Cigar Review: Dunhill Signed Range Toro

Dunhill certainly isn’t the sexiest brand on the market today. Owned by British American Tobacco and made and distributed by General Cigar Co., you could argue Dunhill is somewhat neglected by the online cigar community, gets lost in General’s portfolio of more visible brands, and hasn’t quite lived up to its rich legacy.

That legacy pre-dates the communist takeover of Cuba, when the Dunhill shop in London had exclusive marketing and distribution agreements with various Cuban cigar makers, including Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, and Partagas. You can read more about Dunhill’s fascinating history—and its relationship with King George VI and Sir Winston Churchill—in my colleague’s previous review of the Aged Reserva Especial 2003 Robusto Grande.

Since then, Dunhill has bounced around with cigars by Toraño and Altadis, finally settling under the General Cigar umbrella with three lines: Dunhill Aged Reserva Especiale, Dunhill Aged, and Dunhill Signed Range. The latter “is made in Nicaragua with only the best aged tobaccos from its mother country as well as the Dominican Republic and Cameroon,” according to the General Cigar website. “The Signed Range is an aristocratic, medium- to full-bodied cigar that consistently delivers a superior taste, rich in complex, silky flavor.”

Six vitolas are available in the Signed Range lineup: Churchill, Toro, Torpedo, Corona, Robusto, and Petit Corona. The Toro (6 x 50) costs about $200 for a box of 25 or about $9 for a single. It’s a handsome smoke with minimal veins, a nice cap, a consistently firm feel, and a fair amount of oils on its clean surface. Only the slightest pre-light notes of milk chocolate can be found at the foot.

Once underway, a toasty, balanced profile emerges with notes of coffee, chocolate, and oak most apparent. The defining characteristic, however, has to be the red pepper spice that lingers on the aftertaste, particularly on the sides and the tip of the tongue. While the strength is more medium-bodied than full, this spicy finish lends an assertiveness to the Toro—making it, in my opinion, a wonderful cigar to pair with bourbon or your favorite sipping rum.

As the Dunhill Signed Range progresses, a myriad of flavors come and go, including sweet cream, damp earth, and charred steak. The texture is savory and the resting smoke is bready. All the while the physical properties are outstanding. The draw is smooth with each easy puff yielding ample tufts of smoke. The gray ash resists the urge to fall off prematurely. And the burn line is just about as straight as they come.

Dunhill may never be the talk of the town, but cigar enthusiasts who overlook the brand are only doing themselves a disservice. The Signed Range Toro is a very good smoke that delivers on the expectations set by its price range, even if its profile and body are a little more muted than the bold cigars that seem to be favored by most seasoned cigar vets these days. As a morning or mid-afternoon treat, I’ve concluded it’s worthy of an admirable rating of four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys