Cigar Review: La Dueña Petit Lancero
12 Mar 2014
I doubt it would be controversial at this point to say that the PepÃn family will go down as one of the greatest and most important cigar families the industry has had. Don PepÃn GarcÃa has his huge legacy, which was followed by his son’s fantastic cigars, and now with La Dueña, his daughter Janny is releasing her first cigar. To add to all of that tobacco star-power, the blending for this cigar was done by Pete Johnson, of Tatuaje fame.
This blend is a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper billed as medium-full strength, with Nicaraguan origins. I smoked the “Petite Lancero†vitola (6 x 42) for this review. The construction was immaculate, and the wrapper had a great color to it. Personally, I think that a 42 ring gauge is a bit much for a lancero, but that’s not really a negative.
The aroma off of this cigar is great, with a nice core tobacco aroma complimented by a subtle sweetness in the background. The cigar lights really well, with that typical PepÃn spice kicking off the experience. Quickly into the cigar, though, a ton of flavors emerge.
The smoke is very smooth, almost syrupy in its consistency, and earth, leather, black pepper, and a natural tobacco sweetness dominate the first half. Once this cigar hits the mid-point the pepper dies down a lot, and a leathery core takes over, with earth and cocoa notes making slight reappearances until the nub.
While I am writing this review to let everyone know how much I enjoyed this cigar, I’d like to take a quick moment to make another secondary point. When I first tried this cigar a while back (right upon its release), I was actually really disappointed and I gave away three of the five cigars I purchased. I am not sure why, and I don’t know if I ran into a bad batch, or if this cigar needs a little age on it, but the argument I’m making here is this: Do yourself a favor, and re-visit cigars.
We all know that tobacco is a fickle product, and everything from weather, storage, your complimentary drink or meal, or whatever is on your palate, etc. can affect how a certain cigar tastes to you at a particular time. If I would not have given up my preconceptions that this cigar was bad, I would have missed out on a smoke that I think is truly great, and a cigar that I am now considering purchasing a box of.
Anyway, with that small rant out of the way, the La Dueña Petite Lancero is a great addition to an already fantastic line-up of smokes related to the PepÃn /Johnson portfolio. This cigar deserves a very respectable rating of four stogies out of five.
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I could not agree with you more Joey……I had the exact same experience when I bought the box of lanceros when they first came out…….thought they were horrible, one dimensional dog rockets. Now, I am stunned how tasty they have turned out. I have had same experience happen with many other sticks and vice versa too (start out great when new and then fade) I am also amazed at the flavor cycles that sticks go through in the humidor constantly (and my collection is present to 30 years old!)
BMK
George E did not like the La Dueña Belicoso No. 2 when he did a Quick Smoke on it back in 2012:
http://www.stogieguys.com/2012/09/09222012-quick-…
Perhaps we should all take another look. Curious if the cigars out of the box are better now, or if we need to buy and store them for a few years. If the latter is true, that would be interesting; I might be wrong, but I think I remember Pete Johnson telling me that he intends his smokes to be ready at the time of purchase.
Funny you should mention this. I recalled my initial dislike as I was reading this and decided I'm definitely going to try it again, probably the next time I visit my local shop. Can't wait to see how it goes.
agreed. very let down when these first came out. haven't had one in ages.