Weekend review; October 10th and 11th, 2009

The weekend started out nice with a trip to meet Rocky Patel at Lite Um Up Cigars. Rocky was in town to help with Tom's charity golf tournament for the Wounded Warrior Project. I dropped by Tom's shop and had a chance to meet Rocky just before they left to wash up after the golf tournament. I asked him about his new 1961 cigar and why it was named that way. He said it was the year he was born. Simple enough!
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(l-r) Tom Burns, me, Rocky Patel

I decided to try the new Rocky Patel 1961 toro while at the shop and made some notes about it to put in the review. Here is my review:

Rocky Patel 1961 toro (6x52)

Dark cigar. Sungrown wrapper but not a maduro. Very dense feeling cigar. It started off with nice spice with lots of pepper. The finish had nice vanilla notes. The cigar had sweet notes. The finish really lingers which I find very nice. The draw was good. There were subtle citrus notes. After an inch the cigar was medium to full bodied. The ash was tight. The burn became uneven at the 1 1/2" point. Had to touch it up as it would not self correct. After a couple inches the cigar settled into full bodied. The Nicaraguan filler was nice and gave it the subtle citrus tones. Nice cigar. Really enjoyed it.

Score: 92




Saturday, October 10th, 2009

First off, I want to make a plea for A. J. Pontillo to contact me. No one has heard from him in well over a year. His cigars were a huge hit and he disappeared at the height of his business. I had one of his original cigars Saturday afternoon; the Pontillo Maduro churchill (7 1/2 x 52). This is a fantastic maduro cigar, and unfortunately the last one I had in the humidor. This cigar has everything I look for in a great maduro cigar; spice, sweetness, and lots of pepper. It is medium bodied and works toward being full bodied. I have reviewed them previously and it is easily a 92+ cigar! If anyone has any of these please let me know as I would love to have more.
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Now, on to the other reviews.
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Oliva Cain maduro torpedo (6x52)

This is an extremely good looking cigar. It was very well made. It is very dark as you would expect from a maduro made by Oliva. The draw was tight. After lighting the cigar had good spice and decent pepper. There were notes of cinnamon and vanilla. The finish was long and much better than the habano version. There were vanilla notes on the finish. Caramel notes were noticed on the finish after a couple of inches. There was a nice maduro sweetness. Very even burn. The vanilla-caramel spice is very nice. The pepper notes are somewhat subtle but noticed. This is a medium to full bodied cigar. I found this to be a very good cigar with a very nice finish. It basically blows the habano version out of the water!

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Score: 93
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Cusano Sungrown churchill Habano LXI (7x50)

After cutting the draw was firm but not tight. It started off extremely spicy with cinnamon and black pepper. There were also citrus notes with some sweetness. The finish had vanilla notes with hints of caramel. At the midpoint the citrus notes came to the forefront. The pepper stayed consistent; not too much but a nice amount. This was a medium to full bodied cigar. The burn was very even throughout. The spice stayed very strong with sweet citrus notes. A very enjoyable cigar.

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Score: 93