Zino Platinum Crown Barrel - Cigar Asylum Cigar Forum

The cigar: Zino Platinum Crown Barrel

Nutritional information:
Serving size: 6 x 60 (gordo)
Origin: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Aged Connecticut Shade from Ecuador
Binder: Aged Connecticut Shade from USA
Filler: Dominican Republic and Peru

Prelight: The Barrel is a stunner, but that's what you'd expect from a super-high-end Henrik Kelner creation. The wrapper is silky smooth, with no veins or seams visible, and much darker than I expected from a Zino. It's rolled tightly, feels heavy in the hand, and clips very smoothly. The cold draw was easy -- it's a 60rg, after all -- and offered notes of bread (rye) and cedar.

Construction and combustion: High marks here, too, although the last third disappointed a bit. Through the first two thirds the smoking was outstanding. The ash grew slow, straight, long, and strong. Each puff brought gobs of smoke, and wispy tendrils through the head while it rested. I'd carefully removed the bands without any issues, but when the burn line reached the spot where the bands had been, a sizable crack appeared, and then the burn got jagged. Smoke time was over 90 mins.

Flavors: Zino bills this as a strong cigar:

Exceptionally strong tobacco blend created with approximately 75% ligero tobaccos in the filler. Ligero tobacco leaves come from the top part of the tobacco plants.

Taste
Strong but balanced, due to the perfect combination of specially selected tobaccos used for this original blend. Rich new taste respectfully drawn from the best of cigar tradition.

The Barrel has full flavor and body but it's smooth and at times even creamy. You wouldn't know that you're smoking a powerhouse, but when I was done I could tell that I had a good dose of nicotine in me.

The opening flavors were toasty tobacco, cedar, and walnuts. The finish was quite dry on the palate. After an inch or so the flavors got fuller and rounder, sweeter and creamier, with tasty flavors of coffee and mocha. There was good complexity and richness. These middle three inches were the best part of the cigar. The flavors became flatter and duller in the last third, reverting to a drier finish, with some white pepper. I laid it down when I started to taste some ashiness.

Overall: The Barrell was a very good smoke. It would be great if it were an $8-10 cigar. Unfortunately, it's got a MSRP of $25 (I got this as part of a sampler special at a significant discount). I just can't recommend it at that price or anything near it.
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