Vitola: Lonsdale- 6.5” x 44 ring gauge
- Estimated MSRP ~$22
- Received at Drew Estate event
Background
About 3 years ago, the Van Winkle family announced a partnership with Drew Estate. Basically, it amounted to DE creating and producing a very limited supply of “barrel-fermented” cigars that would be available only through the Pappy Van Winkle website. Some of the cigars did find their way into stores at highly inflated prices…and later on at just mildly inflated prices. I was gifted one by a store owner about a year ago and felt it was “just okay”…but as I haven’t enjoyed flavored cigars in many years, I’m probably not the right audience for it. (As a side note, Davidoff started doing barrel-aging a little later with the Camacho American Barrel-Aged and Nicaraguan Barrel-Aged, as well as the Winston Churchill Late Hour…and all three of those are very good…so maybe it’s just a matter of the tobacco under the barrel-aging.)
This year, a new part of the DE/Van Winkle partnership was announced: Tradition. This would be a “traditional,” un-flavored, non-barrel-aged cigar…and it turns out to have a great back story. In 2010, before Willy Herrera joined Drew Estate, he went down to Nicaragua and worked at “test blending” for two straight days. At the end, he had three blends…one of which became Herrera Esteli…and one of which was eventually chosen by Julian Van Winkle for the Pappy Van Winkle Tradition.
The PVW Tradition uses Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, an Indonesian binder, and an Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro wrapper. The Lonsdale size is only available as part of Drew Diplomat events during the last quarter of this year. The shop I work at had such an event and I was able to get my hands on some of these cigars. I’ve smoked about 4 of them before this review sample. There is no “MSRP” for these, but I estimated one based on the pricing of other vitolas.
I am late to the party for reviewing these…Jon and Keith already reviewed the Belicoso Fino vitola.
Prelight
The box and band of the PVW Tradition use the same photo of Pappy Van Winkle that is on the “Our Pappy” page of the company’s website…smoking a cigar and apparently whiskey in hand. Good to know that PVW actually enjoyed cigars. (It’s the same photo that appears on the Family Reserve 15, 20 and 23 year old bourbons, too.) The banding is primarily red and metallic gold ink with white lettering and trim. All the markings seem to point toward Van Winkle, though, with nothing on either primary or secondary bands about Drew Estate.
The wrapper leaf was a milk chocolate brown with a slightly oily touch and a slight sandpapery grittiness under my fingers. It had an earthy aroma with touches of cedar and sweetness. The foot of the cigar had more earth with a slight bread note.
After I clipped with my Xikar Xi, the draw was great and the cold flavor had notes of cedar, earth and bell pepper.
Flavor
The Pappy Van Winkle Tradition lit quickly, evenly and easily, delivering immediate flavors of sweet bread, molasses, earth and cedar. There was a slight pepper note on the finish, along with a lingering sweetness that it mixed very nicely with. The retrohale had roasted nuts and a stronger peppery burn, but the burn was quick and faded quickly.
Deep into the second third, I was still getting sweet notes with a touch of vanilla, riding over light earthiness and touches of both bell and red peppers. The complexity hadn’t eased up at all.
The final third had the pepper spice coming on stronger and blending well with the sweeter notes. Honey was still in the mix but vanilla backed off a bit. Some salty savory flavors came into the profile, as well.
Construction
I got a very good draw, even burn line and solid ash.
Value
The price point on these is the difficulty. It’s very expensive…moreso than even the Unico Series!…but as much as I enjoyed these, I have to say I would pay the “Davidoff-level pricing” for them on occasion.
Conclusions
So if you read the earlier reviews, you’ll know that Keith didn’t really care for this blend, while Jon liked it, but didn’t feel like the price was fully justified. I think this may be the best blend I’ve ever had from Willy Herrera and I wonder why it took this long to come to light. The Pappy Van Winkle Tradition is naturally sweet with a great marriage of Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos. It is a pricey cigar, but it’s worth splurging for on occasion, the same way you would for a Davidoff or Padron 1926 Serie.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
