Sunday, May 19, 2019

PDR A. Flores 1975 Gran Reserva Maduro | Cigar Review by Kaplowitz

"Have you Kaplowitz'd to-day?"

Stock photo.

PDR A Flores 1975 Gran Reserva Maduro
WRAPPER: San Andres Maduro
BINDER: Dominican Olor
FILLER: Dominican Corojo

FORMAT: Toro (654)
ORIGIN: Dominican Republic (PDR Cigars)
STRENGTH: Medium

NOTES:
Overtones are something like a smoky Latakia 'baccy backed w/ a peppery savoriness. Very earthy. Back to the first sentence: finely ground black pepper which plays nicely w/ a lean meatiness. Earthiness? Barnyard. Compost. Dark fruit (raisin/prune). Black walnut.

Undertones offer an herbal bit of tarragon & anise. Spices drive those middlings in a cumin and smoked paprika manner. Undertones are sweetly-spice manure w/ a tick of Lawry's salt. Dark and substantial w/ intricate complexities and heavy nuances. Plays some notes which ya just don't hear everywhere.

Top-leaf is quite fragile and cracks towards the cap almost out of the gate. Burn wobbles but (mostly) self-corrects here & there & throughout. However, it's paced quite well and slow. Draw is fantastic; smooth & steady, satiating & saturating. Plenty of active & passive smoke out-put. Ash makes an inch of growth easily each time before I roll it off. 

Ultimately, there are enough construction woes to appear in the final grade, but none are deal-breakers in & of themselves. At least till the seams wanna fly open in the 3/3 and the whole thing kinda wants to cosmetically 'splode. 

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

READING LIST:
Cigar News: PDR Cigars Launches A. Flores 1975 Gran Reserva Maduro at 2018 IPCPR ((( link ))) (2018 William Cooper, Cigar-Coop)