If you never heard of Meerapfel & Sohne from Belgium, you’re not alone. Yet they are legendary within the cigar industry. For the last century and a half, the Meerapfel’s have been in the center of the tobacco trade and without the family, there would be no more African Cameroon tobacco. Meerapfel saved that tobacco and the tobacco cultivation in Africa from fading into oblivion.

In 2014, the fifth generation of Meerapfel, Joshua and Jeremiah, decided to use some of the vintage Cuban tobacco that the company has in storage. The tobacco dates back from the 1970s till recent years. They found an undisclosed Honduran factory and blended a cigar with the use of several years of vintage Cuban tobacco, including those forty-year-old leaves, with new world tobacco. That was the La Estancia. And recently a follow up was released in the La Estancia Edicion Especial, a cigar in the price range of the Behike, Padron 1926 and Opus X. And it’s even more of a mystery cigar, not only the factory is undisclosed, but also the blend is a total secret.

Name: La Estancia Edicion Especial
Country: Honduras
Factory: Undisclosed
Size: 6 x 60
Vitola: Toro Gordo
Wrapper: Undisclosed
Binder: Undisclosed
Filler: Undisclosed
Price: € 32,00 (The Netherlands)
Cutter: Xikar X2
Lighter: single flame
Smoke conditions: indoors with a ventilator
Smoke time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Purchased at Van Dalen Cigars, Rotterdam

The wrapper is covered in thin veins, it’s not very smooth yet the color is very attractive The ring contains the regular La Estancia ring with an old style map, but then surrounded with a lot of gold, a little too much if you ask me. If you look closely you can see ‘edicion especial’ in small letters on the gold. The foot ring is gold with a red star. We couldn’t find any plugs or soft spots when inspecting the cigar. The cigar has a strong sawdust aroma.

The cold draw is easy and has a sultana flavor, already complex and subtle. Right from the start, I taste leather with a bit of mustiness, which is soon replaced by spices. The cigar is smooth and the pepper I taste fits the smoothness of this very complex, smooth, creamy cigar. I suspect this blend uses some very vintage Cuban tobacco as a filler or even binder. Halfway the cigar gets more creamy with cedar wood and leather, very distinct and complex. The final third is peppery with cedar and herbs, the body and flavor pick up strength and at the end, the cigar has an earthy feel too.

The light-colored, firm and dense ash is beautiful. The draw is fantastic but the burn had some issues. The cigar is medium in body and medium-full in flavor. We would pick this over a Cohiba Behike any day of the week.

Strength: Medium
Flavor: Medium-Full

For the final score with a scientific diagram, a video and pictures, go to: https://ministryofcigars.com/la-esta...al-toro-gordo/
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