Vitola: Perfecto- 6” x 54 ring gauge
- $11.99
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
Earlier this year, I was saddened to hear that Oscar Rodriguez, owner of GTO Cigars, had suffered the loss of his father. Oscar’s been a good friend to us at Burns, always working to promote his blends and selling massive amounts every time he walks in the door for an event. Besides that, he’s always a pleasure to be around. Turns out he and his father were working on a new blend that would sit at the upper end of the GTO range. Oscar finished the work and named it after his dad.
The new GTO Don Emilio is a limited production cigar made mostly of the Dominican tobaccos that have made GTO so well-regarded…at least among those who have tried them. There is some U.S.-grown Connecticut Shade leaf used for part of the wrapper, but everything else is proprietary Dominican leaf, aged at least 5 years. The darker part of the wrapper is a Dominican Maduro leaf. As with most of Oscar’s blends, he settled on just one size…this time a perfecto with a 54 ring gauge. He estimates that they will make just 500 boxes of 12 per year because “every part is hand-selected by me and carefully crafted.”
Oscar gave me one of these a couple months before they were released, then another one when he came back for another event after they were released. I enjoyed them so much that I bought this sample for review. Cigar-Coop reviewed this blend recently and I used his background info along with some extra that Oscar provided me.
Prelight
Along with the regular GTO band, this cigar employs a secondary band that says “Don Emilio Edicion Limitada” over the seam where the Connecticut Shade wrapper meets the Maduro leaf. The Conny leaf used here isn’t the lightest, most golden I’ve ever seen. It has a bit of a worn and weathered look to it, ranging in color from golden to almost a caramel brown within the space of just half an inch. The Maduro middle section is more consistent in color, being a dark chocolate brown. The Conny part smelled grassy with touches of earth and wood; the Maduro part was a richer earth aroma. Because the end comes to a point, there really was no aroma on the foot.
I am going to stop my normal progression here to comment on the breakdown of this cigars wrapper segments. There have been some segmented wrapper cigars on the market in recent years, most notably the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros and the Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta. Those blends did use the segmented wrapper to some success, but I don’t recall any previous sample using Connecticut Shade on both the initially burning segment AND the tip that you put in your mouth. By having Shade on the mouthpiece of the cigar, it will prevent the initial puffs from having any added robustness or pepper that might come with the Maduro wrapper…while when the Maduro is burning, it’s robust nature will obliterate (for the most part) the character of the Shade mouthpiece. It’s kind of brilliant.
The cold draw was very good despite the double-ended torpedo shape. I got plenty of Dominican earthiness, graham cracker, cedar and grass on the cold draw mix.
Flavor
Lighting up the Don Emilio made milder, creamy notes of sweet hay and graham cracker come immediately to life. Subsequent flavors of cedar and earth came into play, but overall, it was not too far out of the ballpark of the GTO Gold in the initial offing. The first third was really all wrapped in Connecticut Shade leaf so the profile continued on like that…mild to medium, with creaminess, hay, cedar and graham.
Early in the second third, I started to have the wavy burn line touching the Maduro leaf, mixing the creamy notes with touches of stronger earth and pepper. As the darker leaf started burning exclusively, I got a deeper sweetness and touches of espresso bean and cocoa powder. Pepper spice came through nicely on the palate, while the retrohale still featured graham cracker and roasted nut notes.
The body grew a little bolder as I got deep into the last third, settling on the medium-plus range with flavors of earth, cocoa powder and coffee, along with a remaining touch of creaminess and occasional hits of pepper.
Construction
As with everything from GTO, construction was very good here. I had a great draw from the beginning, a solid ash and even-enough burn line.
Value
This is the highest price I’ve seen on one of Oscar’s cigars, but the limited nature and the extra skill needed to roll these with more than one wrapper leaf, dictate that…and it’s worth it.
Conclusions
GTO’s Don Emilio takes you on a journey, much like the man it was named for, I imagine. It was creamy and smooth in the beginning, before becoming stronger, spicier and sweeter toward the middle and developing into a full-blown combination of the two in the end. I would definitely say this is the most complex cigar Oscar has made for GTO and it is a blend worthy of his father’s name. You won’t get many of these…especially if you are outside the Southeast United States…but do try to get your hands on some. Burns is out of stock at this writing, but I expect more in before the annual Chattanooga Tweet-Up and Cigar Festival in about 3 weeks.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
