Cigar Review: Selección España Bali-Lance by Quesada

• Vitola: Bali-Lance
• 7” x 40 ring gauge
• $12.00
• Provided by CDMCigars

Background

The Quesada Selección España is always a hard cigar to get your hands on here in the U.S. The company started making the blends several years back specifically to compete with Cuban cigars sold in the Spanish market. A few people in the States got their hands on them and word spread quickly. Soon a few very good Quesada stores were allowed to carry them on a limited basis and a couple years back the madness kind of culminated in a bizarre lottery that made almost no one happy…12 stores were chosen to receive 2 boxes of a special size of España. One store a month would be chosen for the entire year and they wouldn’t know it until just before it was announced…and they would have to figure out how to distribute 100 or so cigars amongst their regular clientele and anyone else who found out about the special cigar and wanted to call in. It was almost like being an Unlucky 13 Monster Cigar store, but even worse in some ways.

Casa de Montecristo in the Chicago area recently sent me samples of many of their store exclusives, including samples of both the Fabulosos and the Bali-Lance vitolas of Selección España. When I went to their website, I noticed that the Fabulosos was no longer shown, but the Bali-Lance is. Interesting note…I saw two other blogs refer to it as “Beli-Lance” which makes me wonder if that was the original name and something got misspelled so the store just ran with it…after all, Beli-Lance makes more sense, since this is a Lancero size with a Belicoso tip. Anyway, I decided to do a full review of the Bali-Lance and might come back with a Cigar Extra for the Fabulosos at some point in the near future…I haven’t decided that yet.

I also can’t find out if these are one-and-done exclusives or ongoing production. What we do know is this: the España blends uses Dominican, Nicaraguan, and Connecticut Broadleaf in the filler, a Dominican binder, and an Ecuadorian Arapiraca wrapper leaf. It is made in the Dominican Republic.

Prelight

I’ve probably stated it before…I like the look of the Quesada Selección España. It’s sharp-looking with its silver and copper foil on a black background. The smaller size does not diminish the good looks of the banding on this stick. The wrapper leaf was a medium-brown, maybe slightly darker than the color of peanut butter. It had a good amount of mottling, a tiny bit of toothiness and an attractive oily sheen to it, while giving off an aroma of earth and leather. The foot had more rich earth and manure notes, along with a subtle sweetness to the mix.

Once clipped, the Selección España Bali-Lance had a good draw with notes of sweet hay, cocoa powder, and earth, along with just a touch of pepper spice.

Flavor

While lighting up the cigar and in the first few puffs of it, I got plenty of earthy flavors, mixed with cocoa, roasted nuts, and copper notes. There was a touch of pepper on the palate, but a much better burn from it on the nose.

Through the first third and on into the second, the pepper spice grew on the palate, along with an introduction of cedar and more earth. The cocoa powder, nuts and copper melted away fairly quickly in the profile.

During the last third, I got some tarry build up on the head and it caused some undue bitterness in the flavor. When I was able to cut the stuff away, the flavor settled down to woody and peppery, with a bit of balancing sweetness.

Construction

I ended up having to re-cut the cigar several times when it threatened to close up completely on me; thankfully, it didn’t really cause the other belicoso problem of unraveling in the process. The third and fourth times I had to cut it, though, it was because of the tarry, sappy buildup on the head that comes from too tight a draw. The ash held on like concrete for up to an inch and the burn line was even enough.

Value

With the limited production run of these, the price is always a little steep, but overall the experience was worth it.

Conclusions

Aside from the irritations that belicoso shaped cigars give me almost every time, I really enjoyed the Quesada Selección España Bali-Lance. It had a very nice flavor that accentuated the peppery notes, which built steadily throughout the smoking time. If it were me, I would just go with a simple Lancero, though, and not the torpedo-tipped version. That said, if you like the España already, this is an easy way to get your hands on more of a cigar that is always hard to find.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10