Maduro Cigar Week! A La Hermandad, a Recluse and a Chateau Real Maduro

After enjoying the heck out of the Brazilian Arapiraca wrapped J.C.Newman Brickhouse, I decided to continue the Arapiraca theme with a La Hermandad Robusto from Sean Williams of El Primer Mundo. These are made by Abe Flores of PDR Cigars at his factory in the Dominican Republic. This was a nice, dark 5” x 50 cigar with a pre-production band that Sean gave me at the trade show. The cigar burned perfectly (a trend I’m happy to report I’ve noticed lately, cigars burning well. Nothing is more annoying than a cigar that burns poorly). and drew well, and was a powerhouse of strong, dark flavors. Sean Williams is a very cool guy and I had a chance to catch up with him at the trade show, here is a short video from his booth.

Monday evening I continued the Arapiraca trend with a Recluse corona from Iconic Leaf Cigar Company. I’ve see a couple reviews of the Toro recently, and I also received samples this week, but they are going to rest for a while. I spoke to them at the show (see my post with video here) and had some pre-release samples in addition to the samples they gave me at the show, so I opted to smoke the corona. I also have a double corona, but it was just too large for the time I had allotted for my evening smoke, and the Kanu #1 is almost too pretty and interesting to smoke! This is another perfectly constructed cigar, a lovely box press that had a rich and dark wrapper. The flavor was equally dark and rich. I enjoyed this cigar to a finger burning nub. The mystery behind these cigars continues, their website states “Iconic Leaf Cigar was founded by two very well known and well respected legends in the cigar industry. They have chosen to keep their identities private in a pursuit to make the very best premium boutique cigars that can be found anywhere in the world without the influence of their names.” I’ll be very interested to find out who these legends are, and J.R. Dominguez certainly wasn’t spilling anything when I talked to him at the show! It’s a terrific cigar, give it a try if you can.

Tuesday evening I switched it up and went with a San Andreas Maduro wrapper. I selected a favorite from my dwindling supply, a Drew Estate Chateau Real Gran Cru Perfecto in Maduro. Sadly, these are discontinued, but there are still some around here and there. I bought this box about two years ago and they just keep getting better. These are a really smooth and delicious Maduro with coffee and cocoa flavors that are good to the last drop. I liked these so much that I had them in mind when I created my own blend at Cigar Safari a year and a half ago. My blend turned out to be just what I wanted, loads of smooth and chocolaty flavor without a lot of power. The Chateau Real Maduro is refined and classy and I wish it hadn’t been discontinued, although I probably couldn’t have gotten such great deals on the boxes I bought if they hadn’t been I suppose. This is a perfect cigar for my tastes and I’ll miss them dearly when they are gone, there’s nothing I don’t love about this cigar.

For some reason Autumn makes me lean toward the Maduros, always been that way.  I have to go see what else I can scrounge up to keep the trend going.  Maybe I’ll find a nice Broadleaf or another San Andreas wrapped cigar to smoke tonight.

That’s it for this installment. Until the next time,

CigarCraig