Cigar: Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Churchill
Size: 7 x48
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Wrapper: Honduran Broadleaf Aged 12 Years
Price: $8-9
Individual Weight: 16.7g
Pre-Light: This was one of the cigars that got me re-hooked on smoking premium stogies in 2008. Granted, it is the first Rocky Patel I’ve smoked in two years now as I’ve been making my trip up and down the aisles of cigar paradise lately, tasting every brand I can find. Since RP was one of the first brands I tried, it has been too long since I’ve revisited what it was that made me want to smoke on a daily basis. This cigar is a box pressed Churchill size vitola that is a very deep brown hue, much darker than I remember. Smelling the foot and body of the cigar give off hints of sweet, whole leaf chewing tobacco that I remember from when I was a teenager. It reminds me of the Levi Garrett that my baseball coach used to keep locked in his cheek for all revelers to see. I cut the cap to take a dry draw, and the cap cracked, flipped up and came off completely, taking about a half inch of wrapper with it. Not a good start for this cigar. Dry drawing reveals the sweet flavor of canned bamboo shoots, with a touch of honey. It is a very different dry flavor than I’m used to. I notice a large vein on the underside of the cigar, as well as an excessive amount of pectin that has been smudged onto the band and onto the wrapper.
Light: Yeah... That’s the stuff. I’m immediately met with the floral sweetness I’ve been missing for a couple of years now. There is absolutely no spice that I can recognize having just an eighth of an inch burned on the V90. I detect just a sweet cocoa butter nuttiness that meets me at the gates of relaxation. The flavor of the cigar has me all but forgetting the cap issues when trying to prep the cigar for lighting. I bet this is how a dog feels when he gets his belly rubbed.
1/3rd: At about an inch into the V90, the burn starts to go a bit crooked (about a half inch offset). It hasn’t affected the nature of the smoke or the burn quality yet, but I’m keeping an eye on it for now.
I am getting a soft, floury sweetness similar to a fresh baked bread on retro-hales. At about a 1.5 inches in I am hit with a mouth of Midori melon liquor out of nowhere. The flavor surprises me enough that I have to pause for a moment to see if I can detect the flavor again. Nope, it’s gone. What an odd hint in a cigar. I would love to revisit that moment again. The sweetness remains in my mouth and on my lips, but the aroma has left now. I still have plenty of nuttiness at my coming through at a relaxed, Sunday-Drive pace, while chewy notes of star anise fight to numb my tongue. The burn line has evened up quite a bit, with only a small swatch of tobacco reminding me of the flawed roll at the foot of this cigar. Just as I hit the period button on my keyboard, the two and a half inch ash falls into my lap. It was probably my fault for not tapping it sooner, but it is still a bit disappointing when it happens. I am finally starting to detect a small ember of spice starting to glow at the back of my throat now. It gives me a slight tingle in my stomach the way a roller coaster does when you start going up your first incline.
½ Way: The antiseptic sweetness that the anise flavor has brought to the table is now in full force. The middle part of my tongue is now numb, with the sides detecting sweetness and the back in a battle with the heat that has been building in the spice category. The burn is 90% even now, with only a little dip of ash being present on the burn line to indicate the hint of a wavy burn and uneven roll. I’m getting hints of roasted nuts all over when another wisp of Midori melon comes back and sucker-punches me in the face again. When I least expected it. That is such an odd and unusual flavor for an un-infused cigar to give for me. I completely welcome it, but am curious to if it is the terroir or the tobacco genetics that bring it to fruition. I start picking up on coffee hints now. They aren’t as bold and full flavored as most Nicaraguan blend cigars offer, but a more nutty and buttery coffee note that I associate with a coffee I would procure at a Dunkin Doughnuts. It doesn’t have the extra body or the extra dark flavors, but more of a mild-medium roast coffee. The more I think about the melon liquor flavor I noticed earlier, my mind starts to break the flavor down into more basic elements of taste and aroma. While they call Midori melon flavored, to me it seems that it is a bit of a cuvee’ of fruited flavors stilled into a syrupy sweetness. For me, I tend to think that the main flavor component when I taste it is honeysuckle. It is sweet, floral, but with a hint of papaya tang. It reminds me of being a child in the 80’s and washing my hair with the old Aussie Shampoo blend that had the light papaya scent.
Final 3rd: As the last third begins, I’m met with the more coffee flavors building into what I describe as an Americano flavor. The nuttiness and body has developed quite a bit now, and I am getting much bigger flavors and spice. A bit of a barnyard-esque, white pepper note begins to appear with about 4 inches left. And while it is a welcome flavor, it is starting to bring with it a bit of bitterness and acidity. A woodiness appears as well, but not of the cedar type. The taste is more of an “I sucked on the popsicle stick a bit too long” woodiness that finishes with more spice and a slight acrid tartness. Toffee sweetness comes into the fold with just over two and a half inches left, as does the initial aroma of chewing tobacco from the pre-light.
Final Thoughts: If I were to judge this cigar on a 1-10 level of complexity, it would land smack dab in the middle with a solid 5. While the flavors are warming, smooth, and comforting, they don’t build as much as I’d like to see in a stick in the $8-9 price range. While I feel that the V90 is worthy of any maduro fan’s humidor, I would caution those who are used to Nicaraguan Purus to start off with a few to see if they like the more medium bodied maduro flavors that the Vintage 1990 brings to the table. Why it may be a fantastic smoke to those who enjoy a more sweet and floral flavor, it may not appease everyone looking for the full-bodied, “in your face” maduro that the ligero purists have commanded from the cigar industry recently.
For the full review, high resolution pics, and final score, go to The Daily Tobacconist!
[Reply]
Originally Posted by ApexAZ:
Great review. I haven't had a V90 in quite a while. Anise is not something I've detected in any cigar. Certainly not midori either! Sounds very interesting.
Considering all the unique flavors you pulled from this and only gave it a 5, a 8-10 cigar must be like a veritable smorgasbord!
No, I gave it a 5 on complexity. The flavors were varied a bit, but the really interesting ones one came on three separate puffs. For complexity, I use the Padron Anni line and Family Reserve as the benchmark. They has multiple layers of flavor that continue to evolve throughout the cigar.
Granted, the Midori was a fluke flavor I'm thinking. I only detected it twice in the cigar, but the anise was more of a mouth feel. I was trying to describe the antiseptic property that it has that numbs your mouth slightly. It wasn't so much the flavor I was trying to go explain.
Thanks for reading the review!
[Reply]
