Cigar Review: Partagas Heritage

• Vitola: Rothschild
• 4.5” x 50 ring gauge 
• MSRP $8.49
• Provided by General Cigar Company

Background

In March, General Cigar announced that they were expanding their Partagas brand, a Dominican-rolled cigar you can purchase in the American marketplace. The Partagas Heritage is the result of over a decade of experimentation and blending. They used the same Dominican Piloto Cubano and Mexican San Andres leaf in the filler that they used for the Partagas 160 release, as well as Jamastran Valley Honduran filler leaf and a Connecticut Broadleaf binder, all surrounded by a Honduran Olancha San Agustin (OSA) wrapper leaf, a leaf that is reminiscent of the wrapper used on the Partagas Spanish Rosado (you might know it as the Partagas Red Label).

I received a 5-pack of the Partagas Heritage from General Cigar for this review. I’ve smoked four of them before this review sample. I did get information from both General’s own website as well as Will Cooper’s news story about the release of this cigar.

Prelight

They meant this release to “give a nod to previous releases” of the brand, including the 150, but honestly the association I made when I saw the Partagas Heritage was with the Cuban Serie P release. It’s really the same basic style, with the red background and gold type and trim. At the top and bottom of the band are double lines in gold while “Heritage” is rendered in a larger type than “Partagas”…all the same look as the Cuban cigar. Honestly, though, I going to argue that they have just as much right to use the name and design as the Cuban government does…after all, the Cuban brand really was stolen from the rightful owners who then took their business to the Dominican Republic, with the Cifuentes family partnering with General Cigar to produce the “free world” version of the brand.

The wrapper leaf of the Heritage is just a touch lighter than a milk chocolate brown, with just a touch of red showing and a little darker mottling. It smelled of ripe earth with a little sweetness in the mix. The foot had more earthiness, mixed with cocoa powder, hay and cedar aromas. The cold draw was open and the flavor was of natural tobacco, hay and cedar.

Flavor

The Partagas Heritage fired up with plenty of wood flavor…some cedar and some less distinct. It had a subtle sweetness with a chocolatey overtone and some black coffee in the mix, as well as touches of grass and natural tobacco.

As I got into the second third, I noted that the sweetness was more manifest in terms of a citrus flavor, laying over wood and coffee. At this point a small pepper burn started to pick up in the finish, while the retrohale continued as it had, which was mostly nutty.

The last third had the sweetness going back to a more chocolate note while flavors of coffee, wood and roasted nuts played beneath.

Construction

I had a great draw, very even burn line and solid enough ash.

Value

The price is in the sweet spot and the cigar is solidly good, so full points for value.

Conclusions

The Partagas Heritage is a good smoking experience, especially if you pay attention to it a little bit. The first couple I smoked were a bit generic because I was busy with other things and the flavors didn’t stand out, but when I sat down to focus on it, I found it to be much more complex than I had previously thought. However, it’s hard to be too enthusiastic about a cigar that only stands out when you do choose to really pay attention to it. I’ve had many other cigars that just stood out no matter what I’m doing and that’s what I really want a high-scoring cigar to do. This is still a worthy cigar and one that I’m sure to pick up from time to time, but probably only because the price point is so reasonable.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10