Year of foundation: 1845
Tobacco Country: Cuba
Tobacco Procedence: Vuelta Abajo
Factory: Partagas
This brand is named for it's founder, Don Jaime Partagas, who began manufacturing cigars in 1827, but put his own name on his line of cigars in 1845. After his death, the brand passed to Ramon Cifuentes in 1889 and was owned by Cifuentes y Cia. prior to nationalization, earning a mention by name in English novelist Evelyn Waugh's 1945 work, Brideshead Revisited. Partagas cigars also won gold medals in at least three international expositions between 1867 and 1884. They are still produced in the Partagas factory, renamed Fernando Perez after nationalization.
Video review HERE.
The Habanos Festival just finished in Havana yesterday so it seemed like a good time to review this cigar. This cigar is a reddish brown in color and nicely packed.
The test draw after cutting the cap was very good. Many consider this to be a "young" cigar since it was produced in October of 2010. Aging seems to help Cuban cigars so no matter what this cigar is like it will only improve with some time in the humidor.
The initial flavors were a blast of pepper along with vanilla, subtle grapefruit citrus and lightly roasted almonds. The finish is one of vanilla custard and some lingering pepper.
About 1/4 inch in the vanilla and grapefruit notes are event. The almond notes are on the tail end of the spice. The pepper continues to be very good. The finish is still one of a nice vanilla and lingering pepper. In the Cuban cigar world this cigar is considered to be full bodied. When compared to other cigars from the Caribbean region this cigar would be considered to be medium bodied.
About an inch in the cigar has developed a richness in the vanilla. The grapefruit citrus is now secondary. The almond notes continue to be subtle. The vanilla has carried over nicely into the finish. It is now a rich vanilla pudding flavor. The pepper remains very good and is now extremely good on the finish.
The ash is a nice salt and pepper color. The burn was, for the most part, very even. As always, smoke this cigar slowly. The flavors continue to be in line with the last assessment.
At the end of the cigar the flavors remained consistent. This cigar is not overly complex. It does not make major changes from point to point but it is a very flavorful cigar. The rich vanilla flavors were quite nice when combined with the grapefruit citrus. The almond notes remained subtle and were hardly detected at the end of the cigar. The pepper was quite good on both ends. The vanilla finish was extremely good. This cigar, although young, will only improve with age. I found this cigar to be very good and I look forward to sampling more in the future.
Score: 92
1 comment:
Post a Comment