I had this review ready to go for last Thursday, but life intruded…as it seems to be doing with alarming regularity lately. Anyway, I hadn’t originally planned for this to be “La Palina Week” but it’s turning out that way. Today, tomorrow and Thursday I will be presenting reviews of 3 newer releases from La Palina.
- Vitola: Robusto
- 5” x 52 ring gauge
- $9.99
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
I will admit it…I didn’t think La Palina would last. The company debuted in 2010, I didn’t think it would last. After all, the first lines from this new version of a very old company averaged around $20 apiece and were made by Graycliff. I tried one or two and was never impressed…they smoked like Graycliff cigars…smooth and refined but nothing special. The next set of cigars produced by the company dropped the average price by about half and increased the flavor…that was the El Diario. Then the Classic dropped the price even more. And suddenly La Palina looked like it could become a real presence in the humidor. By the time they released the annual Goldie, once again at the high price points of the original Family Series, they had a reputation for solid cigars…and it didn’t hurt that the Goldie was a far, far better blend.
One of La Palina’s latest releases is the El Año 1896, celebrating the year that the company was originally founded. I say “originally” because the La Palina brand existed from 1896 until 1926 when it was liquidated. It was 84 years before the company was re-formed. I’ve heard and read varying reports on the El Año 1896…one person said it was an attempt to imitate a Padron Hammer…which it really isn’t. A couple places say it’s made in the PDR Factory in the Dominican Republic…at least one person indicated to me that La Palina is done with that factory. One report says the filler/binder is all Dominican. A couple others say Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers with an undisclosed binder. Another says Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers with a Dominican binder. All seem to agree on it being a Mexican San Andres wrapper, although most of the time that means Maduro…and this cigar is described as “Oscuro” which is not the same thing. Welcome to the new era of disclosure and information dissemination under the FDA regulations!
Anyway, my local La Palina rep has given me a couple of these to sample and I enjoyed them enough that when they actually came into the shop, I bought another for review purposes.
Prelight
The first look at the box and band reveals an impressive presentation. The box is attractive without pushing the boundaries of taste. The band uses the new “LP” logo along with fairly simple lettering in white and gold on a black background. It’s different and gets away from the cameo image that is seen on almost everything they’ve done up until now…although I must admit to liking the cameo image and feeling it was a distinctive hallmark of the brand. To answer that criticism, the image is used on the tissue paper that wraps the cigar from the band to the foot. The paper also has “El Año 1896” written vertically up the cigar over the image of Goldie. Overall, an interesting way of honoring the past while looking more toward the future. On early prototypes of this cigar, the tissue paper went under the band and they all attached together, making it nearly impossible to remove one with the other…and even removing both was an exercise in patience. Now they have been separated and there is even a small gap between them…perhaps caused by the fact that the band moves a little more freely than I expected. The tissue paper sleeve came off fairly easily and without incident.
The cigar underneath was a dark chocolate color with a relatively minimal veining and a touch that was slightly gritty and slightly oily. The aroma from it was strongly earthy, with side notes of wood and espresso bean. The foot had a lighter earthiness and a mix of hay, vegetal and bread aromas.
The cold draw was very good. The cold cigar had flavors of strong earthiness, mixed with cedar and something slightly astringent.
Flavor
El Año 1896 started off with a definitively earthy core flavor, along with notes of bread, cocoa powder, and dark roast coffee beans. There was a little black pepper on the palate and the smoke had an almost chalky texture that I get a lot of times with Mexican wrapper leaf. On the nose I got more dark earth, along with tea and red pepper.
While I got plenty of the “Mexican earth” that tends to be fairly bitter and chalky, the blend was well balanced to display a good undercurrent of sweet balancing notes as well. In the second third, I got more bread flavor and sweet citrus and berry flavors, along with cocoa powder and coffee. The pepper tapered off a bit on the palate and nose.
The last third got even sweeter with notes of chocolate and berries mixed with the earthy and coffee notes. Pepper made a slight comeback, but was never as pronounced as it was at the beginning.
Construction
Every one of these I’ve had has been very well constructed. I had a great draw, very even burn line and solid ash.
Value
This cigar does compare favorably to a Padron 1964 Anniversary Series…and it’s several dollars a stick less, so I call that good value.
Conclusions
Finally, La Palina has produced a full-bodied cigar that I like! Don’t get me wrong…I enjoy the El Diario (especially the KB and KB2), the Classic is nice, and Goldie is off the chain, but the only real full-bodied cigar they produced before is the Black Label, which I found more harsh than anything else. This is a great full-bodied blend that has enough Nicaraguan leaf to invite comparisons with Padron, but enough sweetness from the wrapper and Dominican leaf used to provide a complex and pleasing smoking experience. All at a price that is very accessible to most people.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
Just stopped by Burns on my way through and picked one of these up along with others. Good to hear it’s enjoyed, hope I get a similar experience from it.