Cigar Review: Sindicato Maduro

Vitola: Churchill
Size: 7” x 52 ring gauge
MSRP $12.95
Samples provided by the company

Background

The Sindicato brand first saw the light of day in 2013 when they released the Hex, Affinity, and Casa Bella lines. Soon after the first sample of their flagship cigar, called “Sindicato” and made by Casa Fernandez, started shipping and it wasn’t long after that when they showed up in stores. Sindicato is a brand owned by a conglomeration of cigar stores nationwide. The idea of a brand owned by stores is an interesting and controversial one…I would argue that it hasn’t been totally successful, either, as the reviews I’ve seen have been decidedly mixed and the sales have been anything but universally successful. Full disclosure: I have worked for nearly 2 years for Burns Tobacconist, one of the stores that is a member of the Sindicato group; even so, I’ll tell you straight up that I was not a big fan of Affinity and Casa Bella (although the latter sold decently as a bundle-level stick), felt the Hex was overpriced for what it delivered, and the Sindicato flagship was very disappointing.

I’m the type that wants to believe in these crazy ventures…but my faith has been sorely tested. So I was dubious when Sindicato sent samples of their newest blend: Sindicato Maduro. This is from the flyer they sent with it:

Sindicato Maduro is a square-pressed cigar with an unfinished foot and is crafted with a beautiful San Andrés Morrón wrapper from Alberto and Alejandro Turrent. Master blender Arsenio Ramos has combined this wrapper with the finest tobaccos from the farms of Eduardo Fernandez in Estelí and Jalapa, Nicaragua. The combination of this magnificent dark wrapper with a rich, bold Estelí double leaf binder, encompasses a blend of strong, flavorful Estelí and Jalapa leaves, which deliver a three quarter-full strength cigar with a unique taste.

In short, another Casa Fernandez smoke, and in many ways similar to other cigars they produce: Nicaraguan filler and binder (plenty of Aganorsa Leaf, I’m sure), along with a Mexican Maduro wrapper (all CF Maduros use Mexican leaf). Keith reviewed this same blend, although in a 60 ring gauge vitola, as his first review of 2015; he didn’t care for it. Last year we each reviewed the Natural Sindicato (His and Mine) and we both scored it an 8/10…will we end up feeling the same about the Maduro? Read on and find out…

Prelight

One of my digs at the original Sindicato blend was the band, which to me was too “Las Vegas” in its gold and black motif. In this iteration, the gold is mostly changed to silver foil and it does look considerably better…amazing how just the change of one color can affect perception. Now the motif looks more “old west” than “old Vegas.” The leaf that the band was wrapped around was a dark chocolate brown with an oily touch, but was fairly dull under the light, with no sheen. It did have a rich chocolatey aroma, while the foot had chocolate with touches of red pepper aroma…it’s hard to get much of the influence of the filler binder aroma when you have a fold-over foot. The pigtail on the head was tightly wound the whole thing had a good, solid appearance to it.

After clipping, the draw was excellent and had flavors of cedar, earth and semisweet chocolate.

Flavor

The Sindicato Maduro lit up quickly and easily, blasting out of the gate with strong flavors of earth and cedar, along with healthy doses of black pepper and unsweetened cocoa powder on the palate. On the nose, I got more of the cocoa powder and the pepper was more of the red variety…much more potent. The cigar started off medium-to-full in body, but bumped up to the solidly full range by the end of the first third. By that time I was getting plenty of earth still, but the wood notes had subsided, replaced by some natural tobacco and vegetal notes. The cocoa powder and chocolatey sweetness had emerged more distinctively, as well.

The second third had more chocolate and earth, a mild sweetness and the introduction of anise. The pepper notes were nearly absent by this point.

The final third had a steady delivery of earth, along with balancing notes of semi-sweet chocolate and additional red pepper which amped up the interest.

Construction

As with other Casa Fernandez products the construction on the Sindicato Maduro was pretty much flawless. I had a great draw, very even burn line and solid ash.

Value

While I enjoyed the flavor of this version of Sindicato over the natural, it still did not rise to the level of its price, in my opinion.

Conclusions

Keith found the 60 ring gauge version of the Sindicato Maduro to be a bit dull; this much smaller ring gauge did not leave me with the same impression. This cigar was full bodied, rich and flavorful, coming close to other Mexican Maduros on the market but not quite fulfilling the promise made by a $13 price tag. To me, it gives hope that there is life in the brand, but also reinforces the impression that the just about everything in the line is costs just a little too much.

By-The-Numbers

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