Vitola: Robusto- 5.5” x 50 ring gauge
- ~$12.99
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
In getting ready for this review, I tried to find images of the old General-made Ramon Allones and couldn’t find any. Honestly, I can’t remember if I ever tried the brand in its “original” Dominican version. I became aware of the brand early on when I started smoking cigars, but it just wasn’t a brand many stores kept in stock. There was more talk of the Cuban version, though in 18 years of cigar smoking, I think I may have had one of those.
According to Wikipedia, the Ramón Allones brand dates to 1845 when Ramón and his brother, Antonio, created it. It was supposed to be the first brand to have color lithography for the box art, the first to use bands, and the first to package cigars in the “8-9-8” formation (8 cigars on the bottom layer, 9 on the next, 8 on the top…25 in total). Like many Cuban brands, after the Revolution the government took possession of the brand and the proper owners fled the country, selling the rights to other companies to produce cigars. General Cigar produced a non-Cuban variant of Ramón Allones as its own brand for many years.
In 2015, General delegated the Allones brand (and the Bolivar brand) to their Foundry subsidiary. Foundry created “the future of classic brands” with blends that were decent, but not great, and packaging that was just plain bad. Needless to say, this experiment flopped. This year, General has licensed out the brand to A.J. Fernandez, who has created an all-new blend that his company is distributing (as opposed to the AJF Cigar company producing cigars that another company distributes, like they have done for Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Hoyo de Monterrey, and H. Upmann).
The first release of the A.J. Fernandez-made-and-distributed Ramón Allones has hit stores in the last month or so. It is a Nicaraguan puro, utilizing a Habano Oscuro wrapper leaf. Early news articles note that there is to be a Sumatran-wrapped version of the brand, as well, but I’ve learned that this cigar is slated for next year. In the shorter term, Fernandez has also licensed the Bolivar name from General and we should expect to see that cigar land sometime in August.
I have smoked a couple examples of this blend before this review stick, which I purchased at Burns Tobacconist.
Prelight
The first thing I noticed about the AJ Ramon Allones was that the band was very ornate. The box and band artwork are basically a slightly updated and modernized version of the old-school Cuban artwork. The secondary band that most A.J. Fernandez products ship with these days serves to differentiate this cigar from anything else with the Ramon Allones name. Each stick also has a cedar sheath covering the area below the secondary band and to the foot of the stick.
The wrapper leaf was dark brown and oily, looking like French roast coffee beans as much as anything else. The leaf had some fine-grit-sandpaper grit to it, as well, and smelled of earth, leather and cedar. The foot of the cigar had more earth, as well as coffee and unsweetened cocoa powder notes.
After clipping the end I got a really good test draw from the AJF Ramon Allones. The cold draw had tons of earth and leather flavors, along with lesser notes of cedar and coffee beans.
Flavor
The heavy, wet leaves used in this blend took a while to get fully lit, but once it was going, the cigar had a lot to say. Right away there were notes of earth and cedar and mild pepper spice. The retrohale didn’t have a lot more in terms of spice, either, which was kind of shocking. I guess I’ve just gotten used to many high end Nicaraguan blends that are very peppery. While the Nicaraguan origins of this cigar are evident in every puff, before the first third was over, it was easy to say that this was the richest and most refined blend I have had from A.J. As the first third burned away, the pepper spice faded quite a bit and I got a fairly strong dose of anise overlaying espresso beans.
The AJF Ramon Allones was full-bodied from the start, but also very smooth as the second third burned. I still got anise and coffee bean flavors, with leather and earth acting as supporting notes.
During the final third, I got more earth and leather while cedar notes made a comeback and anise and espresso bean faded a bit. There was a little pepper spice, but still not nearly as much as you would expect from a Nicaraguan blend from A.J. Fernandez.
Construction
I have had excellent construction with all samples of this I’ve smoked: great draw, even-enough burn line and solid ash.
Value
Along with being the most refined cigar A.J. Fernandez has crafted, it’s also about the most expensive one…but it has a flavor profile that supports the price tag, so I say it’s worth it.
Conclusions
The A.J. Fernandez version of Ramon Allones was a bit of a revelation. It still has the essence of Fernandez’s blending, so if you weren’t already a fan of his blends, this stick probably won’t change your mind. It also has a richness and smoothness uncharacteristic of many other Nicaraguan powerhouse sticks by A.J. This is an A.J. Blend on par with a Padron 1964 Anniversary Series in terms of overall experience. It was complex and full-flavored while being full-bodied and fairly strong.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
