own factory now and these will be produced there. (Cigar-Coop)

The wrapper of this cigar was smooth to the touch and oily. It had earthy aromas on the wrapper and a sweet scent from the foot. The cold draw revealed a sweet, dark dried fruit note with some earth. While lighting, I got almost an anise note on the front end, then earth and wood notes when the cigar was completely combusting. I got very little pepper on the palate, but some on the retrohale.

As I finished the first third, I continued to get some nice, hard-to-define sweetness…maybe a mix of raisin, anise and more dried fruit? The Nicaraguan fillers pushed more flavor into the mix than strength, making me think they used Jalapa leaf.

The price point of the Iberian Express lines is going to be great. We’ve had some resistance to box purchases for the Caldwell Collection, mostly because of the high prices. These new blends are better than the old JV blends and the prices are still very reasonable, so I think they will take off pretty quickly.

BG MEYER GIGANTES by Camacho

So far, I’ve taken a bit of a pass on the BG Meyer lines. Tried one, wasn’t overly impressed, moved on. I always try to be fair and give new blends a try, though, and to be objective about them. So even though the earlier blend didn’t impress AND even though “Gigantes” is based around the concept of large ring gauge sticks…I decided to give it a try at least once.

Big ring gauge cigars are a big deal in the shop I work in, with a couple caveats. First, they seem to top out at 70 ring gauge. Asylum, JFR, and Big Payback sell like crazy at 7×70, but the Asylum 6×80 doesn’t move much. Second, price is a big factor. Those listed above all retail for less than $10 (some far less); others like the EPC INCH go north of the $10 mark, and while they may be better cigars, they simply don’t move. So Camacho worked up with $10+ big ring line from BG Meyer. It needs to be better than just “good.”

This blend features Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers with 6 years of age, a 6-year aged Brazilian Mata Fina binder, and an 8-year aged Nicaraguan Habano wrapper. My first instinct with the wrapper when I saw it was to say “Mexican San Andres,” so I was surprised by the origin. It was rough and toothy under my fingers and had a rich leathery aroma.

The cold draw had a touch of dark fruit sweetness that I liked. Once lit, I got notes of espresso bean, grilled meat, earth and pepper. Overall, quite a good and complex start for such a large ring cigar. It didn’t last, though. As with almost every fat ring gauge cigar I’ve had, I found the flavors here went flat and pretty well died before the first half was over. I tipped it out into the ashtray before I even got a chance to start the second half. For my proverbial “own shop,” I would have to decline this line. So far, nothing I’ve tasted from the BG Meyer brand is something I would pay to repeat and I’ve only heard a very few people rave about or even ask for them.

JOHNNY TOBACCONAUT by Room101

Keith took a longer look at this new thing from Room101 a couple weeks back. I won’t repeat all the background that he already went through except to say: 3 sizes, “limited” production, and all Nicaraguan.

Limited production is something of a marketing trick, in my opinion, especially when it comes to Room101 products. So far, most of the Room101 LEs have been “limited” to 100,000 sticks over 4 or 5 vitolas and that has been enough to satisfy the needs of customers for 2, 3…even surpassing 4 years in some cases. The rumor is that the Namakubi will cease production at some point, but I think most people don’t have a true concept in their heads about how long it has taken…or how long these cigars stand to be around. There are no rules or regs on how “limited” a cigar needs to be for it to be called a “limited edition” so I guess this will continue…and I guess realistically ALL cigars are limited as we’ll run out of certain tobaccos eventually. So that Macanudo Cafe you are (or aren’t) smoking right now is “limited” to 5.8 million sticks…but it IS limited. End of rant.

The Johnny Tobacconaut had a rich aroma of earth and leather coming from its oily wrapper and a flavor of natural tobacco with overtones of dried fruit on the cold draw. Once lit I got a fairly strong note of leather and hay, with a dash of red pepper. The smoke that poured out of both end of the JT was thick and oily. This is actually the second sample of the JT that I smoked and I wasn’t all that impressed with the first one. A couple extra weeks seems to have changed either the cigar or my mind, though…this time I found it to be strong, full-bodied, and quite tasty.

This is the second time in less than a year that Room101 has produced a Nicaraguan-heavy full-bodied, full-flavored blend, the first time being the Master Collection 3 (which wasn’t as full-bodied, if I’m being honest). I like this change of direction for the brand and hope it continues.

EXTENSION DE LA RACINE by L’atelier

As in the couple years L’atelier is releasing a limited edition “Extension de la Racine” for 2015, this time in a Lonsdale format.

This stick uses Nicaraguan fillers, double Ecuadorian Sancti Spiritus binders, and a Nicaraguan sun grown Criollo 98 wrapper.  Initial puffs of the ER15 were sweet and spicy with an earthy background and a cedar finish. The sweetness was maintained throughout the length of the cigar, with the spice ebbing and flowing at different times. Really, this was a fantastic cigar and much better than the previous years’ releases in my opinion.

For a store that already carries massive amounts of Tatuaje and L’atelier, it would be a big oversight to not carry this cigar.

TRILL by Villiger

As part of the decision to bring in Villiger to our shop, I decided I should try as many of their blends as possible, including ones that were in existence prior to this year’s show. Trill is part of that package, debuting in early 2014. It is part of a trio of cigars (with the Cabarete Maduro and Connecticut Kreme) that are made in Jochy Blanco’s Tabacalera La Palma in the Dominican Republic. Trill is a Dominican puro and retails in the $6 to $8 range. (Cigar Coop)

“Can’t Hustle a Hustler” is printed on the band…which is a sort of an odd tagline. The wrapper had a clean, fresh tobacco and hay aroma, while the foot had a wet earthiness. Lighting up the Trill produced a very large amount of thick, oily smoke. Initial puffs had more wet earth with more subtle notes of graham cracker, prune and white pepper on the palate. The retrohale featured more pepper.

I really enjoyed this cigar and think it will sell well at the price point. The combination of a stout, full-bodied blend and great price point will help this be a good addition to the shop.

And that is it…

That’s all of them…well, all that I’m going to talk about here on the blog anyway. In the past month, I have sampled well over 60 blends and written about 50 of them here in the form of cigar previews. On Thursday, I plan to publish the last article for this year about the IPCPR. I want to talk about my top picks to look out for based on my sampling, as well as throw a few other topics around a bit since I’ve had some time to think about them.