Stogie Reviews: Nestor Miranda Special Selection 20 Aniversario Rosado Danno

8 Jun 2009

One week ago, my colleague divulged his affinity for the Nestor Miranda 20 Aniversario Oscuro, quipping that you’d be “hard-pressed to find a better way to spend $9 and two hours.” While I haven’t yet tried that version of this new release, I can tell you the Rosado is pretty damn fantastic in its own right.

Nestor Miranda Special Selection 20 Aniversario Habano Rosado The Miami Cigar & Co.—distributor of such acclaimed brands as La Aurora, Don Lino, León Jimenes, 601, Cubao, and Mi Barrio—launched both 20 Aniversario blends (one Oscuro and one Rosado) in celebration of two decades of producing a Special Selection line named for company founder Nestor Miranda. Both are crafted by Don Pepin Garcia’s son, Jaime, and made in Pepin’s Nicaraguan Tabacalera Cubana factory.

The 20 Aniversario is a very limited release. Only 2,000 boxes of 20 cigars have been made, 1,000 with that Habano Oscuro wrapper that my colleague liked so much, and 1,000 with a Habano Rosado. Both versions come in only one size: an immense (7 x 56) smoke called the “Danno.”

I smoked more than a handful of Rosados for this review (also an MSRP of $9 apiece), and each featured an anvil-shaped pigtail that sits atop a beautiful, carefully adhered cap. While the wrapper isn’t without its share of veins and noticeable seams, the cigar has the look and feel of a super-premium, especially given its glistening, oily sheen. The cross-sections at the foot and freshly cut head appear on the loose side despite the cigar’s firm feel.

Toasting the foot—an endeavor that requires patience due to the Danno’s wide girth—yields mouth-watering aromas of sweet hay, toffee, and wood. The actual flavor is stronger than that preview, though, with plenty of pepper and spice. It’s almost as if Pepin wants to make his presence known from the first puff.

After the white, well-layered ash winds down the first few inches, the flavor takes a gentle turn and develops a softer profile of hazelnut and coffee with cream and sugar. This is what I’d call the sweet spot, and it lasts almost until the band needs to be removed. The final third sees a reprise of the spice and full flavor that are found in the beginning.

The burn tends to meander a bit—pretty much what you’d expect from such a wide cigar—but not to the point of annoyance. The draw is accommodating and the ash well-behaved throughout the 150-minute smoke.

For these reasons and more, I count myself lucky to have a box of 20 Rosados to call my own. I can’t wait to test drive the Oscuro to see how it measures up. Until then, though, and whatever the outcome of that match-up may be, the Nestor Miranda Special Selection 20 Aniversario Rosado earns a well-deserved rating of four and a half stogies out of five.