Cigar Review: Untamed by La Aurora

Vitola: Corona Gorda
Size: 6” x 47 ring gauge
Price $8.49
Purchased at Burns Tobacconist

Background

Sometimes it just becomes necessary for an older company to redefine themselves a bit for a younger audience. You see it happening with some of the oldest of old-school brands: Macanudo, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta. It basically comes down to the fact that there is a lot of younger, “hipper”…maybe “edgier”…competition out there. There are very few long-established brands that haven’t felt the need to make some sort of move. La Aurora has really been making moves to modernize for half a decade or more, from having a very strong social media presence, to producing regional exclusives, and now the release of what is reputed to be their “strongest blend” to date.

Untamed uses a modernized lion image—a reference to the León family which founded the brand and Guillermo León who is the brand owner today—in addition to distressed wood for the box, claw graphics and more modern type faces. All this shows the influence of Jason Holly, owner of the Viva Republica brand and a product developer for La Aurora.

They used 3 types of Dominican leaf along with some Nicaraguan for the filler, a Dominican binder, and then threw on a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. They are available in 5 sizes and came out shortly after this year’s trade show, so your local tobacconist should have them now. I bought several at Burns Tobacconist, saving out a Corona Gorda for this review.

I used some information from a CA news item, which you can read HERE.

Prelight

The red, black and gold motif on the Untamed banding is unique in the La Aurora catalog and I don’t remember seeing anything quite like it on the shelves from other manufacturers, either. The roaring lion is seen in profile, in the normal location and orientation you would expect, then “Untamed” and “By La Aurora” are sideways on the main band, with “Untamed” gain sideways on the footband. Both have plenty of foil and embossing, along with interesting die cuts. All in all, I think they succeeded with the “edgy” part of the mission statement.

Also a success is the appearance of my favorite type of wrapper leaf, a beautiful, dark chocolate brown Connecticut Broadleaf with veins showing and an oily feel under the fingers. Taking the cigar out of the cellophane cause an eruption of chocolate aroma into the air. After I had let the cigar sit for half and hour or so, it had died down, but the smell from the wrapper was still definitely chocolatey, sweet and earthy, with the foot being much the same, just more intense.

The prelight draw again had a strong chocolate sweetness to it, although I didn’t expect that to continue so prevalently when fire was added.

Flavor

Once lit the Untamed by La Aurora had more of an unsweetened cocoa flavor with just a hint of sweetness, a lot of earthiness and more than a little bit of pepper spice on the tongue and on the nose. It definitely hit the mark of being full-bodied, not just for a La Aurora cigar, but just full-bodied without qualifiers. The pepper spice died down a bit within five minutes or so, but didn’t die out. Toward the end of the first third, I started picking up some Dominican toasty flavor, as well.

During the second third the Untamed lost what was left of the pepper spice and transformed from a fairly aggressive “New Wave Dominican” smoke to more of a traditional smoke, losing some body and strength in the process. I still got plenty of earth and toast, along with a good infusion of Broadleaf semi-sweet chocolate notes, but it just didn’t seem like it was living up to the name at this point.

The final third saw the cigar stay steady in terms of body, finishing out at the medium-plus point. I got more sweetness and earth.

Construction

The burn line was very straight for a Broadleaf wrapper. The ash was solid enough, with just a little bit of flaking. The draw was excellent, but despite that I got some tarry buildup during the second third and had to recut. Not a huge deal, really, and the only time I can remember it happening on any of these I’ve smoked.

Value

Like most of La Aurora’s other offerings, the Untamed was quite reasonable in price so I deem it a good value.

Conclusions

The Untamed by La Aurora is a very good smoke, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed in it. It promised a new direction, a bolder, more full-bodied Dominican cigar that would challenge everything you’ve known about La Aurora. In the end, it was a very good Dominican blend with the added sweetness of a Broadleaf wrapper, but I couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t earth shattering in terms of how it made me feel about the brand. And it must be said that I don’t feel anything negative about the brand…they make some of my favorite medium-bodied, complex smokes like the 107 Corona and the Guillermo Leon Corona Gorda. This sits along them very well, but doesn’t end up pushing the limit very far of what they are known for.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9/10