After a stressful weekend, I thought I would relax last night with my first AVO: a 787 gifted to me by jjirons69/Jamie. I was very excited to try this—not only because it came as a gift from a great BOTL, but because of the hype around the brand and I knew these are higher priced cigars than I would typically purchase on my own. I want to especially thank Jamie for sending this--you’re first rate, brother!

On the other hand, I am very sorry to say that it was a very disappointing smoke that did not live up to my expectations. At all. :-)

Vitola: 5 7/8 x 50 Perfecto
Wrapper/Binder/Filler: Ecuadorian Connecticut/DR/DR
Smoke Time: 1:00 (probably could have gone another 20-30 minutes but I let it die)
Beverage: Water, added a glass of Sauternes about midway

Appearance
Nicely capped perfecto, very smooth wrapper with just one vein or stem noticeable beneath the surface, stately band.

Image

Construction
Excellent construction: perfect draw, ample smoke, the burn tended to be slightly angular but would self correct while resting.

Flavor
Based on previous reviews, I expected this cigar to be complex, toasty and full of rich coffee, cocoa, earth, and leather.

I got none of that. What I got was a quinine-like bitterness from the wrapper, with a peppery bite & a woody core. I can’t recall ever wishing for a sweetened tip, but I certainly felt that this cigar would have benefitted. I was all out of port, so we broke open a bottle of Sauternes to help take the bitter edge off. There was a little bit of cream on the finish, but mostly an apple-like fruity tartness that was very off-putting. The wine just accentuated this. I was confused. I was pissed. I wondered if it had to do with the fact that I punched it, so I clipped the cap midway and purged. All that did was bring even more smoke in on the draw--peppery and paperlike. About midway I could feel the strength building, which was even more surprising since I expected this to be in the mild/medium range.

I hate when pictures are blurry—it was dark out, so this is the best shot I got. At least the Bobkin, lighter & Palio are in focus!
Image

I gave it the ol’ college try—really, I did—but I let it die about an inch after taking this picture.

Overall
I know my palette can’t be that far off the mark, so maybe I got a dud. This was definitely not a good cigar. Given the AVO name I would be inclined to give it another chance, but I won’t be buying one anytime soon.

If you’ve had better luck with these, I’d love to hear a positive review. Sorry about my experience, Jamie, but thank you for sending it, I deeply appreciate the thought!
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Great review Gerard!
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I think you got a dud Gerard!!!

I have had a few of these and I really enjoy them!!!

Thanks for the review!!!
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Very nice review. Thanks!
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Have to agree, IMHO a wonderful cigar. :-)
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Sorry you got a bad one Gerard. I've stayed with their XO line for the most part, but the Domaine has also treated me well. I really dig the XO tubos and recommend them all the time--might be a bit on the mild side though.
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If I had to guess, I think the "dud" part of this smoke had to be the wrapper. The bitterness was strong mostly on my lips and not so much from the smoke, if that makes sense--I even picked it up on the prelight draw. Never encountered anything like this before, so I just thought that it would resolve at one point or another. It didn't.

It's not really fair to give a cigar like this such a poor review after only one stick that happened to be a dud. After years of smoking and hundreds of sticks, it was just such a new experience that I thought I'd share :-)
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