Cigar Review: AVO LE13 The Dominant 13th

Originally published at Tiki Bar Online

Toro, 6” x 52 ring gauge / $15.00, MSRP

Today I will be reviewing the latest limited edition release to celebrate the birthday of Avo Uvezian. This year’s release also celebrates the 13th annual release of this limited edition. This year instead of the recently standard 10 cigars, they come 13 to the box. The box is styled after a music book with some examples of Avo’s songs printed on the inside. It also includes a USB stick with a video of Avo, songs of his, the cigar catalog and a screensaver. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a USB stick actually in the box of cigars. It is an interesting idea that might make it easier to give the consumer information about the cigars. The cigars are comprised of four different types of Domincan filler with a Peruvian filler as well with a Dominican binder all covered by and Ecuadorian Habano 2000 wrapper. This review sample was the fourth one I smoked out of the box I purchased.

The wrapper on this cigar was a light brown in color with a bit of darker mottling to it. There were a few fine veins to it and a slight amount of oil. The wrapper was very smooth to the touch. I couldn’t detect any soft spots and it had a small amount of give. When I put my nose to the wrapper I got the strong aroma of leather and cinnamon with raisins and barnyard from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw on I got not notes of leather and raisins with a decent draw.

As I lit up the cigar I could definitely tell this was made by Davidoff as it has that distinct musty flavor. There were a good amount of spice thrown in with some leather and cream. The draw was tighter than I like. This problem seems to have been a nagging problem for me LE11 release onward. For example my LE12s are now at the point where they are even smokeable. A few punctures with the bleeder tool on my MTX helped things a bit. The spice died down quite a bit by the end of this third. I did note there was some cinnamon flavors along with a sugary sweetness on the finish that started to come through.

Once I moved into the final third the spice did definitely start to come back and I felt a wasabi like burn on the retrohale. The flavors of the second third didn’t change a whole lot from the first third. The strength did build a bit but never went out of the medium full range.

The cigar really came into it’s stride in the final third in my opinion. The draw opened up very nicely and I was able to get a large volume of smoke from it. I started to get a bit of a nicotine hit from it as well. Unfortunately common problem with recent AVO LE’s decided to rear it’s ugly head, too much glue on the band ripping a piece of the wrapper off.

This was no where near as bad as it has been in the past, but it is quite frustrating to deal with a limited edition costing this much. The flavors intensified especially the spice and the sweetness on the finish.

Overall this was a very enjoyable cigar. It definitely isn’t as strong as the recent years and tastes much more like a Davidoff that the previous couple examples. I just wish the construction issues could be worked out. The draw seems to solve itself with some age, but the too much glue on the band doesn’t. I will also note that even the couple months this cigar has been sitting since it’s release have definitely made it smoke and taste better. I do think that this will be very tasty with some more age on it.

Body: 7/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10