Celebrating my externship turning into a fulltime position as a cook at the famous Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg, CA!
Well, we all know this stick. It's hard to pull it out of your humi not expecting something great, especially if it's your first time smoking it. This one was generously gifted to me by Al and SilverFox. As always, you try to come to a cigar for a review without any pre-conceived notions, but there are undoubtedly some cigars that it's impossible to do so with. This cigar is one of them, IMO.

Dominican puro, this cigar is beautiful. The construction is great. The pre-light is heavily of raisin, with the wrapper being just slightly spicy.
Once lit, the first taste is raisin, strong clove, and a subtle black pepper. There is a nice complexity to the cigar. As the cigar burns, it puts out a great amount of smoke, a pristinely white ash, and cocoa comes on as you smoke. Spice increases as well, and the final two inches are quite full-bodied.

The burn is nearly perfect. Completely even, self-correcting. The draw is exactly what you want, like in a woman. Loose enough to make things fun but not too tight. Is this cigar worth the money? That's relative, I suppose, to your income. For me, there are many cigars that are as good for less money, but since I got mine as a gift, I sure the hell am not putting it down. It's a GREAT cigar for free :-).

I think everyone should pick one up and at least smoke one, to form their own opinion. Personally, I enjoyed it immensely and want to thank Shawn and Al again for the opportunity.
Paired this with an 05 Merry Edwards Meredith Estate Single Vineyard Pinot Noir.
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Congrats!! Healsdburg is a awesome town, filled with great food and wines, as you already know!! Nice first review by the way!!!
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:-)

Nor Cal we need a squire mini herf soon!
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Now that is what it is all about.

Thanks for making my morning.

Oh and great review too.
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Thanks for sharing your enjoyable experience. I really like these cigars... more so at MSRP. :-)

Congratulations on the new job. :-)
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Very nice review!!

Congratulations on the job... :-)
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Congrats...great news!!! Nice review, thanks for sharing. :-)
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Congrats on the new job:-) Glad you enjoyed the cigar:-)
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Congrats on the job.
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Congratulations on the job. Obviously something you really wanted to do. It's nice to make a living doing what you enjoy. Good review too.
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Congrats on the new job.

Your review is pretty much what I experienced with my first Opus X a couple of months ago. I loved it -- just wish they weren't so darn expensive.
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:-) :-)
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Now that is what I call a metaphor.
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