Cigar Review: Oliva Serie V Melanio Maduro

• Vitola: Churchill
• ~$14
• Purchased from Burns Tobacconist

Background

In 2013, Oliva Cigars started a new annual release to complement their award-winning Serie V Melanio line…the Serie V Melanio Maduro. They took the same basic approach as they had previously with the original Serie V and its annual Maduro offering…one size each year and a very limited number of boxes. Over a few years, they released Torpedo, Robusto and Churchill vitolas in the Maduro blend, but I don’t recall having seen any of them…either I was too late getting to the store, or we just didn’t get any.

This year, Burns received 2 boxes of Churchill and 2 boxes of Robusto (don’t call…by the time I write this they are all gone). And from what I hear that’s pretty much the limit of what most stores will get each year. While the original Serie V is a full-bodied double-ligero blend and the Serie V Melanio is more of a medium-to-full complex blend with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, the Maduro Melanio trades outer leaves for a Mexican San Andres Maduro…and I’m assuming the filler and binder are the same leaves used for the core line version of the Melanio, which means all Nicaraguan.

I was able to smoke a Churchill soon after they hit the shop. I liked it so much I decided to get one for review purposes. Shortly after that we got the Robustos in; one of those was damaged in shipping to the store (this is why putting cigars in cellophane is a good idea), so I got to smoke it, as well. I bought both Churchills at Burns.

Both of our sponsor shops are out of stock on these cigars at the time of this writing, but if you want these sticks, it would be good to keep an eye on Small Batch and Cigar and Pipes.

Prelight

This cigar was adorned with the regular Oliva Serie V main band, as well as an inverted version of the Melanio secondary band. Whereas the regular band has a thick brown strip in the middle of the band, surrounded by gold and red trim, this one is almost entirely gold. The type in the middle—“Melanio Maduro”—was brown and there we’re brown and red trim stripes above and below the type. Looking a little more closely, I realize the main band is probably not completely standard as it has “Limitada” on one of the arms.

The wrapper was a dark chocolate brown with some slightly darker mottling in places. It was slightly rough under my fingers, but quite oily, as well. The aroma from it was rich with bittersweet chocolate up front, coffee beans coming in behind, and a bit of earthiness. The foot of the cigar was earthy with a little sweetness and a little cedar.

The cold draw had excellent airflow and tasted of earth and cocoa powder primarily.

Flavor

Firing up the Serie V Melanio Maduro, I got sharp cedar up front, with bittersweet chocolate and coffee bean notes after that. At the back of the palate, there was some hazelnut and black pepper, while the retrohale was more of a red pepper heat. As the first third continued on I got tons of cocoa powder, with a slight sweetness in the mix, along with more earth, nuts and pepper.

The second third opened up much the same, though the pepper was starting to mellow out a bit and the hazelnut note was getting a little more pronounced. As I continued to burn through, I noted that the smoke became a little creamier and sweeter with more of a dark chocolate note than straight cocoa powder.

The last third had more sweetness and chocolate to the flavor profile, while the pepper seemed to increase again. Nutty and earthy notes continued apace, as well.

Construction

I had great construction on this stick: perfect draw, very even burn line and solid ash up to an inch at times.

Value

Small production equals higher price tag…but I think this is worth it more than the regular Serie V Melanio, to be honest.

Conclusions

I really like this cigar…probably more so than the regular release Melanio. The Maduro wrapper gives more strength and body, to be sure, but I find it also provided more depth of flavor and was more pleasing to my palate. Get this one while you can…or wait until next year and buy up all you can find!

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10