Summary:

This Honduran cigar is a medium to full bodied, flavorful and spicy smoke that starts with a peppery note and then settles to become almost as mild as the Cuban Sancho Panza variety. From the half-way point on, there is a pleasant shift in flavor and fullness that leads into a very satisfying finish. The Sancho Panza Double Maduro Quixote is a very flavorful smoke and a true bargain at the price.

While they are a good cigar fresh from the box, they improve remarkably by resting for several weeks to several months. Humidor storage is recommended before smoking, and after storage are not only a bargain but a best buy. The rating and points assigned in this review are based on cigars after about four months of humidor storage. Explanations are given below of problems or defects that you might find in fresh-from-the-box Sancho Panza Double Maduro cigars.

Background Information:

At 4 1/2 inches with a 50 ring guage, this box-pressed Robusto has an impressive appearance. The Quixote is a mild to medium bodied cigar with a a dark maduro wrapper — almost dark enought to legitimately call it an oscuro. It also has a dark maduro binder, and this is where the “double maduro” name comes from, not from the color of the cigar. The wrapper and binder leaves are selected from the richest, full-sun-tops of Connecticut Broadleaf tobacco plants and then aged for four years before rolling. The filler is a flavorful mix of Cuban-seed Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican tobacco. Crafted by Honduran cigar master Estelo Padrón at Honduras American Tabaco S. A., for Villazon & Co., a subsidiary of General Cigar Co.

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Do you like Maduro cigars?

Do you like Corojo cigar wrappers?

Ever wished that you could have the best of both in one cigar?

If so, then you are going to love the latest news from Camacho Cigars. Thanks to an exceptional harvest of cuban-seed Corojo tobacco, all of their popular Camacho Corojo cigars will now be available in Corojo Maduro.

That’s right. Corojo Maduro.

The Eiroa family, owners of the Camacho brand as well as Baccarat and La Fontana, are also major growers of Honduran cigar tobacco. Their tobacco is grown in Honduras in the Jamastran Valley, near that country’s border with Nicaragua.

Corojo tobacco takes its name from the Santa Ines del Corojo Vega, a plantation near the town of San Luis y Martinez in Pinar del Rio in the heart of Cuba’s famed Vuelta Abajo tobacco-growing region. Diego Rodriguez began renting the farm from its owner in Spain in the 1920’s, and worked for years to select and develop a superior wrapper tobacco for Cuban cigars.

Between 1930 and the late 1990’s, all cigars from Cuba — regardless of brand or factory — used Rodriguez’s Vuelta Abajo grown Corojo tobacco leaves for their wrappers. The spicy quality and peppery smoothness gave the leaf that unique Cuban “punch” that connoisseurs came to associate with authentic Cuban cigars.

The only problem is that true Corojo tobacco is also delicate and hard to grow. It requires just the right soil, rainfall and weather conditions. It is extremely susceptible to blue mold and black shank disease.

Cuba stopped growing it for that reason.

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You may have heard the story of President John F. Kennedy sending his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, out to buy a stockpile of Cuban cigars the night before he signed the Cuban embargo into law. You might have wondered if the story was true, or simply an urban legend.

Well, it is true.

Here, courtesy of Janson media, is some archival footage in which the late Pierre Salinger recounts the incident in his own words Just click on the player (you might have to click twice if you are using Internet Explorer) and you’ll learn some things not only about that incident, but about some cigars smuggled into the White House after the embargo became law:

More about the Cuban Petit Upmann and President Kennedy’s favorite cigar below the fold.

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Patrick at The Stogie Guys has a short review of the Partagas Black Label Clasico up. The Black Label is a cigar that I like. Indeed, I like virtually all Partagas cigars. Patrick seems to agree on this one, giving it a four out of five on their rating system.

Here’s an excerpt of what Patrick had to say,

“while the cigar’s appearance makes it stand out in the humidor, this stogie can only fully be appreciated after enjoying its distinctive flavors, which are so unique they are difficult to properly describe.

The Clasico is a 5.25×54 large Robusto made at General Cigar’s Dominicana factory. I would characterize it as a medium-to-full bodied smoke with a full flavor that is spicy or peppery and yet very smooth at the same time. A lot of the special character of the cigar comes from the care that went into its development.

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CAO has announced a new cigar line called Vision that will launch at next month’s Retail Tobacco Dealers of America annual convention and show in Las Vegas. The CAO Vision is the first Dominican-made CAO cigar.

The Vision will be available in three sizes: a 5×50 Robusto, a 6×50 Toro, and a 6.25×52 Torpedo. The cigars sport a Dominican Corojo wrapper, and a Dominican Piloto Cubano (cuban seed) Binder. The filler is a blend of Dominican, Nicaraguan and Brazilian tobacco. I’ll be posting a review of the cigar as soon as they are available for sampling.

Along with this being CAO’s first Dominican release, it is also being packged in an innovative way. What could be special about the way a cigar is packaged? CAO has another surprise for us.

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Cigarfan, a blogger who started up in January of this year, has accumulated an impressive collection of concise cigar reviews on his site. His latest offering is a review of one of my favorite Rocky Patel cigars, The Edge Maduro Toro.

Here’s an excerpt of what he has to say:

I found this toro to be an extremely well constructed cigar, somewhat better than the RP Vintage lines. It burns evenly, draws perfectly, and earns an A in deportment. The ash is a mottled light gray and is fairly solid.

It’s a good look at a very good cigar, and I recommend it to you.

Cigar Insider gave this one an 87 last year, and commented on “good oils and tooth” and “a nice range of cocoa, cream and wood notes. The earthy finish carries coffee and mellow spice.”

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