Cigar Review: Davidoff Oro Blanco

Vitola: Toro Gordo
Size: 6″ x 54 ring gauge
Price MSRP $500.00
Obtained From Ammar Tabbaa, the owner of Maxamar’s

Background

Today I have something very special for review.  This is a cigar I never expected to get to try because of it’s price and rarity.  I was therefore shocked when Ammar handed me this one and asked me to review it.  If you haven’t heard of this cigar yet, it is by far the most expensive cigar Davidoff has produced.  The cigar was blended and production supervised by Eladio Diaz the other great tobacco genius they employ.  These cigars are made up completely of Dominican tobaccos, some of which is from their harvest of 2000-2001 that they put aside since they believed it to be such a great year.  These cigar, as to be expected, are extremely limited in production and there are very few shops in the US that even stock them.  The cigars come 10 to a box.  And yes, I only got to smoke this one.

Prelight

You can tell by the band with the extra bling on it that this isn’t your run of the mill Davidoff.  The top band is marked “Special Reserve 2002” and the second band bears Eladio Diaz’s signature.  The wrapper was a medium brown with a golden tint to it.  There was a good amount of oils and tooth to it as well.  The cigar was very well made and the roll was just about perfect.  When I gave it a squeeze it was fairly firm to the touch with no soft spots.  When I put my nose to the wrapper I got notes of leather with wood coming from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got notes of salt and wood with a good draw.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with a good amount of spice along with the slightly musty/mushroomy flavor I’m used to getting from a Davidoff.  After a few puffs I started to get flavors of wood, cream, cinnamon, leather with a slightly maple sweet finish.  The spice died down, but didn’t go away, after about an inch.  The cigar started at the upper end of medium.  When I moved into the second third the spice started to come back.  The spice kind of ebbed and flowed throughout the second third.  The flavors of the second third were similar to the first: leather, wood, cinnamon, cream, and a maple sweet finish.  For a few puffs there I was sure I was tasting marshmallow.  These flavors weren’t present all the time in the same intensities.  They would kind of move around from puff to puff.  The cigar stayed at the upper end of medium strength.  As I moved into the final third the spice and strength of the cigar built.  The flavors were moving around the same ones as they did in the second third.  The sweet finish built up in intensity though.  I did start to get a slight nicotine hit from it during the final third as well.

Construction

As you might expect from Davidoff, and for a cigar of this price the draw was perfect throughout and the burn line was straight.

Conclusions

Something else I noticed about this cigar, is you can definitely tell it is made up of some well aged tobaccos.  There wasn’t any hint of harshness at all.  The cigar didn’t taste like it was rolled and aged, but that the tobaccos were aged separately and were only blended into a cigar once that process had finished.  I definitely did enjoy this cigar, and no I’m not just saying that.  It was easily one of the best Davidoff cigars I’ve had, and maybe even one of the best cigars I’ve had period.  I will admit I couldn’t have afforded this cigar’s price tag, and probably wouldn’t either now that I’ve smoked it; that is unless I won the lottery or something.  I want to thank Ammar again for giving me the opportunity to try this very rare cigar.