The Stogie Guys

You won’t find much information online about this relatively obscure cigar. Perdomo’s extensive website doesn’t even mention the blend, and my emails to the company have gone unanswered so far. All this is a shame, especially since I was pretty pleased with the three Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne Robustos that I smoked for this review.

Here’s what I do know: The line features a Cuban-seed binder and filler from Nicaragua and a triple-fermented Connecticut shade wrapper. As with many anniversary cigars, this one was created to celebrate Tabacalera Perdomo’s ten years in the business.

The five inch by 54 ring gauge Robusto looks like many Connecticut shade smokes, albeit save for the orange-yellow cellophane in which it is wrapped. The wrapper leaf is oily, light, and clean, and the stick is firm and tightly packed with an overall feel of quality. The unique band is as huge as it is ornate.

Now for those of you who consider yourselves too macho for Connecticut shade tobacco, don’t write off the Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne just yet—this unassuming stick packs a lot more flavor than you’d think. While the main profile of sweet hay and grass is predictable, it is partnered with heavier, more unexpected notes of pepper, smoky wood, and cereals.

I don’t want to give you the impression this Perdomo rivals a 601 Oscuro. It doesn’t. But it incorporates more complexity and flavor than many Connecticuts, even after the taste settles down after the midway point.

While the construction isn’t impeccable, it’s better than most cigars that sell for around $130 per box of 25. The white ash is a little too flakey as it layers gorgeously atop the fairly straight burn. The draw is deliberate but easy. Despite some reviews I’ve read, I had no trouble keeping my three samples lit.

My overall verdict is that this is a solid, multifaceted smoke with more taste than meets the eyes. Don’t pass up the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne Robusto as a delicious early evening cocktail smoke. I give it three and a half stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here. Cigars for this review were provided by Cigars Direct. You can purchase Perdomo cigars from Cigars Direct here.]

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar. The following is a Guest Quick Smoke, submitted by a StogieGuys.com reader. If you’d like to submit your own for publication, please contact us.

A long, slim cigar (7 x 34) comes out from a cedar-lined green tube. The rough Connecticut shade wrapper may be an ugly sight for smokers who are used to paying $5 per stick, which is about what this stogie retails for. The prelight smells of cocoa and cedar, and its band slips out easy. Upon lighting, the initial draw reminds me of a Don Diego Baby—mild, firm white ash, and not a whole lot of smoke. Towards the second third, the ash turns into salt and pepper, and the flavor becomes a bit stronger, akin to Cohiba Pequeno Miniatures. By the last third, it kicks to full body with billows of smoke. All throughout, the smoke is cool down to the nub, perhaps due to the moderately tight draw.

Verdict = Buy.

-Submitted by Rob Castro of Chino Hills, CA

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

This robusto-sized cigar is worth a full review but, to do that, I need to smoke a few more. Since I think it’s worth your attention sooner rather than later, I thought I’d do a Quick Smoke after smoking just one. The Edicion Especial No. 2 (4.9 x 48) begins as do many of Don Peipin’s creations: a blast of pepper spice. I’m guessing, though, it’s the influence of his son Jaime that makes the overall smoking sensation different. In the final two-thirds, the stick mellows out and generates flavors ranging from leather and wood to some bittersweet notes. I was reminded at times of some of the more flavorful Cubans I’ve had.

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and informative as possible, each Friday we’ll post a mixed bag of quick cigar news and other snippets of interest. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) Boston’s health commission yesterday approved sweeping extensions of the city’s smoking ban. The cigar bar ban won’t go into effect for ten years instead of the originally proposed five. Still, the brazen new law makes Boston the most unfriendly major U.S. city by outright outlawing cigar bars (including Stanza dei Sigari, pictured at right), making illegal the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies and on college campuses, and prohibiting smoking in outdoor patios and parks. Before the vote, even supporters of Boston’s four-year-old smoking ban were calling the proposed legislation too severe. “The new regulations,” according to the Boston Herald, “go too far.”

2) Meanwhile, Dallas officials also expanded the city’s smoking ban to include bars and pool halls. Shops and cigar bars that earn at least 15 percent of their revenue from tobacco sales, however, remain exempted.

3) In happier news, Maker’s Mark created a new cigar to support U.S. troops. Click here to donate and send anywhere from a single stick to a box of 25 smokes overseas. Makers Mark will cover all shipping costs.

4) Inside the Industry: Padilla will be making a new full-flavored cigar for Nub in its new Miami factory (MSRP $9). Angel Diaz, formerly of Camacho cigars, is the new sales and marketing director for Arganese.

5) Around the Blogs: Stogie Review smokes a Wango Tango. Cohiba Club lights up an Ashton ESG. Cigar Inspector reviews an Alonso Menendez. Stogie Fresh tries a Los Blancos Criollo.

6) Deal of the Week: This deal from Famous Smoke Shop includes nine great robustos for just $29.99, all seasonably wrapped in white bands. Included are smokes from Griffin’s, Toraño, Rocky Patel, Cuvée, Gran Habano, and Montecristo. Grab yours here.

7) Reminder: Sunday is the last call to enter our “What Do Cigar Rights Mean to You?” contest. The winner takes home a fantastic Rocky Patel prize pack.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

As you might have seen in last week’s Cigar Insider, the fine folks of PG Cigars are traditionalists who make significant sacrifices to create cigars that look, taste, and feel like pre-Castro Cubans. Dr. Paul Garmirian and his son Kevork have honed an important strategy: set aside gimmickries to focus on providing top-notch products for the most discriminating of cigar enthusiasts.

Their efforts often result in cigars that are dissimilar to many of today’s most popular blends. The Epicure size from PG’s original Gourmet Series, which debuted in 1990 at Georgetown Tobacco, is no exception.

The blend features a Colorado shade Connecticut wrapper that’s grown in Ecuador and a binder and filler from the Dominican Republic. It has a dry, leathery look and a faint prelight aroma of cedar and earth. Handmade in Santiago, the Gourmet Series is known for its spice and balance.

We didn’t find a ton of spice but, not unlike most PG creations, the five and a half inch by 50 ring gauge Epicure is big on balance. It starts with a clean vegetal taste and then quickly moves into a mild, complex array of oak and cedar.

Like a Davidoff Grand Cru, this series’ subtleties are best uncovered if you occasionally smoke through the nose. Doing so will give you access to all the warm fruit and dry red wine notes that are otherwise too muted to appreciate. For this same reason, if you’re on a steady diet of powerhouse Nicaraguans the Gourmet Series Epicure is probably not up your alley. It’s the sort of stick that pairs better with a nice red burgundy than a strong cocktail of rum or whiskey.

We are happy to report the physical properties are as good as you’d expect for a cigar that sells for $9.50. The burn is surgically straight and the ash is well-layered and sturdy. Fans of Graycliffs will be pleased with the easy draw despite the cigar’s firm touch.

This mild creation’s many wonderful traits won’t hit you over the head; they will, however, reward those who pay close attention. For its delicate deliciousness, we give the Paul Garmirian Gourmet Series Epicure four stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick A & Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

As we reported Friday, a legal ruling in the decade-long battle over the Cohiba brand name could be a major setback for the General Cigar Co. General, a subsidiary of Swedish Match AB and one of the largest premium cigar makers in the world, makes and distributes such famous brands in the U.S. as Macanudo, Partagas, Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey, Bolivar, La Gloria Cubana, and many others.

But the General brand at the heart of the controversy is Cohiba, perhaps the most famous trademark in cigars. Last month Cubatabacco, the storied Cuban tobacco monopoly (also known as Habanos SA), won a major victory in the latest decision in the protracted legal fight with General over the Cohba name. The key decision changed the standard that determines who has the rights to the Cohiba trademark—rendering a 2004 ruling against General Cigar Co. upheld.

The decision rests on a legal standard known as the “famous marks doctrine,” which states that a trademark is protected in a given nation if it is well-known, even though the mark is neither used nor registered there. The court found that despite the fact Cubatobacco didn’t file for a trademark on the Cohiba name, under the famous names doctrine it still retains the name’s rights.

The case is complicated by the fact that the Cuban trade embargo means that Cubatobacco can’t sell Cohibas in the U.S. Notwithstanding that well-known fact, the judge held that consumers were likely to be confused between Dominican-made and Cuban Cohiba cigars.

Judge Notes Cubatobacco’s ‘Cozy’ Relationship with Cigar Aficionado

The 2004 decision also provides a unique look into the premium cigar business. The first 70 pages of the decision read like a history of the Cohiba name and of cigar marketing practices, including fascinating details of the role played by Cigar Aficionado in establishing the Cuban Cohiba’s mystique.

At one point, in a discussion over how well-known the Cuban Cohiba was in the early nineties, the judge observes a “cozy relationship between…Cubatabaco’s marketing department and the editorial staff of Cigar Aficionado” that resulted in multiple “puff pieces,” or positive publicity for Cohiba.

The Future of General Cigar’s Cohiba Line is Uncertain

If the current ruling stands, the decision will mark the end of General Cigar’s “Red Dot” Cohiba lines. As part of the 2004 ruling, the judge ruled that General must turn over all its cigars and other materials that contain the Cohiba name. However, that order seems to be pending any appeal by General Cigar.

In a statement provided to StogieGuys.com, General Cigar’s Dan Carr, the senior vice president of sales and marketing, said “we strongly disagree with the Judge’s ruling and will continue to vigorously defend our position, up to and including (if necessary) taking an appeal of his ruling.”

We asked General Cigar what the ruling means for the immediate future of the Dominican Cohiba line, and if the company would continue to market and produce the cigar. We are told, however, that aside from the above statement, “given that this is pending litigation, we cannot comment further.”

–Patrick S

photo credit: Wikipedia

The other day I had a little time for a smoke, so I began looking through my stash for a small cigar. But before finding one, I noticed a green thing, roughly robusto-sizes, that had been there for quite awhile: an Iguana from Thompson that I almost certainly picked up at one of their cigar events I’ve attended. I thought, “Hey, I’ll give it a try. If my memory of the last candela I smoked is correct, I won’t like it very much and it’ll end up being a short smoke.”

Well, I ended up smoking about half of it. In all honesty, it began fairly nicely. Mild, with a touch of sweetness and tobacco. But that didn’t last. The Iguana produced a lot of smoke—again, not what I recall from previous candelas—but it quickly became so dry and tasteless that I could imagine I was smoking dry pine needles rather than tobacco.

So, that leads to question number one: Does anyone smoke candelas on a regular basis?

The second question was prompted by a recent visit to a cigar shop where I found myself gazing at some of the pipes displayed on the wall. I smoked a pipe years ago during one of my attempts to quit smoking cigarettes. I enjoyed it but eventually gave up because of what seemed like too much process and too little enjoyment. Poking around on the web I found quite a few sites related to pipe smoking, two of the most interesting being the Old Toby podcast and the Bootleg Bon Vivant blog.

I haven’t taken up a pipe again, but I am thinking about. Hence, question number two: How many of you out there smoke pipes and how do you compare it to cigar smoking? I’m eager to read your answers.

–George E

photo credit: Old Toby