The Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

Made at the Plasencia factory in Nicaragua, the Claro edition of the U.K.-based Regius Exclusivo U.S.A. line features a white primary band above a red, white, and silver secondary band. The Nicaraguan puro sports a light brown wrapper and dual binders. Once lit, I find light spice, woody notes, and bready flavors. Billed as lighter than the original Exclusivo U.S.A. line, it falls distinctly in the medium-bodied range. The Pressed Perfecto shape (6.5 x 56) shows off excellent construction and combustion qualities.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Warped Cigars had a breakout year in 2015. The company has been around for the better part of a decade, but in the past couple years it upped its game with a series of releases made at El Titan de Bronze in Miami and TABSA in Nicaragua.

Futuro was one of a handful of new releases from Warped at the 2015 IPCPR Trade Show in New Orleans last summer. Warped describes Futuro’s creation on its website:

“Future” is a collaboration between Warped x Casa Fernandez, but more specifically Kyle Gellis of Warped and Max Fernandez of Casa Fernandez, son of Eduardo Fernandez, owner of AGANORSA and Casa Fernandez. We originally began speaking about this project at the 2014 IPCPR and it took that much time to develop this concept and blend. We set out to create a profile that is unlike anything Warped or Casa Fernandez has done previously, utilzing 100% AGANORSA material from their “vault,” a selection of tobacco under lock and key and specifically for the Fernandez family.

The cigar uses a reddish-brown Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 wrapper, Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 binder, and Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 and Corojo ’99 filler tobaccos. It is made at TABSA.

Futuro will be offered in two vitolas, each of which sold in 20-count boxes: Selección Suprema (5.6 x 46, $8.75), and Selección 109 (6 x 52, $9.75). I smoked four Selección Supremas, the size and blend preferred by Kye Gellis, for this review.

The profile starts with an initial burst of creaminess before it settles into a woody flavor with light spice and hints of honey. Occasionally, I even pick up on a combination of flavors that reminds me of banana bread. As the medium-bodied cigar progresses, heavier spice and earth notes become more prominent. There are papery notes on the clean, relatively short finish.

The excellent construction on this cigar is a testament to the increased quality that the TABSA factory has been producing. The factory is now producing cigars for Illusione, Warped, Casa Fernandez, Foundation Cigar Co. (El Güegüense), and others.

With a combination of sweetness, spice, wood, and earth, this is a very enjoyable, complex, and balanced Nicaraguan puro. Add in excellent construction plus a fair price (under $9) and the Warped Futuro Selección Supremas earns our first five-stogie rating of 2016.

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

The original El Centurion blend was one of my favorite cigars, which has always given the second iteration an unfair standard to live up to. But after being impressed with the newer El Centurion H2K, I decided to revisit the cigar, which uses a Nicaraguan sun-grown Criollo wrapper. It has nice pepper and wood notes, but this particular stick suffered from a terribly tight draw that made multiple relights necessary. Given my experience with this blend and My Father cigars in general, I have every reason to think the fatal construction on this cigar was a fluke, and a rare one at that. Still, each Quick Smoke only evaluates a single sample, and this one was a dud.

Verdict = Sell.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

Here’s a throwback: a robusto from the original Tatuaje La Vérité release, which represented an ambitious use of aspects of wine by adopting future sales pricing, single vintage tobaccos, and tobacco sourced from a single farm. Back in 2009, when my colleague reviewed a pre-release edition, he predicted it would age well, so today I’m checking out what the better part of a decade did for this cigar. Construction is flawless, with age producing a sharp, even burn. The dominant flavors on this medium-bodied smoke are mild oak and light spice, although there is a slightly tannic, bitter element towards the final third. Most unique is the notably clean and crisp finish. This is a well-made, unique, and enjoyable cigar, but I don’t think it ever fully lived up to the grandiose expectations. Even with age it is easily surpassed by the 2009 La Vérité releases.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Formally announced in 2014, the Orphan Barrel Project has been one of the biggest, albeit sometimes divisive, developments in the high-end bourbon market in recent years. The project of industry giant Diageo has brought a number of well-aged bourbons to the marketplace at a time when such releases are becoming very rare and expensive.

The first releases were the 20-year Barterhouse and 26-year Old Blowhard, the latter being one of the oldest bourbons to be sold. Next came Rhetoric 20, a 20-year bourbon distilled at the New Bernheim distillery in Louisville, which is now owned by Heaven Hill, maker of Elijah Craig and Evan Williams.

Next up was the 22-year Lost Prophet and 15-year Forged Oak. The latest release is a 21-year version of Rhetoric, which is part of a planned annual release that will show off the evolution of the bourbon as it ages, perhaps up to 26 years. (Another Orphan Barrel release, Gifted Horse, is due out soon; it will be a combination of 4-year bourbon and corn whiskey blended with 17-year bourbon.)

Rhetoric 21 is 90.2-proof, a smidge higher than the 20-year version (90-proof). It sells for around $100, and I picked up my bottle for $93 online after tasting a sample provided by Diageo.

Rhetoric 21 pours a deep copper color and has a nose that shows off its age with damp wood, vanilla, and green apple taffy. On the palate, the bourbon tastes of oak, baking spices (clove, cinnamon, nutmeg), vanilla, orange peel, and burnt sugar. The finish is long with cornbread, charred wood, and clove.

At times, the flavors feel slightly muted with the exception of the deep woodiness (over-oaked, perhaps) which is why I prefer the Lost Prophet and Forged Oak. Still, fans of oaky, ultra-aged bourbon will find Rhetoric fits the bill in a way that very few bourbons (you can actually find) will.

For cigar pairings, I think the light wood and sweet spice style of Mexican-wrapped cigars matches up nicely. Specifically, try the Illusione *R* Rothchildes, Room 101 San Andrés, Tatuaje The Face, and Drew Estate’s Undercrown.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of “buy,” “hold,” or “sell.”

Some of my favorite Tatuaje cigars have been from the Exclusive Series (for example, the Barclay Rex and TAA 2015) so I was interested to see how this Lancero stacked up. Once lit, it showed roasted coffee notes, clove spice, and intense leather that borders on bitter, especially towards the first half. Construction on the medium- to full-bodied smoke was flawless. I like lanceros, and I’ve generally been very impressed by the Tatuaje Exclusive Series cigars, but I’m just not sure this size showed off the best of the blend, which was pleasant but not outstanding.

Verdict = Hold.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Last night President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address. In that spirit, I offer my thoughts on the state of the cigar industry as we enter 2016.

In many ways, the state of cigars is as strong as it has ever been. This is our tenth year publishing StogieGuys.com, and the cigars being released today are of highest quality they have ever been.

Consumers are better educated, and they demand more of their cigars. Cigar companies have largely delivered better quality and more interesting flavors. One of the best trends is that new competition continues to challenge the status quo, which drives up quality.

Take a look at various top cigar lists and you’ll see lots of newer companies represented. Fortunately, their success isn’t a result of more established companies slacking off. Rather, the bar is continually rising. I honestly believe the tenth-rated cigar on most “Best of 2015” lists would have beat the number one cigar five or ten years ago.

Another sign of the health of the state of cigars is the fact that even those who have achieved the financial success to walk away rarely do. Statistically, when someone announces they are stepping down or retiring from a job in cigars, it most likely just means they are planning their return, armed with the lessons of their experience.

At the cigar shops you can see how all this benefits cigar smokers. The days where the vast majority of cigars for sale in most shops are made by a handful of the largest companies are increasingly in the past. Cigars have to earn shelf space more than ever, and companies large and small are upping their game to compete for that valuable space.

In short, cigar smokers have more and better choices than ever before. That’s the good news. But there are dark clouds on the horizon.

Impending FDA regulation continues to hover over the cigar industry with the potential to devastate the thriving competition that we’re enjoying. The fact that we enter 2016 without those regulations is a good sign, but literally any day regulations could be finalized. One cigar company executive told me not long ago that he expected many smaller cigar companies couldn’t survive FDA regulations, and I’m afraid that’s probably true.

The delay in the finalized FDA rules shows there is division within the executive branch over the extent of the need for regulation over cigars. While that’s a testament to the work of organizations that lobby for cigar rights, it doesn’t change the fact that the only way to fully stop FDA regulation would take an act of Congress. Going forward, cigar rights groups would benefit from more long-term strategy, instead of pinning their hopes to last-minute Hail Mary attempts to slip riders into massive appropriations bills.

Elsewhere, cigar rights are on defense, too. Smoking bans are not being repealed anywhere, while proposals for expanded bans and increased tobacco taxes continue to flourish.

We have work to do. There may never have been a better time to be a cigar smoker. Keeping it that way, though, won’t be easy. The old saying is eternal vigilance is the price of freedom; when it comes to the freedom to enjoy cigars, that has never been more true.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Wikipedia