Cigar Review: Partagas 1845 Robusto
23 Jul 2012
While this year’s industry trade show is still a little more than a week away, General Cigar’s (arguably) most important new release of 2012 has already been on the market since April.
Chances are you’ve already heard of Partagas 1845, read reviews of the four-vitola line, or even smoked a Partagas 1845 yourself. Today I bring you my take on the Robusto, courtesy of several samples that were mailed to me by the folks at General Cigar.
To construct Partagas 1845, Jhonys Diaz, Francisco Rodriguez, Yuri Guillen, and Benji Menendez reportedly went through 50 different blends before arriving at the final recipe. They settled on an Ecuadorian Habano viso wrapper, a Connecticut Habano binder that took nine years to develop, and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic—some of which were aged in rum barrels.
The result is a dark, firm-feeling line of four sizes that retail for $6-8 apiece: Corona Extra (4.5 x 46), Gigante (6 x 60), Double Corona (7.25 x 54), and Robusto (5.5 x 49). The Robusto is a bumpy smoke with a fair amount of veins and a nice triple cap. The foot has a moist, earthy aroma. Once clipped, the pre-light draw displays moderate resistance.
After establishing an even light and taking some time to let the profile sink in, I find notes of sweet tobacco, cherry, leather, and earth at the outset. Each puff yields ample smoke. There’s hardly any spice at all, but the finish weighs heavy on the back of the throat.
Later, a charred steak flavor creeps in and a spice starts to hit the lips that reminds me of Montreal steak seasoning. Not too bad, albeit a little dry. The aforementioned sweetness does a nice job of rounding off the salt and the spice. Leather becomes more prominent at the midway point. Char is more pronounced in the final act.
With outstanding physical properties—including an even burn line and a solid gray ash—the Partagas 1845 Robusto is a nice smoke and a fair value for $6.50 (not including taxes). Those of you who enjoy char-centric cigars, earth, and leather will be pleased with this new blend. Personally, I would prefer some creaminess and a little more sweetness to render the taste more balanced and less dry. In my book this cigar is worthy of three stogies out of five.
[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]
photo credit: Stogie Guys
Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief
Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder & Publisher
George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief
I've smoked the robusto and the gigante and have enjoyed the heck out of both. Good review.
I'll never understand the naming conventions. How is it 'extra' when it's ~2" shorter than your typical corona? I'm going to start calling anything around 5×50 a Super Churchill. 😛
Sounds like you, like me, found this blend to be OK but not really worth seeking out. Agreed. I'm not one of those snobs who writes off anything General does, but this wasn't a winner in my book.
There's almost a part of me that wants the historic name of Partagas to be successful in the US, but recently all I've heard is how underwhelming Partagas has been.
Unfortunately I have been underwhelmed by most of General's newer cigars over the last few years. It seems to me that I keep smoking the same cigar with slight changes over and over. I am no sellout to Altadis either, but their newer cigars shows that they are at least trying to come up with new ideas in their cigars. Not that I have even liked all of their cigars either, but I have to give them some points for trying blends that aren't just slightly different from most things they've already done.
I smoke one of these every night I fuck my sister. Tastes like shrim and mung infusion.