Stogie Reviews: Rocky Patel Vintage 1992 Torpedo

12 Feb 2007

Time and again, whenever I have a special occasion to celebrate – like a birthday or a good friend coming to town – I break out something from Rocky’s Vintage 1992 line. Why? Because no matter how high my expectations get before the first light, I’m never disappointed.

The Rocky Patel Vintage 1992 Torpedo is a six and ¼ inch by 52 ring gauge slice of heaven. An unblemished, well-textured, ten-year-old Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper engulfs a binder and filler that have been accumulating flavor and character for seven years.

A fresh slice off the head provides the lucky smoker-to-be with a cross-section of cigar rolling mastery. Despite tightly packed tobaccos, the draw is clear and true.

After toasting the foot, I noticed rich earthy notes of oak and almond. Oddly, despite the easy draw, each tasty puff produced relatively small tufts of smoke.

The stogie doesn’t show its true colors, however, until the second third of the smoke. Here, the aforementioned wood and nut flavors mature into notes of dark roasted coffee beans.

It’s at this point that I usually have to audibly remind myself to smoke slower; I find the flavors so enticing that only taking one or two puffs per minute is like asking a child to be patient and not bite into a Tootsie Pop.

As far as physical properties are concerned, my many experiences with these stogies have uncovered no noticeable flaws. If you can’t get an even burn, a firm ash, or an effortless draw, you’re doing something wrong (and you might want to consult our Tips).

Clocking in at about $8.75 apiece, this is obviously no cheap stick. But considering the Vintage 1992 line’s complexity, full-bodied flavors (that hands-down outmatch the Vintage 1990 line), and aging, it’s still a great bargain.

So, keeping in mind the guidelines for StogieGuys.com’s unique ratings system, I’m wholeheartedly giving the Rocky Patel Vintage 1992 Torpedo five out of five stogies.