The cigar: Alec Bradley Harvest Selection '97 Robusto
Nutritional information:
Vitola: 5x50 robusto
Origin: Honduras
Wrapper: Nicaragua, Habana 2000 from 1997
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Dominican Republic (piloto cubano), Mexico (ligero), Nicaragua (criollo)
The marketing:
Courtesy of CI:
A fine follow-up to Alec Bradley’s top-selling duo of Trilogy and Maxx. Fresh off a ’94’ rating, Alec Bradley is on the move....and for its next trick, we proudly introduce Alec Bradley Harvest Selection ’97. Harvest Selection ’97 is supremely appealing from the get-go, thanks to a super-smooth Nicaraguan Habano wrapper with ample oils and a leathery texture. Underneath, a flavorful 3-country blend of aged long-fillers unites, including Dominican Piloto Cubano from 1997, Mexican ligero from 1997, and Nicaraguan Criollo from 1998. This vintage, yet complex recipe serves up an eventful, medium-bodied bouquet layered with smooth, toasty flavors, subtle spices, earth, and coffee-like undertones. Tasty, and enjoyable down to the nub. Better still, my monstrous everyday price....highly reasonable brother, highly reasonable.
A CI exclusive. I picked up a 5pk on CBid this past winter. I smoked one in March and another recently.
Prelight: The wrapper is a glossy, leathery Habano, dark caramel in color, smooth with small veins. The band is quite nice: embossed gold and red, similar in style to the Tempus. A good looking cigar, particularly for its price range. It's well rolled, too, and very firm, but the cold draw was excellent. I didn't pick up much in the way of aroma.
Construction and burn: Excellent, at least through the first half. It lit easily and burned extremely straight, even though I was smoking it outside in fairly windy conditions. The striated dark gray ash held firm for about half the length of the cigar before it dropped, leaving an attractive ligero cone. The burn in the second half was less impressive, and I needed to touch it up a couple of times. The quality of the rolling was evident from the slow burn -- I smoked this robusto for over an hour.
Flavors: When I smoked the first of these in March, I didn't get a lot of flavor, mostly mild tobacco and wood with a dry finish. Three months' aging has helped to improve this cigar. The first half was still dry, woody, peppery, but one-dimensional -- there were no deep flavors to balance out the pepper.
The fuller flavors that I was searching for appeared in the second half. The smoke filled out, bringing rounder, slightly sweet flavors, maybe even a note of black cherry. This part was nice! The body and flavor were solidly medium, strength was mild-medium.
On balance, this is a quality value smoke, very well made with some decent medium bodied flavors. It's certainly not the best Alec Bradley cigar (the Tempus is quite good, and I've got an SCR to take out for a spin) but at the prevailing prices on CI and CBid, it is a nice choice if you're looking for something to smoke while you're doing something else, especially if you lay it down for a little while. I'll revisit it in a few months.
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