PROLOGUE
17.45
begin transmission
THE CIGAR
Illusione Epernay Serie 2009
Nicaraguan Cafe Rosado wrapper
Nicaraguan binder
Nicaraguan (Criollo and Corojo) filler
La Ferme 5 1/4 x 48 Robusto
Courtesy of The Briar Shoppe
PRE-LIGHT
"It smells like the bottom of an old lady's purse." - my wife
Strawberries and cream undertone to a caramel mocha frou-frou concoction overtone. Some liver sportiness of darker we'll say high-lights. Very red tobacco at the foot with a scant amount of blonde highlights and a streak of dark. Tight even seams. A noticeable vein, cosmetic threat only, and a handful of spider veins. Smooth feel and a bit toward dry of medium. Firm and even packing, but with a lively give upon the Charmin test. Cap is tightly affixed.
The gold-trimmed band plays well with the stick's complexion and is a nice bit of minimalism while still maintaining a style beyond that. I get fancy homage done quirky. An alternative to an alternate take on history, but with academic footnotes.
Schnozolla notes of sweet hay and a sunny tobacco that gives a hint at citrus. Also, there's a dry un-sweet honey -- maybe a beeswax vibe. Moving to the foot, I pick up the addition of rose water and blonde coffee.
I nibble off the cap and a cold pull is quite a dose of floral honey note with an equal amount of somewhat vanilla cream coming on in its wake.
LIGHT
Lighting is an easy affair, because as I like to point out, cigars are flammable. Toasting releases the floral honey into the air on the back of burning hay. First hot pull is very floral, some honey, a cup of blonde coffee, and a citrus tang that's less a taste, more a mouth-feel -- and is buffered with a toasted cream. Hot darn!
Second pull is retro-haled to add a yeastier hay body with flavor notes unchanged from draw numero uno. We do get an addition of graham cracker and pale roasted nuts. I am forever searching for a descriptive term that says "pale roasted nuts" minus conjuring up images of Richie Cunningham in sweatpants, A lengthy and complicated finish is already setting in, and is a replay of the draw in an odd in-case-you-missed it loop. Third pull, let's say Baker's spices for now.
Burn is even sans a self-correcting slight ribbon straw or two. Burn-line is medium+. Ash is clumping on at an average pace in light grey to near charcoal ladder rungs. Draw offers medium+ resistance, but I dig that. Profile, at this early stage, let's say -medium. Foot-smoke is a peppery floral with a touch of honey. and is of medium volume.
ACT I
The burn has me thinking it might need a touch-up, but I sit tight. A green tea seems to emerge from the hay and moistens my palate nicely. The retro-hale is almost too complex to bore you with, but hey -- you decided to visit my blog -- light floral honey and rose water. There is a delineation between the floral and rose water and I believe it to be the pale coffee that goes on to carry cinnamon, nutmeg. It too carries into the finish which is all graham and Richie Cunningham in sweatpants. At the end of that finish, which is medium+ to -long, you get a return to flowers and the bottom of an old lady's purse.
Ash clumps off shy of an inch and I ain't even set my schmatta/handkerchief out on my lap yet. It's quite powdery with a tad of oily resistance in its center -- the ash I mean.
Richie Cunningham in sweatpants finds the coffee and adds a nice sharpness. I believe the burn is evening out now and the smoke out-put rises. I detect a yeasty sourdough bread off that sharpness. A bit of a white pepper lays in languidly. The burn jumps again and I need to retouch. I'm unconvinced that it does much.
The green tea ferments a bit and is very interesting, indeed. Floral notes go there. The cinnamon has gone and the nutmeg subdues. I roll off 3/4 inch of wonky ash, and notice it's quite more dense now.
Gentlepersons, at the end of the opening act, we gots a classic medium profile and a very complex and ever-morphing affair in this Epernay. I take the last pull into my sinuses and get warm whites peppers and roasted chestnuts.
ACT II
The burn is mainly even now and correcting further. I believe the pace has picked up a bit now. There is much coffee and the sharpness dulls now into something like a coffee cake. Or a very good fruitcake, perhaps. Still quite floral, but now the stems are more sturdy. Let's say honeysuckle. There's a hint at a melon, as well.
Draw loosens to a medium and construction has softened evenly at the half. Rosewater is less diluted. A nice earthy note sets in, not moist and heavy, but more of a dense dry clay. White pepper heats up on the retro-hale, but is kind about it. A creme brulee shows up, I say "Oui, oui!" But I think "Wee-wee" and I giggle at me.
As ACT II comes to a head, I get a bit of a transition to pine nuts and Richie Cunningham disappears a la his big brother Chuck after the pilot episode. He just dribbled his basketball off the screen and was never heard from again. How very odd...
ACT III
The ash has paled and dense'd up a good deal. Burn is now even enough to say burn is now even enough. Burn-line is medium. Draw unchanged. Softening has ceased. A nice chew sets in. Mouth-feel is yeasty airy bread. Moisture level es bueno, mi amigos. Burn slows, remains cool as always, and the volume of smoke into my smoke-hole and off the foot are mid-range and kindly.
The only thing that ain't still on-board are the sweet spices. Earth and tea and pine with an orange twist take the forefront. Honeysuckle lays underneath with a pale coffee. Finish sees that coffee extend into it and is a nutty fruitcake with a graham backing.
I have almost lost track of the flavors and Tyrone Biggums can easily have me believing I taste baking soda, gentlepersons.
The clay gets drier and its dust acts as not a mottling of the flavors, but a corral of sorts. Ash returns to its darker less dense original. I doth believe I shall ride it out from here and catch ya in the coming sections below.
[at the band a dry and light savoriness comes in for a moment -- think white meat jerky.]
[at the band a dry and light savoriness comes in for a moment -- think white meat jerky.]
NOTES
I'm quite proud of my cigar chomping brethren, that this subtle and complex of an offering is so gosh darned popular.
There's no Ligero in this blend. Others seem to fully STRESS THIS POINT. Figured it was worthy of mention, if not MENTION.
This review would have been better to do five (5) years ago.
There's no Ligero in this blend. Others seem to fully STRESS THIS POINT. Figured it was worthy of mention, if not MENTION.
This review would have been better to do five (5) years ago.
PAIRINGS
White tea, Chardonnay. I'd drink neither. Generally speaking, I mean. Light/comic Opera -- in its original sense; not to include Bizet's Carmen on account of spoken dialogue.
FINAL GRADE
****A-****
PROLOGUE
18.53
end transmission