This is my first experience with this cigar. As you know, it was named Cigar Aficionado's Cigar of the Year for 2011. While I respect their opinion I differ from their opinions on many occasions. I want to find out for myself how good this cigar is. I will give you my honest opinions of it. You may remember that a few weeks back I gave the Alec Bradley New Yorker Six Two a rating of 94. I really enjoyed that cigar. I wonder how the Prensado will stack up against it. Well, let's see.
Video Review HERE.
The cigar is box pressed, a first for Alec Bradley.
There are 5 other sizes available: Corona Gorda, Double T, Gran Toro, Robusto and Torpedo.
The Prensado Churchill is blended using Central American tobacco exclusively, including a very dark wrapper leaf grown in a southern area of Honduras called Trojes. The Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill is handmade at the Raices Cubanas factory in Danli, Honduras.
After clipping the cap I found the draw to be a bit firm. The cigar is a very dark brown. The initial flavors were sweet citrus and coffee with nice pepper. The finish was undetermined at this point.
After a couple minutes the flavors settled down into grapefruit citrus and cinnamon with coffee, black pepper and some sweetness. The finish is fairly short with vanilla notes and lingering pepper.
About an inch or so into the cigar there have been no significant changes. Rather than be influenced by other reviews I decided to not read anything about this cigar before having it. I will wait and see how the cigar develops.
At the midpoint I can see no changes. The grapefruit citrus and cinnamon are still the only primary flavors, along with the pepper. At times the cinnamon seems to be the lead flavor but that's about the only change.
Just before the band the cigar developed some richness in the flavors. That was a nice change. There was also a little more sweetness.
There were no major changes up to the end of the cigar. I must say that I am very surprised by this cigar. I waited for it to explode with rich flavors but unfortunately that never happened. I found the cigar to be medium bodied. While I respect Cigar Aficionado's ratings I have at times disagreed with them. This would appear to be one of those times. While I found the cigar to be good it was not great. I am a huge fan of rich citrus flavors but I did not find them in this cigar. The Alec Bradley New Yorker was a far better tasting cigar. I would not have put this as the cigar of the year but since everyone has different tastes I would like you to let me know your thoughts on the cigar.
Score: 90
1 comment:
Tim, love the review. I was a big fan of the flavor of the Prensado, however the burn wasn't favorable to me.
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