Cigar Review: Partagas Aniversario

Vitola: Toro
Size: 6″ x 54 ring gauge
Price $16.99, MSRP
Obtained from Maxamar’s as a review sample

Background

Partagas is definitely one of the older names in the cigar business.  And to celebrate 170 years General decided to release a special cigar with the Partagas name on it.  This cigar is comprised of fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, a Connecticut havano binder with a Cameroon wrapper.  That Cameroon wrapper was something they’ve used on the 150 and 160 anniversary cigars as well.  They come packed in 10 count boxes and range in price from $16 for the robusto to $18 for the salomon.  Partagas is a brand I used to smoke pretty regularly, especially the Black, when I was fairly new to cigars.  They offered what I thought to be a lot of flavor at a reasonable price.  The 150 and 160 aren’t cigars I’ve had the chance to try but the people who I’ve talked to have loved them.  They seem to even now retain a following because they are going for well over $100 a cigar online.

Prelight

The wrapper on this sample was not like the Cameroon wrapper I’m used to seeing.  It was very toothy and oily and was a medium peanut brown without the greyish cast I’m used to seeing.  This year’s anniversary band is much glossier than the previous two anniversaries.  When I gave it a squeeze it was fairly firm and without any soft spots.  Putting my nose to the wrapper I got a light leather aroma with a light barnyard aroma coming from the foot.  After clipping and taking a cold draw on it I noted the flavors of cinnamon, sugar and wood with a good draw.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with a pretty good blast of red pepper spice on the tongue and retrohale.  After a few puffs I start to get some leather and wood flavors with a sweet finish coming through.  The cigar was definitely oily as I started to feel some of it on my fingers and lips.  The cigar starts off medium strength.  As I moved into second third the spice almost completely died out.  The flavors during this third were of leather, wood, coffee, and some cream with a sweet finish.  It stayed medium strength as well.  Once I got into the final third I didn’t really notice much of a difference from the previous third, with the exception that the spice did start to come back.  The cigar stayed medium strength throughout.

Construction

The draw was just about right and it produced a large volume of smoke.  The burn line while a bit wavy didn’t require attention.

Value

While $17 is a lot of money, it is right in line with other anniversary cigars from other companies.

Conclusions

Unfortunately I was a little bit bored by this cigar.  By about half way through I was wanting some change to the flavors to hold my attention.  It isn’t like there were bad flavors, just nothing that jumped out at me.  I will note that I’m much of a fan of Cameroon wrappers so this cigar may not be marketed to me.  From what people have described neither were the two previous releases.  I’m ok with that though.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8/10