Vitola: Corona- 5.5” x 42 ring gauge
- $10.49
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
The tale of the Esteban Carreras 1961 is an interesting one. As related to me by our local company rep, the cigar was originally sold by Esteban Carreras early in the company’s history, before they owned a factory. They worked with La Aurora Cigars in the Dominican Republic to create and produce the 1961 blend and it sold fairly well for a good amount of time. I was able to find one old review from 2008 about this stick. The company website says the cigar is aged 3 years after rolling and only released once a year…but I believe that may be old information.
What the rep told me is that Esteban Carreras hadn’t offered these for sale in quite a while. They set up shop several years ago with their own factory in Nicaragua and have been busy producing blends like the 187, 5150, Covenant, and Chupa Cabra…and then one day they got a call from La Aurora asking what they wanted done with the old 1961s that were rolled and shelved…and paid for already! Turns out some of these sticks could have been aging for close to 10 years and now some are available again.
I couldn’t get blend details from the company website, but the other review I looked at says Dominican fillers, an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, and a Cameroon wrapper. I had one or two of these prior to deciding to review it. I bought all mine from Burns Tobacconist.
Prelight
When I originally saw the cigars, I thought…”Well, of course, these are several years old…the band looks very much like something that came out in the first decade of the century.” Except that there is an even older band that the rep showed me. I think this one did come out around 2007/2008. It’s nice-enough looking while not breaking any new ground, even for it’s day. The secondary band that just says “Carreras” seems entirely superfluous to me.
The wrapper itself had a toasted caramel color to it, with a little lighter mottling and a little darker mottling. Giving it a sniff, I picked up barnyard and leather from the wrapper, while the foot had more prevalent notes of cedar mixed with earth and hay. The prelight draw was very good and had a nice natural tobacco flavor, with touches of hay and pepper.
Flavor
Lighting up the Esteban Carreras 1961, I got a mix of cedar, natural tobacco and grassy flavors on the palate. The retrohale had a solid peppery note that is the hallmark of Cameroon wrapper leaf, although with the amount of age on this cigar, the pepper wasn’t nearly as pronounced as I am used to and it only burned for a moment before leaving a nutty note in its wake.
As I got into the second third, nutty notes had come into play in a big way on the palate, but there was still a good amount of natural tobacco and hay in the mix, as well. The pepper on the nose had mellowed out some, but was still hanging around a bit. I had the wrapper split on me a bit at this point, as well. I’m not counting it off as a construction issue, just noting that Cameroon wrapper is among the most delicate of wrapper leaves and is prone to splitting for anything but very careful handling and proper humidification. I probably didn’t handle it quite as carefully as I should have after removing it from the cellophane.
The final third had lots of roasted nuts up front, with hay, earth and red pepper following behind. I smoked it down to about half an inch left and enjoyed every minute.
Construction
I had a consistently great draw, very even burn line and solid ash that held up to three-quarters of an inch.
Value
The price is a little steep, but this is a rare and well-aged stick, so I deem it worth the cost of admission.
Conclusions
Aging doesn’t help every cigar, but Dominican tobacco seems to age better than most other countries’ leaf. The Esteban Carreras 1961 is a fantastic example of a well-aged stick that has very good flavor along with a good amount of complexity. They are somewhat rare and unlikely to be produced again, so if you find them, give them a try…and if you like them, buy as many as you can.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
