Sunday afternoon I found myself browsing the expansive humidor of the Cigar-ette City store in Peoples Plaza shopping center in Newark , Delaware. This is the flagship store of the Delaware Cigars chain which is managed by Emilio Cigars’ Gary Griffith. Jim was working in the humidor and was very helpful and knowledgeable. This humidor is stacked to the rafters with just about everything you could imagine. It would be no problem to stock the humidors of the three or four stores closest to my home fully and still have a great stock left over. They had a full compliment of the Liga Privada Serie Unicos on hand (I can’t remember if I saw Dirty Rats…I’m sure they were there), as well as what looked like full lines from Don Pepin, Tatuaje, etc, etc. It’s an overwhelming selection one could easily go broke quickly. I selected a handful of cigars, including some Emilio AF1 and 2 coronas, a La Musa Melete, and a few of the Gonzo Vintage 2007 Lanceros from Epicurean Cigars. Since I had a few hours to kill, and the state of Delaware bans ALL indoor smoking, even in cigar shops, I pulled a folding chair out of the car and sat on the sidewalk in front of the store to enjoy a cigar.
The cigar I chose was one of the Epicurean Gonzo Vintage 2007 Lanceros. I’m kicking myself a little for not getting a robusto or two to sample, because this box pressed lancero was a terrific smoke. For my palate, Connecticut Broadleaf over a San Andrés binder is a double whammy flavor explosion, and this perfectly built panatela was as rich, dark and flavorful as I had hoped. I’m glad I got two, and I’m glad Gary had just sent me one recently. I’m salivating thinking about it, and may just smoke another one this week. I must make a point to sample more sizes, perhaps they will be a little less expensive here in Pennsylvania. Two thumbs up on this one. This is a cigar that is right up my alley, perfect in every regard, burn, draw, flavor and appearance.
After I packed up my impromptu sidewalk cigar lounge, I headed back to the university where my wife was busy doing some research, and parked my butt on a bench and lit up an Emilio AF1 Corona. You may recall in my last post I wondered out loud if one existed and lo and behold it did! I snagged a couple, and I do believe I liked the AF2 better in the corona size than the Broadleaf wrapped AF1. For me I think the AF1 works better in the larger ring gauge. I’ll let the other ones I bought sit in the humidor for a little bit too. Maybe the wrapper overpowered the filler on this one, I don’t know, I just felt like the toro version suited me better. Not that I didn’t enjoy the heck out of it, I certainly did!
Monday evening I pulled one of the other Epicurean cigars that Gary had sent me, the AG Azul Vintage 2008 in the toro size. This is a nicely presented cigar with a shiny foil band and a cedar sleeve hiding a flawless sun-grown Ecuador Habano wrapper. This has a Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers from Esteli and Jalapa . I found this cigar to be on the low end of medium, but full of flavor and a perfect burn. I love it when a cigar burns flat and even, I find that miraculous considering that the various tobaccos in the blend may burn at different rates. When everything combusts completely and at the same time it just makes the cigar experience that much more special for me. I know, I’m weird. I’m full of regret once again, because I was going to grab a couple of the AG Armando Gutierrez Vintage 2007 too and I decided to wait and see what this 2008 was like. I’ll have to try that one when I go looking for more of the Gonzo! Another great cigar from Steve Ysidron and Epicurean Cigars.
Here’s the final video from the 2013 IPCPR show. As it turns out, it’s Steve Ysidron talking about his Epicurean Cigar line! What a happy coincidence!
As it works out, last night I couldn’t help but take another of the Gonzo Vintage 2007 Lanceros out for a walk and it was perfect again. Loads of dark, rich flavor and a perfect burn. My only regret was that it wasn’t larger as the lancero only lasted just under and hour. It reaffirms my desire to try these in a larger ring gauge. Yum.
That’s it for now, until the next time,
CigarCraig
