Vitola: Churchill- 7” x 48 ring gauge
- $13.99
- Purchased at Burns Tobacconist
Background
It’s…a Fuente…
Well, that’s about enough background, I guess!
Wait…what?
Honestly, that’s about how I feel though when looking for information on any new release from the Arturo Fuente Cigar Company. Famously secretive, they don’t share a lot of information on releases that have been staples for 3 decades or more, so why should I expect them to tell us anything about something new?
I picked up a couple sticks from a “new release” that came out in the last few weeks: Naked Kings. There’s no official information out there but lots of rumors. “It has some Nicaraguan tobacco!” “It’s got a Corojo wrapper!” “It’s nothing but a non-tubed King T!”
Pretty much all those statements could be true, but I have no way of knowing. It’s a Churchill-sized cigar (same as the King T), with one of the 3 (or so) standard Fuente bands around it (this one the same one that’s used on the Rosado Sungrown Magnum line), and a red ribbon around the foot. They came packaged in 10-count zip-lock bags, no boxes. With no information and with the purpose seemingly to cause confusion, I decided to give some opinions on the cigar without giving it a full review…it’s a “limited edition” release anyway…by the time you read this they’ll probably all be either smoked or sitting in some Fuente collector’s humidor where they will stay (unsmoked) until the end of time (which is a total waste, by the way…don’t you people know that cigars are meant to be smoked?).
Notes
After the time and effort that has been put into Opus X, 20 Year, and even Añejo releases, the packaging effort put into the Naked Kings is not just disappointing…it’s fairly pathetic. The packaging screams “nothing special,” but everyone acts like it is indeed “special.” So make up your minds…either give it a special treatment with ornate and elaborate packaging, or drop the price and make tons of them.
The wrapper leaf definitely had that reddish-medium-brown appearance of the Rosado Sungrown line so it could be the same leaf. The aroma from it was slightly sweet, with earth and cedar and hay. On the foot I got notes of hay and bread. The cold draw had a definite “Dominican” flavor of bread, citrus, and grass. I paired this cigar with some Dussee Cognac.
Once fired up, the Naked King had a mild-to-medium profile full of light earthiness, wood, and grass flavors, backed up with slight citrus and bread. The finish had white pepper, while the retrohale had a stronger pepper heat. I’m not an expert on Fuente blends, but I couldn’t help but thinking this was really just a new size of the Rosado Sungrown line…a “King T” edition of it, perhaps? It was good from the outset, but I couldn’t taste anything really “special” about it.
Ten minutes in I noted that the body had increased to a solid medium and the pepper was more persistent. There was a slight earthiness and the grassy notes had faded into the background. As I burned through it, the flavor profile kept pretty steady from then on. The cognac was a good accompaniment, although a good sipping rum might have been an improvement.
At the end of the whole thing, I couldn’t help but feeling that this was not really a “special” release as something the company released as “special” because they didn’t have enough to release it as a regular product with full packaging…or maybe it’s a preview of a regular product to come later. In any case, I feel like the lack of published information was a little bit of a cheat disguised as trying to be mysterious. Good cigar, but not something to be put next to Opus releases that it shipped with.
Note: just before this posted, halfwheel a story about it and they were able to get at least some information about the blend…it IS apparently different than normal Fuente releases, but that’s all they would say.
