The Stogie Guys

As I wrote in my review of the Pure Breed Toro last month, Holt’s Cigar Company has a Best in Show sampler that features two Toros from each of the four Old Henry blends for just $29.95 ($3.74 per cigar). For cost-conscious fans of José “Pepín” García, this eight-pack is a total no-brainer.

And whether you’re trying Old Henry for the first time or looking for an excuse to revisit these value-priced smokes, your timing couldn’t be better. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Old Henry, a house blend made for Holt’s by Pepín. Holt’s, as you may know, is the Philadelphia tobacconist that launched the Ashton brand in 1985 and today maintains a strong catalog and online presence. That means you don’t have to traipse to 1522 Walnut Street in downtown Philadelphia to get your hands on some Old Henry smokes.

Today, the Old Henry portfolio ranges from the original Old Henry (Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper), Maduro (Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper), Pure Breed (Ecuador Sumatra wrapper), and the subject of today’s review: Gold Label. Gold Label sports a clean, bright, minimally veined Connecticut-seed Ecuadorian wrapper that provides a silky cover for the Nicaraguan tobaccos underneath. Five vitolas are available in the highly affordable $4.75 to $5.75 range: Belicoso, Churchill, Corona, Robusto, and Toro.

The latter is firmly constructed from head to foot. The pre-light notes are faint with delicate hints of sweet hay, honey, and sawdust. After nothing more than a V-cut, I find the cold draw to be a bit stiff for my liking. A simple guillotine cut, though, reveals a good draw with only moderate resistance.

Right out of the gate, the Gold Label Toro exhibits a well-balanced flavor with an enjoyable interplay between sweetness, spice, and cream. Roasted nut, café au lait, dry oak, and white pepper best characterize the profile. The body is mild to medium with a buttery texture.

As it approaches the midway point, the taste becomes spicier with the additions of cinnamon and black pepper. I also notice that when my puffs become more frequent, a fleeting bitter taste has a tendency to materialize, but only for a moment. Avoiding the bitterness—which is not a flavor of which I’m particularly fond—is as easy as remembering to take your time.

The final third of the Toro has lots more cinnamon and pepper, though the body is still barely verging on medium. Construction across both of my samples was consistent and admirable. Both burn lines were of the set-it-and-forget-it variety, the smoke production was above average, and the gray ashes held firm.

This isn’t the first time we’ve reviewed the Old Henry Gold Label. My colleague examined the Belicoso way back in October 2012, finding it not complex enough to merit a four-stogie rating, but “a good bit better than a fairly routine three stogies.” He ultimately split the difference, and I concur. The Toro is worthy of three and a half stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

In a major realignment of its cigars, Davidoff is discontinuing 19 vitolas, including two complete lines, across what it calls its “Core Pillar.”

The cuts are likely to be followed by the announcement of new Davidoff releases.

The lines being eliminated are Puro d’Oro, an eight-vitola offering, and the three-vitola Maduro line that dates to 2008.

Also on the chopping block are No. 1 and No. 3 from the Davidoff Classic Series; Grand Cru No. 1 and No. 4; the No. 1 and No. 2 Aniversarios; and the Lonsdale and Lancero Millenium Blend vitolas.

Overall, the Core Pillar will consist of four lines offered in 20 formats after the cuts are completed. Factory production of the discontinued cigars will shut down at mid-year, though Davidoff retailers will continue to sell on-hand stock at regular prices.

Davidoff said there will be no changes to any of its blends.

The information came via email from the office of Orianne Labrick, Davidoff’s Global Brand Manager in Switzerland.

According to Davidoff, choosing the cigars to eliminate was a careful process. For example, while two Aniversarios were eliminated, the highly popular Aniversario No. 3 was retained.

Among the cigars being dropped were some that “felt a bit outdated,” with the changes providing “new opportunities to launch product innovations,” according to Davidoff.

Davidoff hinted that those innovations might include large ring-gauge smokes, as the company noted it plans to introduce “more modern cigar formats that were missing” from its existing portfolio. (The cuts involving Puro d’Oro and Aniversario were first reported by Halfwheel.)

This move comes amid a flurry of recent activity by Davidoff. The company unveiled a third retail shop in Manhattan, followed by its largest store, which opened earlier this year in Tampa. Other U.S. shops are planned.

Davidoff also recently added new vitolas to Nicaragua, and last year introduced Escurio, both of which it calls “Discovery” lines. The “Iconic” Winston Churchill line was revamped earlier, as was Davidoff’s Avo brand.

No changes are planned for the Discovery or Iconic lines.

Puro d’Oro was introduced to great fanfare in 2010. The Dominican puro, with its Yamasá wrapper developed by master blender Henke Kelner, was heavily advertised. The line also featured the fattest Davidoff, called Gordito (3.75 x 58), which was released about three years ago.

Some of the cigars being cut have been highly rated at StogieGuys.com. The Grand Cru No. 4, for example, was a five-stogie smoke two years ago.

–George E

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.”

Not long ago, I was browsing a store that I don’t often go into and came across some well-aged La Flor Dominicana products, including this 2013 LG Diez Dominicano. The Churchill  (6.9 x 50) features a pale sun-grown Dominican Habano wrapper that surrounds Dominican binder and filler tobaccos. The well-constructed cigar is full-bodied, woody, and creamy with lots of red and black pepper spice. With a little leather on the finish, it’s a fine example of the complexity and body a Dominican puro can deliver.

Verdict = Buy.

–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.”

Bianco is the second line from Omar de Frias’ Fratello Cigars. Launched last year, it boats a San Andrés Negro Wrapper, Dominican Binder, and filler tobaccos from Pennsylvania, Nicaragua, and Peru. The Event Exclusive (5 x 44) is my favorite Bianco vitola. It delivers a concentrated, deceptively potent flavor of cocoa, espresso, black pepper, and dry wood. Expertly constructed, it’s a great buy for about $8. I liked it when I reviewed it in September, and a half year later it’s still an excellent smoke.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

photo credit: La Aurora

With bourbon demand high, there are plenty of excellent bourbons to be found if you’re willing to pay a high price. But there are also plenty of fine bourbons available for around $20, if you know where to look.

Today I want to introduce you to one of my favorite hidden gems: Old Forester Signature 100. Before I tell you why I think this is such an underrated bourbon, lets review the history of Old Forester.

Prior to 1870, when George Garvin Brown introduced Old Forester in bottles, bourbon was sold in barrels, and if you wanted whiskey you went to a bar or store that sold it and filled up your own container. Today, the Old Forester brand is owned by Brown-Forman, whose biggest brand is Jack Daniels. It is made at the company’s distillery in Shively, Kentucky. The same distillery supplies barrels for Brown-Forman’s premium brand, Woodford Reserve.

If you are ever near Lexington, I can’t recommend enough visiting the Woodford Reserve distillery in nearby Versailles. Surrounded by scenic Kentucky horse country, the distillery formerly known as the Oscar Pepper Distillery is the platonic ideal of a bourbon distillery. But much of the bourbon that goes into Woodford Reserve is distilled at the more industrial Shively facility alongside barrels that will become Old Forester.

Since both bourbons are made with the same mashbill (72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley) there is a temptation to suggest that Woodford Reserve and Old Forester are the same bourbon, just marketed differently and sold for a different price. While that may be an overstatement, they certainly share a family resemblance, which makes Old Forester ($18 for one-liter bottle) and Old Forester Signature 100 ($22 for a 750 ml. bottle) candidates for good value.

The standard 86-proof version is easy to find on a lower shelf at most liquor stores. It makes for a great mixing bourbon (it’s particularly tasty in a mint julep) and a decent sipping one. It may take a little effort to find (some markets seem to have plenty while others don’t have it at all), but the 100-proof Old Forester Signature is a step above and worth the extra effort and slightly higher price.

The nose of the deep copper-colored bourbon is sweet with cherry and caramel. The palate features rich fruit, brown sugar, baking spices, and butterscotch. The finish shows the first major woodiness, along with more ripe fruit, spice, and caramel. It’s a hearty 100-proof, but still quite smooth.

This easy drinking bourbon pairs nicely with almost any well-made cigar. I’d particularly suggest a well-balanced, medium-bodied smoke like Arturo Fuente King T Rosado Sun Grown, Davidoff Colorado Claro Short Perfecto, Las Cumbres Tabaco Señorial, or Tesa Vintage Especial.

Ultimately, although there are other bourbons more complex and sophisticated than Old Forester Signature 100, that doesn’t diminish the fact that Old Forester Signature is delightful neat and cheap enough you won’t hesitate to use it in a well-constructed cocktail. That makes it a staple in my bar and an under-rated bourbon.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

To say I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with this cigar would be too extreme. It’s more aptly described as severely irritated-very pleased.

You see, I’ve smoked half of the ten cigars in the box I bought late last year. Four of them have had construction issues. Two had poor draws, one so tight I could barely smoke it. One had a fairly significant tunnel through about half the cigar, while the wrapper on another began to unravel less than a third of the way into the stick. One of the five smoked just fine.

All were tasty cigars, the kind of complex, balanced smokes I’ve experienced before from Casa Fernandez and its showcase Aganorsa tobacco. But it is hard to truly enjoy a cigar when you’re dealing with such interference.

As for what happened, I can only guess. I don’t believe my storage was the cause because nothing has changed in my humidor, and I haven’t encountered similar problems with other cigars. I don’t recall problems smoking other Casa Fernandez lines, so I find it hard to believe it’s an endemic situation.

No, I think I was just unlucky. Cigars, despite the best efforts at quality control, sometimes simply don’t measure up. In my case, I think I just ended up with a bad box, nothing more. Perhaps I’ll be fortunate and find the remaining five all perform perfectly.

As for the flavors, the Aniversario Miami 2015 Corojo Toro (6 x 56) is excellent. Pepper is dominant at the start, though it quickly goes to the background as a rich, thick sweetness moves to the front. Along the way I encountered roasted nuts, floral notes, and wood.

The wrapper is an Aganorsa Corojo ’99 with Nicaraguan filler. The cigar retails for about $12 a stick, a bit less by the box.

Obviously, it’s difficult to rate a cigar after so many problems. I considered waiting until I had smoked them all, but would it really matter if it ended up 5-5 or 6-4 or 4-6?

The bottom line is that I liked the flavors of the cigar very much, but the overall experience was lacking. I can only hope that my box was, as I said, an anomaly. Nonetheless, I can give this Casa Fernandez only three stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys