Vitola: Toro- 6” x 52 ring gauge
- MSRP $34.00
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
Davidoff’s Vault program provided quite a few exciting re-releases and special releases in 2018 and they didn’t let up on the gas pedal for Vault releases even as the year was ending. During the last month of the year, we saw two new sticks come out under the Vault label—Macau and the subject of today’s review: Superior.
This is what Davidoff’s website had to say about the blend:
Davidoff Superior demonstrates the skill of three distinguished Masters of their craft at Davidoff. Master Blenders Henke Kelner and Eladio Diaz, and Agronomist Manuel Peralta. For over four decades, these three gentlemen have worked together to design and craft some of the most exhilarating cigar experiences. As a team they display an exceptional level of excellence in their area of expertise.
This superior blend began with each of their preferred flavor experiences to create on overall remarkable cigar. The blend required the skill of our Master Agronomist Manuel Peralta, also known to many as the “Tobacco Whisperer”, to manipulate and design new hybrid seeds, growing the seeds into tobacco that is carefully aged for a minimum of 3 years and perfected by our master blenders.
The Superior uses Dominican fillers, including special hybrids 192 and 133 from Yamasa; a Dominican binder; and an Ecuadorian wrapper leaf. These special cigars come in bundles of 10 and you can only find them at Davidoff of Geneva 1911 stores, select Appointed Merchants, and Davidoff’s own online store.
I purchased this sample at Burns, where I work—which is a Vault Appointed Merchant. Leaf Enthusiast sponsor, Small Batch Cigar, is part of Maxamar, which is also a Vault merchant, although looking at their website, all Vault releases are currently sold out…and since they are “one and done” releases so far…well, don’t expect to see them back soon.
On a personal note, I have smoked all the Vault releases so far and I throw them into 3 general categories. First, the ones I personally wouldn’t bother smoking again: Year of the Snake, Wagner, and Puro Dominicano; none of these were “bad,” but they failed to stimulate my palate sufficiently. Second, ones where the jury is still out: Mundano and Paragon; neither excited me at first, but Mundano improved after just a couple months…how much better might both get with a couple years of age? Last, the ones I would love to have as regular releases: Gusto and White Edition 2011; I would buy either of these frequently if they were readily available. What category will Superior and Macau (to be reviewed at a later date) fall into? Let’s begin…
Prelight
If you’ve seen one Davidoff limited edition in the past few years you might as well have seen them all. Standard white label with gold foil and emboss, along with a secondary band that has the name of the blend along with Eladio Diaz’s signature. I wonder why they didn’t put the signatures of Henke Kelner and Manuel Peralta on this one, though.
The wrapper leaf was smooth and oily to the touch with a milk chocolate brown color. Even with a slight bit of mottling, it was easy to tell the leaf was as flawless as you would expect from a super-super-premium Davidoff offering. The aroma from the wrapper was a combination of earth and cedar and anise and raisins. The foot had notes of hay, bread, and bell pepper.
Do you ever get those cigars with a prelight draw so good you don’t want to actually light the cigar up? This was one of those. There was a chewy tropical fruit sweetness, enhanced by notes of salt and Davidoff funk.
Flavor
Cigars are made for burning, though, so I applied fire to foot of the Superior. Early flavors of bread, earth, white pepper, and semi-sweet chocolate fade to a dry wood and hazelnut finish. Retrohaling brought a deeper nuttiness along with a sharper pepper note. As I burned through the first third, I got more woody and nutty notes, while the earth and pepper faded a bit. Citrus came into the mix toward the end of the third.
During the second third, I got flavors of orange and salt, wood and roasted nuts. Pepper notes were subdued while bread and earth rode along steadily.
The last third saw chocolate come back and mix with the orange/citrus sweetness. Pepper had a resurgence and the woody notes morphed into more of a cinnamon note.
Construction
The draw was excellent, the burn line was very even and the ash was solid.
Value
This is an expensive cigar, but it was one of those that made me say, “If I am going to pay $35+ for a cigar, this is what I want.”
Conclusions
When asked about the name of this cigar it’s usually in the form of “Is it?” The answer is a definite “Yes!” The Davidoff Superior was flavorful and massively complex with different flavor notes as the burn progressed. I would put this in my Top 10 Davidoff blends of all time. I would fight Chuck Norris for it…although I’d rather fight Will Cooper for it since he seems a little easier to defeat. If you can afford it, you should get your hands on the Superior.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 10/10
