Cigar Review: Nomad Estelí Lot 8613 Toro

When it comes to the naming of cigar brands, blends, and sizes, cigar makers can be pretty darn creative (or crazy, depending on your point of view). I suppose the diversity and, yes, strangeness of names is partly due to the challenge of coming up with something that’s marketable and descriptive that hasn’t already been used in the vast tobacco lexicon.

Case in point: Fred “GodFadr” Rewey, owner of the Orlando-based Nomad Cigar Co., named his first Nicaraguan cigar “Lot 1386” to honor the approximate coordinate of Estelí. The subject of today’s review, “Lot 8613,” simply flips that coordinate. (Bonus points to the first commenter to locate that coordinate.)

In any event, the Nomad Estelí Lot 8613, which was launched in April, marks the fifth full-production cigar for Nomad and the third full-production cigar in Estelí. (Lot 1386 was a limited to 307 12-count boxes.) “I blended the cigar at the end of 2013 (the same time I blended the C-276),” said Rewey. “This cigar, along with the C-276, was the result of a three-month stay in Nicaragua, blending, learning, and hitting the fields… I chose ‘Estelí Lot 8613’ because it was very reminiscent to the Lot 1386 LE that I released in 2013. Although the blend is nothing close to the original LE, the smoking experience was similar to me on some esoteric level.”

Estelí Lot 8613 boasts an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper around Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. Five sizes are available, all made at Tobacalera A.J. Fernandez: Robusto (5 x 50), Coronita (5.5 x 46), Toro (6 x 50), Grand Toro (6 x 58), and Churchill (7 x 48).

The Toro retails for about $8. It’s a handsome, oily specimen with a milk chocolate-colored wrapper that has only a few thin veins. The feel is moderate to slightly spongy throughout. The cap clips neatly to reveal a smooth pre-light draw, and the foot has an aroma reminiscent of sweet hay and cocoa.

The flavor opens with oak, honey, and a little subdued cayenne. A raw, meaty spice jumps in after a quarter-inch and is particularly pronounced on the finish if you smoke quickly, but dissipates as fast as it arrived. Thereafter, cream, earth, and citrus take center stage. The texture is bready and the body is medium to medium-full. The cigar wraps up much the way it began with oak and honey.

With good combustion qualities across the several samples I smoked, the Nomad Estelí Lot 8613 Toro is a pleasure, though by no means a memorable standout. The most appropriate rating, in my judgement, is three stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys