This year has slipped by so fast…and with so few legitimate Cigar of the Year contenders! I’m not sure if it was the fact that I’m being harder on cigars during rating them…or if I’m just getting a little jaded by having smoked so many different cigars over the past 19 years or so…or if the new blends just aren’t as impressive.
In the end, though, it doesn’t matter because my rules remain the same as in previous years. If a cigar gets 5/5 on the flavor rating, it’s eligible for consideration in my COTY retrospective. Usually that means the cigar ends up with a 10/10 rating overall, although once a cigar lost a half point on something other than flavor and was in consideration.
The day before I started re-smoking the cigars on my list, Whiskey Advocate magazine announced their Top 25 whiskies for 2019, with George Dickel’s Bottled In Bond taking top honors. In recognition of a Tennessee Whiskey winning such a high honor, I went out and bought a bottle and decided to pair it with these cigars…well, at least the first one…if the whiskey is horrible, I’m not going to keep pairing it with great cigars!
Davidoff Vault: Kizuna
Davidoff went on another tear this year with frequent super-duper-premium releases north of the $30 price point. I smoked most of them, but there were only a couple that knocked my socks off. Kizuna was originally created as a commemoration of “the strength and bond of friendship after the aftermath of an earthquake that struck the country.” Davidoff’s blenders used Dominican filler and binder leaves along with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper
I really wish they would just do this cigar all the time and that they would bring it to the U.S. on a regular basis. In a year with some really spectacular Vault releases, I keep coming back to this one as a favorite…and I would keep coming back to it more often if I could get some more of them! This is one of those times when a $30+ price point is absolutely justified. I was working at Burns when these came out and didn’t pay full price (employee discount)…but I would pay full price. I originally reviewed the Kizuna in September.
By the way, the George Dickel BIB was exceedingly dark in color, a result of being in a barrrel for 14 years, I’m sure. It was thick and rich, with massive caramel notes, along with oak and corn before a spicy finish. And that’s a “crack open and pour”…generally bourbon-type whiskies tend to get better after you pour a dram, then let the air interact with the whiskey for a couple days.
Davidoff Vault: Superior
The other representation from the Davidoff Vault in this year’s COTY Contenders is the Superior. I’ve told people I smoke it simply because, “It is!”
I have probably smoked more of this blend than any other in the Davidoff Vault series, partly because they seemed to last longer than others. The blend has yet to let me down. All of Davidoff’s big names—Eladio Diaz, Henke Kelner, and Manuel Peralta—had a hand in this blend which uses Dominican fillers, including Yamasa-grown hybrids; a Dominican binder; and an Ecuadorian wrapper leaf. Overall, the blend doesn’t have much superficial difference from the Kizuna…but it’s a far different experience, which just goes to show how much variety there is to Dominican leaf. This is another high-priced stick that I would pay full price for…but they will be very hard to find going forward. I reviewed it at the end of January.
Davidoff Chefs Edition 2018
The original Chefs Edition (2016) was amazing and fantastic. How would they follow it up? With something that was just as amazing, if in different ways that were arguably better. This time around they used select Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, a Mexican San Andres binder, and a Dominican wrapper. You can easily distinguish this Chefs from the first one by the main band as this one was part of the 50th anniversary celebration that Davidoff did in 2018.
So, again, I reviewed a cigar as my first of the year that was in contention for COTY. And it was one of three $30+ Davidoff blends that made this list. That by itself is pretty incredible and perhaps reflects my tastes ratcheting up over the years. It also should explain why I ended up with the “Davidoff Jones” nickname before the year was over. I can’t believe there was a time when I didn’t find Davidoff worth the money, but I think I’ve gone full “cigar snob.” Read my original review here.
2019 CIGAR OF THE YEAR
Foundation Highclere Castle Victorian
Released in 2017, but not reviewed by me until January of 2018, the original Highclere Castle (now called Edwardian) won my COTY nod last year…and I still love the blend. I will maintain that it is the best Connecticut Shade-wrapped stick to hit the market in the last half-decade or more AND that there are very few Connys on the market that are superior to it at any price. So how would Nick Melillo and Foundation follow that up? How about a version with a similar richness and complexity, but a totally different flavor profile?
I’ve pretty much had all sizes of the Highclere Castle Victorian by now and they are all very good, but the standout vitola for me is the Petite Corona that I reviewed back at the beginning of October. It started off peppery, then mixed in notes of dark chocolate, earth, and roasted nuts, along with cedar and cinnamon on the retrohale. I got a very complex mix throughout that included more wood and spice notes along with grilled meat and more sweet chocolate.
Since then I’ve had this cigar in multiple sizes on multiple occasions and never been let down. And I’ve been able to find it regularly at both Burns (where I used to work) and Small Batch Cigar (a sponsor of this blog). That “accessibility” factor is what ultimately put the HIghclere Castle Victorian over the top for my Cigar of the Year pick. While the Davidoff Vault Kizuna was probably technically a “better” cigar (as “better” as one can get on a subjective matter like this), you cannot simply go out and buy one. They came out in very limited numbers early this year and are long gone. The Foundation Highclere Castle Victorian, though, is available just about anywhere fine cigars are sold…as long as your local shop has jumped on the Foundation train, that is. Also, so far I believe Nick Melillo and company are working hard to keep their high standards up so consistency on batches of cigars has been excellent from the time the company put out their first blends until now. That means you should be able to get this blend for years and be thrilled with it.
It’s worth noting that I’ve been referring to Foundation Cigar Company for the last couple years as “the next Tatuaje,” meaning the next “boutique”/small company that is destined to be a legendary cult classic and impact the cigar industry in a huge way. The fact that they have captured my Cigar of the Year pick two years in a row is just further evidence of that eventuality to me. Yes, you might call it a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I’m blown away by just how good everything they make is…even the original blend, El Gueguense, which I had grown a little tired of, was a new revelation to me in the Lancero format. Tabernacle 142, Menelik, Wise Man Maduro, Charter Oak…and, of course, the Highclere Castle Edwardian (the new name for the original Connecticut Shade release)…they have created an amazing lineup. Crowning it is the Highclere Castle Victorian, my 2019 Cigar of the Year pick.
