Humidor Archeology: CAO Gold Vintage

Vitola: Cremant (Toro)
Size: 6” x 52 ring gauge
Price ~$8.50
Purchased from ??? (I don’t remember!)

Background

The CAO Gold Vintage…many people confuse it with the regular CAO Gold, but it’s not at all the same. Made with a different filler blend (Nicaraguan and Honduran) and a 2004 harvest Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper, the Gold Vintage is a cigar that holds a special place in my heart.

I reviewed the Gold Vintage in December 2009, less than a year after I had moved to Tennessee from California. During the first year, I became a regular customer at Burns Tobacconist, I worked on trying to define what my blog was about (The Tiki Bar Online, that was), and I visited CAO Headquarters for the first time. In figuring out what my blog was about, I made no real effort to get noticed by anyone in the industry, but was very pleased to get an email from Keith one day, telling me that Jon Huber had mentioned my review on Twitter…which I wasn’t on at that time. That was the start of deciding that the blog would be about cigars…which eventually grew into Leaf Enthusiast.

Oh, and the Gold Vintage…I loved it. One of my all-time favorite Connecticut-Shade-wrapped cigars. I bought quite a few singles and a couple boxes of the Cremant size. I socked a few away in my “aging humidor,” too. Going through that the other day, I decided it might be time to go ahead and see how these are getting along. Mild (or even mild to medium) cigars don’t always age the best. To the best of my recollection, I bought these near the end of 2011 at Burns Tobacconist, but I could be wrong on that.

Notes

Kept snug in the humidor, left in the cellophane, the Gold Vintage has weathered the years well, retaining a beautiful gold hue, oily sheen, and ripe, sweet aroma. Lighting up brought forth a creamy, well-balanced flavor that was like coming home in some ways. While it wasn’t quite as sweet and flavorful as I recalled, it’s still very enjoyable from puff #1.

I got plenty of buttery, grassy notes on the front end, along with black pepper on the nose and finish. There was also some Nicaraguan earthiness mixed in for good measure.

I enjoyed most of this cigar, but it was a reminder that sometimes you don’t want to let things age too long. Every blend has what you might call a “Best By” date, although they never tell you when that is. From a smokability standpoint, keep a cigar in a properly climate-controlled environment, and you should be able to smoke them 10, 15 or 20 years down the road. But they won’t always be the cigars you remember. I believe these were probably rolled within a year of the original release (August 2009 – August 2010) and had a year or two of age on them when I bought them. They probably peaked in 2012 or so.

As the cigar went along, the memories of great flavors did not transpire this time around. It ended up being good for the most part, but not outstanding. One person suggested it might be in a “sleep” period and it might come out of that in a few more months…so I guess I’ll hang on and see what happens then.