Gilberto Oliva Reserva Blanc - Cigar Review

Gilberto Oliva 

Reserva Blanc
650 Toro

NOTES:
I
Buttery smooth of mitt and mouf. A singular zaftig vein catches the eye but not the char nor fingers. Heckuva even draw and burn-line. White pepper then black-some through the schnoz. Accompanying piquancies are a nutmeg/clove red melange. Sweet cream braced by salted/toasted almonds. A flavorful 'baccy core.

II

Almonds churn out then put forward complexities spawning coffee bean turned diner joe; oak-cum-cedar. On far end a' finish a refreshing minty cayenne hits tongue-tip. Buckwheat honey, thinly. Butter clarifies, mounts. Tobacco core gets leathery influx. Sweet leathery room-note with woodsy backing. Construction/combustion are an open highway cruise control. 

III

Ash builds well in a heather-grey stack ' dimes, and it's quite windy on my porch. Salt smoothly-smacks creamy lips. A floral/herbal quality lays on palate after retro-hale. Milk chocolate on immediate draw and again on extending finish. Pacing is admirable, draw stiffens an un-egregious half-tick nigh cool temperature'd band.

FINAL GRADE: A
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59

WRAPPER: Ecuadorian Connecticut
BINDER: Ecuadorian
FILLER: Nicaraguan

STRENGTH: Medium
ORIGIN: Nicaragua

IN ADDITION:

For the first time since the Oliva family sold their cigar manufacturing/sales operations a year ago... and for a goodly handful a' years prior: Oliva hath just released an entirely new brand. This Gilberto, to be clear. Consisting of a pair a' lines, the Gilberto Oliva Reserva Blanc of this here review, and the due-out-later-this-summer Sumatran top-leaf'd Gilberto Oliva Reserva. (Guts are same in each.)

Named by Oliva in homage to their patriarch, Gilberto Sr. is best known for his work as a tobacco grower. As an aside, when Oliva sold to J. Cortes in 2016, they kept the fields. Sr. began growing in 1969 Nicaragua, and would go on to plant leaf in Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and the Philippines.

Note: this cigar was originally announced under the nom de tobacco of Facundo. Originally announced... a cigar by this same name was announced back in 1995, and rolled by Plasencia. With its moniker quickly shortened to simply "Oliva," it would usher in the start of what's really one a' my favorite brands, gentlepersons.

IN FURTHER ADDITION:
Smooth and pristinely balanced, don't dare, gentlepersons, sleep on this Gilberto Oliva Reserva Blanc offering. Perchance, I tell myself this, as I tend to over-look Oliva till I smoke one -- every time.