Vitola: Short Robusto- 4” x 54 ring gauge
- MSRP $10.45
- Samples provided by General Cigar
Background
My exposure to Dunhill Cigars has been fairly limited. I had heard some less-than-impressive reviews of older blends and wasn’t prepared to spend the fairly high cost of entry to try them myself. I had smoked one or two that I just didn’t find memorable. But last year’s Heritage changed that…I found it an interesting and enjoyable cigar that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. So this year when I saw that Dunhill was introducing something new, I wasn’t nearly as reluctant to try it out.
The Dunhill Aged Maduro is designed as a “complementary new addition to the Dunhill Aged Cigar family” and uses late harvest sun grown ligero for the wrapper to ensure a mature and robusto flavor. Even with a press release from General, good information was hard to find on this cigar. The press release did not give any additional information than what I said above, but another source suggests this uses a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. The press release says the wrapper “is draped over the classic Dunhill Aged blend” which the Cigarworld website suggests is Dominican filler and binder…but another source seems to think that the Aged Maduro uses Nicaraguan binder along with Dominican Olor and Piloto Cubano fillers (though that source didn’t give any extra info on the wrapper).
Here’s an interesting tidbit…after years of more and more information being given to us by manufacturers, one manufacturer suggested to me recently that because of the FDA, in the future they would be relaying less information about their blends…possibly to obscure some facts and make “substantial equivalency” easier…something like that anyway. So you might want to get used to going back to the “bad old days” when nobody really told you what was in the cigar except country of origin.
This review sample is the second time I’ve smoked this blend. Both samples were provided by General Cigar Company, the U.S. distributor of Dunhill cigars.
Prelight
The presentation of the cigar is classy in a very European type of way. It’s hard to pinpoint it exactly…something about the design just feels Euro. It is attractive and upscale without going over the top in a way that would make you think the price of the cigars is very much driven by the packaging.
The wrapper leaf on this cigar was really, really dark…like 75% cacao dark chocolate dark…like espresso bean brown and almost black. The surface of the leaf was definitely oily, but you could feel the roughness of the leaf, too, like there was a tremendous toothiness to it, but the color made it hard to see.
To the nose, the Dunhill Aged Maduro smelled like wet earth and leather with just a touch of anise. The foot of the cigar had aromas of natural tobacco, earth and cedar. After cutting the head, I got a very good draw and a flavor mix of graham, anise, and black coffee.
Flavor
The Dunhill Aged Maduro lit evenly and easily, soon burning with a rich mix of sweet earth and pepper spice provided by the wrapper, along with graham and notes of baking spice provided by the fillers. The retrohale featured more baking spice and roasted nuts, along with a sharp, but quickly fading, peppery burn.
As I got into the second third, I picked up on notes of leather and anise on the palate. The sweet earthiness and graham notes continued at about the same level, while the pepper spice died almost completely out.
The last third had more earth and a resurgence of pepper, while the leather and anise faded a bit. The graham held on at a lower level, providing a sweet bread note that underscored the Dominican roots and provided a good amount of complexity.
Construction
I had as straight a draw as I would expect with a Broadleaf Maduro wrapper, very good draw and very solid ash.
Value
The price on these is not cheap, but I think the richness of the experience justifies it.
Conclusions
The Dunhill Aged Maduro was a very good, very enjoyable Maduro-wrapped cigar with a medium body and plenty of complexity due to the great combination of tobaccos used. It had a refined nature, but plenty of boldness because of the Maduro wrapper and was a cigar that I would enjoy smoking again from time to time. Put it on your list if you like Dominican-based blends with a extra kick of boldness and complexity.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10
