Stogie Reviews: La Gloria Cubana Medaille d’Or No. 1 Maduro
14 Aug 2007
These days there are so many new cigar releases, it seems that reviews are reserved for the latest debuts. That, of course, makes sense. What would you think of a music critic raving about The Beatles, or a book reviewer ecstatic over stumbling across a fascinating novel called The Great Gatsby?
On the other hand, you can certainly do worse than to spend time listening to Beatles’ recordings, and Gatsby is among the current big read selections of the National Endowment for the Arts. We shouldn’t forget that not everyone’s heard of or been exposed to everything. I’m constantly amazed at all the things I read and hear for the first time that I feel I should have known years ago.
All of which is a Paul Byrd-style windmill windup to this revelation: I’ve been bowled over by a vitola from that one-time darling of the cigar boom, La Gloria Cubana. It is the Medaille d’Or No. 1 Maduro, a long, slim stick that appears to be oozing oil and elegance. Lighting one up, I feel the best place to smoke it would be at an outdoor French café, sipping coffee and reading Le Monde (if I read French).
Some years back, I smoked La Gloria Cubanas quite often, usually the popular Wavells and Corona Gordas. But after a couple of Serie Rs whipped up on me, I drifted away from the entire brand. I’m not sure why this stick caught my eye in a local B&M humidor, but I’m glad it did.
Over several days, I smoked three No. 1s. At a length of six and 3/4 inches by 43 ring gauge, they were consistent in taste and burn. There was the typical maduro sweetness, accentuated over the course of the cigar with tastes of leather, coffee, and damp earth.
Befitting its reputation as “Cuban-like,†the Glory of Cuba, made in the Dominican Republic, doesn’t utilize exotic tobaccos. The wrapper is Ecuadorian, the binder Nicaraguan, and the filler a mix of Dominican and Nicaraguan. They produce a tight, white ash.
I had draw problems with two of the three. They felt plugged. With one of them, I eliminated the problem by clipping a bit more at the foot. The other, though, wasn’t as easy to fix. It finally worked itself out, more or less, about half way down.
I’d call this a medium strength cigar. When the draw is going well, the smoke is thick and rich.
Like most of the multitude of LCGs, this stick is reasonably priced. I paid $5.30, while boxes of 25 run about $67 on the Internet. They aren’t always in stock, either at shops or websites, but they’re worth searching out. The draw difficulties forced me to cut my rating a little, so I give the Medaille d’Or No. 1 a solid three and 1/2 out of five stogies.
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I, for one, have never heard of or smoked this cigar, so thanks for the review. Sounds interesting.
I suppose many small ring gauge stogies have problems with draw due to the packing. Do you find different kinds of cutters help better than others?
I usually use punch cutters on small ring gauge cigars to help improve the draw. I noticed the Stogie Guys also recommend that option in their tip on cutting.
For these, all of which I smoked at a B&M, I used a double-bladed guillotine at the shop. I also like punch cutters, but my experience at this shop has been they sometimes aren't sharp. And trying a less-than-sharp punch can be particularly tough on a small ring gauge cigar. As to the difficulty of construction, I've heard both smaller and larger ring gauges described as tough to put together. My belief is that a good, experienced torcedor can probably handle any size.
I just smoked the Torpedo version of this cigar. I cut it with double-bladed guillotine cutter and the draw was great. Although I did have to cut a little deeper than I normally would on a torpedo cigar. I got some woodsy and coco flavors from this cigar in addition to the flavors noted above. The final third had good amount of black pepper as well. It was medium to medium-full bodied all the way to the nub without getting harsh. I really enjoyed it!