Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5″ x 50 ring gauge
Price $22.00
Review Sample from SmallBatchCigar.com
Background
When this cigar came out in 2006, to commemorate the 100th birthday of Zino Davidoff, whatever the price tag at that time was too far out of my range that I didn’t get to try one of them then. This last week SmallBatchCigar.com got in a small shipment of some of these cigars in the robusto size, and graciously gave me one to review. I don’t think they have been sitting for 11 years, but are a re-release, especially since the wrapper on this cigar is a lot darker than what I remember from back then. These cigars are comprised of Dominican fillers and binder with an Ecuadorian wrapper. They are only being sold in 4-packs at the moment. This was the first one of these I smoked.
Prelight
The wrapper on this cigar a medium-dark brown in color with lots of oils and some tooth to it. It is like the original, unbanded, which is a little disappointing since this isn’t a cigar you want to lose in the humidor. When I gave it a squeeze it was fairly firm without any soft spots. Putting my nose to the wrapper I got the aroma of leather from both it and the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw I got the flavors of raisins and wood.
Flavor
It starts off with a lot of spice on the tongue and retrohale. After a few puffs I started to get the flavors of wood, leather and sweetness coming through. The cigar starts off at the upper end of medium strength. As I moved into the second third, the strength and spice intensified to bring it to medium-full strength. I got flavors of wood, leather, the Davidoff mushroomy flavor with lots of sweetness on the finish. Once I moved into the final third the flavors changed slightly to leather, wood, copper, “Davidoff flavor”, all with the sweet finish. It moved into the full strength range as well as giving me a slight nicotine hit from it.
Construction
The draw was perfect throughout and the burn was only slightly wavy but that could have been due to my light it unevenly.
Value
Yeah I know $22 is a lot for a cigar, but compared to some of the other limited releases from Davidoff I think that price is reasonable.
Conclusions
So, yeah I really like this cigar. So much so that I texted Andrew before I finished the review cigar and told him to put a pack of these aside for me and I will get them the next time I’m in there. They may be too strong for some but this was an excellent cigar. If you want to pick up some of these rare cigars for yourself head on over to SmallBatchCigar.com before they run out.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10
