PROLOGUE
The Eclipse Awards.This year's rendition was somewhat shy on debatable outcomes, due in part to American Pharoah's campaign for the ages and Triple Crown/Grand Slam win. One note-worthy gem I pulled from the somewhat foregone conclusion gala is an apparent dispute as to the proportional height of the Breeder's Cup Classic. I give you as evidence, The Moment of the Year, as voted on by we the general public. Note please it was decided that AP's Belmont victory be higher on the hierarchy of moments than his Classic win.
It had, indeed, been nearly a couple score since our last Triple Crown Champion -- but it had NEVER been done; this Grand Slam feat of uniquely Pharoahical proportions. I cannot help but wonder if this speaks poorly of the Breeder's Cup luster, or greatly of Belmont and Trips Fancy Hat lore.
When Affirmed won his Crown in '78, the chance for him to secure a Grand Slam campaign was still a half dozen years into the future. Working the numbers, then, all one of Grand Slam attempts have been successful. Still, I and no one else would claim it to be an easy task -- a tired three-year-old running against fellow and oft more well-rested threes as well as ups. So if the difficulty is there, if the uncharted territory is there, why then did horse fans cite Belmont as the moment of moments?
The answer is nigh as clear as American Pharoah being the favorite to procure Horse of the Year honors. History. The Triple Crown got it. All the way back to Sir Barton in 1919. The BC will get there, it will. In short, we have a sporting lineage I'd hold up to any other, and a future so bright, I gotta wear a shadow roll and blinkers.
What too warmed the cockles of my heart so, is the little bit of knowledgeable history lover within so many a degenerate horseplayer. I feel I am truly one with my peeps there, at synagogue, and with --
THE CIGAR
Perdomo Habano Corojo5 x 52 Robusto
Corojo wrapper
Nicaraguan binder
Nicaraguan fillers
(Esteli, Condega, and Jalapa regions)
PRE-LIGHT
Slightly busy band and less so foot-band are balanced by the employing of dull/understated palettes. Their colorings pair well with the complexion of the Perdomo offering they adorn. A nice creamed coffee hue with caramel tones about it, and evenly so but for one blonde spot along-side a vein in the 3/3. Couple of additional veins, no big whoop. Not a lot of spider veins. Cap is nicely crafted, seams are a bit wide, but even. Tobacco peeks out from the foot at a darker tick than the shaft. Auburn to brunette, and sans so much as a dirty blonde high-light. Seems packed in there to a medium density. Sheen is present evenly over-top, but in a matte manner of delivery.Hand-feel offers a bit of tooth peeking through a light oil. Balance is oddly off for a Robusto, as it won't perch properly in my $0.99 Walmart ashtray. Couple hard bumps are felt through the top-leaf; a Charmin squeeze shows a softer 1/3 than 2&3/3. A harder spot is present at the onset of 3/3. Softest is -medium, hardest is medium+. Sheer nit-pickery, this.
Sweet leathers and hay are schnozed at the shaft and a musty earthiness with underlying spices at the foot. Smells like victory. Nibbling off the cap, I get a dose of intensely powerful tobacco full of earth and leather. There's an inherent sweetness to the strength that lies under it and extends beyond it.
LIGHT
10:49amWood. Lotsa wood fills the air in my carport headquarters as I toast the foot. That's the main note line on a first hot pull. Earth, leather, tobacco. Sweet hay backs it all from far below -- and these notes are high, gentlepersons. Quite robust. Bordering on full-flavored and bodied. The finish is very long-legged and mainly inherently sweet stemming from the heavy-handed draw. Very rough and ready white pepper display on a second hot pull retro-hale. Not a lot of flavors, but a LOT of flavor in this Perdomo. Mouth-feel is oily leathers and creamy woods. Interesting that the notes balance themselves, and are not reliant on an introduction of other flavors to do so. The power finishes sweetly on the third hot pull, as well. It seems that all flavors are on-board and we're off and running.
Profile at this early point would be a sturdy medium+. Draw is a medium+ tension. Burn-line is medium+ ribboned thickness and extends out of it a 50/50 salt/pepper ash. That ash is fairly flaky and not very dense.
ACT I
Primary notes are spiced then creamy woods and leathers. Secondarily there is a deep somewhat musky earthiness. Backing is hay. That white pepper ebbs and flows and while flowing, FLOWS. I'm not certain it isn't an aspect of another flavor note. We shall mayhaps see.The zetz gets even bigger about an inch in, and a mild cocoa note comes in on the finish to soften the mouth-feel just as my palate was parching. Copious smoke from both ends. Robust room-note of heavy tobacco earthiness with that lovely inherent sweetness. Burn does not seem interested in correcting itself, but also hasn't drifted and further wayward. Ash is an ugly thing and my safety net schmatta/hankie is at the ready, natch.
At the end of the first act, a charring near bite sets in. This is not a flaw, but is in keeping with this Perdomo's plot. This stick means business. And I don't mean the haberdashery business -- I'd guess it runs an almost legit something or other in Jersey. The ash holds, and when it doesn't, I plan on retouching.
Strength is warmly if not kindly medium+. Flavor and body easily full. Limited by way of flavors, but full nonetheless. Subtlety is not this stick's M.O.. The burn noticeably slows as we enter the second act. Too, the room-note sharpens a tick. Interesting is that for all the robust woods and leathers and earth, slighter notes of cocoa and hay remain on-board. Again, this speaks to the way these are inherent in the papa notes. Very nice. It makes for a rather strange but goodly combination of smooth and coarse.
As the curtain falls, ash clumps in a coarse loose powder. Looks like we'll start on a re-touch in --
ACT II
A retouch and an increasing char off-set by a strengthening and bracing very dry cocoa. Packaging softens almost an inch ahead of the thinning burn-line which is more even but imperfectly so. The wrapper feels dry as does my palate. I try to not even sip water as I review, but if smoking for pleasure purposes alone, I'd surely have something wet at my side. That something would hopefully be a redhead. A tick of wrapper cracks but is cosmetic only. Finish is ridiculously long and now a spiciness is at its end, re-emerging post sweetnesses. Nicotine is plentiful. White pepper is a mainstay on a retro-hale. My throat and chest feel like a swig of artisan moonshine. Meaning, of course, there;s a label on the mason jar.Smoke out-put is hearty and heartier still. I start to swoon a tad and begin to worry that one day, this Perdomo might come to me for a favor. Wrapper is brittle and its almost as if it's all it can do to hold in its menacing guts. They mean well, though -- remember that when you hear tales of thumb-breakings. Business, not personal, gentlepersons.
Smoke picks up a brownish low-light. Stick warms and warms. Spices are soaring. The transition is an Italian shoe to the throat, from the chest. Same primary and secondary notes. All are racing to catch their spices. When sweetness does, it makes me lip-smack. Draw resistance ticks down to medium. Leathery oils butter-up a notch. Tobacco is a doozy herein. A re-touch is mandated by a sprig of top-leaf that won't play nice. It plays nice. Here comes the cocoa. Char subdues a tick. Strength is to -full.
Profile does not mute, but thins and thus sharpening doth occur. Ash is exceedingly flaky and consisting of coarse dryness. Burn is behaving better and its line is a -medium thickness. Cocoa and hay are mingling nice on my lips. Somewhat of a kinder tuchus-whooping now. Softening of the pack-job has ceased. There are three small and slight cracks in the wrapper. A light coffee vibe, poured at a diner, sets in. Adam and Eve! On a raft! Wreck 'em! Rectum? Damn near killed him!
There ya go: two obscure references for the price of none.
Another touch-up is needed; what's that, three? The other side seems wanting to run ahead. Ash browns a bit. Same salt and pepper mix as ever it was. Perhaps a notching up of oils there. Leather pulls out ahead of wood as primary notes are concerned. All other notes are unchanged. They all show more spice than sweet, but sweet holds on -- not yet for its white-knuckled dear life.
ACT III
Texture of the smoke in my smoke-hole thickens up. Lays quite heavily there. Earth sweetens a tick. Amazingly long finish. When it moves from a sweet to spicy end and back again -- it lengthens each time. Another link to the chain. I'm set to be tasting this through my upcoming hill of beans lunch. Smoke is back to thick white clouds. Off the foot, there is a streaking of blue. Honestly, this Perdomo offering has begun to border on laborious if not tedious.Packaging softens verily. Coffee hides. Woods crisp. Palate sharpens to a near bite. I let it sit for a minute and it takes some nursing puffs to bring it back to full-life. Finish pulls in its legs. Seems set to go out with a legitimate whimper, not a law-breaking bang. Very woodsy.
At the band, there's a pop of creamy oil then spicy leather and earthy deep tobacco -- just to reminds ya. Smoke pours freely about as the curtain falls.
NOTES
Normally, I find that nuances built complexities. This Perdomo is an exception. Lacking almost completely in nuance and vastly in subtlety -- it is not without inherent complexity within its primary notes.
PAIRINGS
Sweet and strong black tea. Brewed till it's nice and greezy on-top.
FINAL GRADE
****B****
EPILOGUE
Noonish
PORTLAND MEADOWS
noon PST post 1/19
1:2,1
2:6
3:4,1
4:5
5:5
6:3
7:1
8:5
9:2
10:n/a
11:n/a
12:n/a
***
14:n/a
15:n/a
n/a = I ain't having none THIS, gentlepersons.
There it be, my first review done in my new digs -- my carport instead of my porch. At a desk. Fish don't fry in the kitchen; beans don't burn on the grill... Movin' on up, gentlepersons!
Thanks to my pal Anthony at CIGARS CITY for the sampling. Why not go there and treat yerself to a lil sumthin'? Tell 'im Kap sent ya. I might in turn send you a schmatta of yer very own.