Vitola: Robusto- 5.125” x 52 ring gauge
- MSRP $21.50
- Purchased from Burns Tobacconist
Background
As a marketing professional myself, I find Davidoff’s marketing to be inspirational and aspirational…there are times I read about the new cigars from the company and it sets my senses ablaze right then and there. They truly take as much care with how their cigars are presented in the marketplace as they do with the rolling and physical presentation of them. For example, the new Dominicana is described as “an island of flavor far off the coast of ordinary” and “Inspired by the vibrancy of the Dominican Republic’s people, art, music, and soil, the Davidoff Master Blenders carefully combined Dominican tobaccos as rich as the life on the island.” It continues on with…
The Davidoff Dominicana is not a cigar you taste, it’s a cigar you feel – from the rhythms of Merengue to the local art blazing with bright and vivid colours straight into the very ground from where the tobacco sprang. The result is a carnival of flavours unfolding as you enjoy the cigar with aromas of fresh spices dancing with dried fruits.
The Dominicana uses five different Dominican-grown tobaccos in the filler (San Vicente Visus, San Vicente Mejorado Seco, Piloto Visus, Dominican Corojo 99 Seco, and Yamasá Visus), an Ecuadorian Hybrid 151 binder, and a Dominican Hybrid 257 wrapper (which one source called “an evolution of the Dominican Yamasá H-133 wrapper”). The tobaccos are all from the 2014 harvest year, thus the “2014” foot band and the leaves were aged for 6 years before rolling.
This is my third time smoking the blend. The other two times, I smoked it in the Short Robusto and Toro formats, so I could have some experience with it, but also get an idea which vitola best captures the blend…at least in my opinion. These are available at Davidoff Appointed Merchants nationwide and come in boxes of 10 cigars. They are slated to be produced until the 2014 leaf is exhausted…at which time I wonder if they will be replacing it with a new “Dominicana 2015” or “2016.” I bought mine at Burns Tobacconist in Chattanooga. If you don’t have a Davidoff Appointed Merchant near you, check with our sponsor, Small Batch Cigar.
Prelight
As with most Davidoff “white label” products, the boxes for this release are plain wood with simple cliches burnt in. There are more bands than I recall seeing on a white label release, though. First is the classic simply elegant white and gold “main label.” The secondary band was added to most releases a couple years ago as they added a lot of products in the white label line…it carries the blend name. This time they added a foot band, as well, carrying the year 2014…the year the tobacco was harvested.
OK, can I stop and just say…”A Davidoff White Label with a pigtail!” Yes, as a matter of fact, they are even celebrating that fact on their website as a “Badge of Craftsmanship.” The wrapper itself was a medium brown with a slightly reddish tinge under some lighting. It was moderately oily under my fingertips and carried an aroma of wood, hay, and earth. The foot had notes of hay and more wood coming from it.
I clipped the end and got a great cold draw that had flavors of wood, earth, a slight citrus sweetness, and a faint pepper burn.
Flavor
I fired up the Davidoff Dominicana very slowly on purpose and was rewarded with a bountiful smoke production with no charring of the wrapper leaf whatsoever. I got immediate flavors of oak and wet earth, followed by citrus zing and hay, with a touch of white pepper on the finish. The retrohale had a much higher pepper content with it bordering on red pepper flake heat; underneath that were some nutty and woody notes. With each of the other two vitolas, I thought of the first third as “starting slow,” which reallly meant “the flavors are complex, yet very subtle, requiring rapt attention.” The Robusto did as well, although by the end of the third, it was really starting to pick up in terms of fullness and boldness of flavor. It was quicker to get there proportionately than the Short Robusto and much faster to this mark than the Toro.
As I began the second third, I picked up on something slightly numbing to my palate, a note that I typically get from some Cuban tobacco…or high quality Piloto grown in the Dominican Republic, which is what I’m guessing I got here. The medium-bodied complexity of the cigar totally put me in mind of some finer Cubans I’ve smoked…though with much better construction and consistency. There were increased pepper notes and the introduction of hints of leather and semisweet chocolate into the mix.
The last third had more of the numbing quality along with a slight increase in pepper and citrus, as well as a nice, subtle chocolate counterpoint.
Construction
The draw was excellent. The burn line was perfect. The ash was solid. All of what you would expect from Davidoff in terms of quality.
Value
As with other Davidoff White Label series cigars, the price tag is high. And it’s worth it.
Conclusions
The Davidoff Dominicana was rich and complex, medium in body, and pleasing from end to end. I can say unreservedly that this Robusto size is the best of the three released and totally worth the extra money you will pay for it. The flavor profile changed from third to third and even within each segment, with a mix of notes that was always complementary and never fought against what came before. Excellent cigar.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 10/10
