Cigar Review: Viaje Skll & Bones WMD 2012
10 Apr 2012
A few weeks back I reviewed the new Viaje Skull and Bones FOAB (Father of All Bombs), and shortly after took a look at the 2012 MOAB (Mother of All Bombs). Today I review the third (and final) variation from the 2012 class of Viaje Skull and Bones: the “Red” Skull and Bones WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction).
The short, stout cigar is just 3.75 inches long with a ring gauge of 54. Only 7,500 cigars were made, coming in 300 boxes of 25 and selling for $9 each (around $225 per box). Fortunately, I picked up a five-pack just as they were released because they sold out days later.
The blend is 100% Nicaraguan tobacco with a criollo wrapper around unspecified Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. The cigar is firm to the touch and the wrapper has a bit of sheen and a few veins.
Once lit, I found a full-bodied cigar with bready and warm tobacco favors. Surprisingly—for a “nuclear” cigar with a “be warned” notice—it was not spicy at all, and frankly not even overly full-bodied. In the second half of the short smoke, it revealed a slight sourness.
Ultimately, it tastes a little young, making me wonder if more time might bring out more subtleties in this blend. On the positive side, the hour-long smoke demonstrated excellent construction from start to finish with an even burn, solid ash, and perfect draw.
Making the obvious comparison to Viaje’s other Skull and Bones releases, it’s easy to conclude that this is my least favorite of this year’s batch. It’s not a bad cigar, but it is underwhelming, especially for the steep price considering the small size. It’s also, somewhat surprisingly (given the nuclear vs. non-nuclear designations), not as full-bodied as the MOAB or FOAB.
When I lit up my first 2012 WMD, I expected a nuclear bomb of flavor, but instead got a fairly nondescript, though full-bodied and full-flavored smoke. Maybe it’s a victim of its own hype, but the Viaje Skull and Bones WMD 2012 is a classic case of good but not great, earning it a rating of three and a half stogies out of five.
[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]
photo credit: Stogie Guys
I agree with a name like WMD that cigar better knock me on my ass with flavor or body. However to just be a ho-hum cigar and not that exciting. They might wan to look into a better nomenclature. I understand it's marketing and everything, but with certain names come certain expectations.
Actually, living near a shop that is one of the main distributors of Viaje I've tried all of them. Viaje are 90% of the time a let down. They've had a few very terrific cigars – the tops being the Oro
Reserva 5 (simply a superb cigar in every aspect) and the Sartori Zen (superb chocolaty and velvety smooth) and a couple of so-sos but this brand is purely running on the hype machine. It's amazing I'll sit next to a guy at my shop smoking a Viaje and he will tell me it's the best cigar he's ever had. I smile and go about my business as I don't like to be a jerk but a statement like that clearly tells me this man hasn't had enough experience with cigars to determine what a good cigar actually is. It's the same with folks who rate Padron cigars so highly. Padron are superbly made but they are boring cigars. It's CA's fault for always rating Padrons so high. Newbies come into the hobby and immediately latch on to Padron and go around spouting they are the best cigars ever. Well, no…they aren't. Viaje is another victim of this with the Oro Reserva #5 being rated so highly in CA (it actually deserved it) but now everyone rates everything that Viaje does as being superb because of the high rating the #5 got. This review is honest and I like to see that. The WMD is more of a 3 cigar cigar IMO but at least you are in the ballpark.