Tag Archives: aj fernandez

I mentioned in my last post that as I’ve been seeing news come from the IPCPR one of the things I miss is getting my hands on some of the new products that come out, lots of times months in advance of them hitting the stores. As I get on in years (I think using the phrase “get on in years” is, in it’s self, proof that I am), I find my interest waning in obscure, new, little, unheard of, never again to be seen brands which always seem to find their way into the IPCPR samples, and I don’t miss having to wade through those, heck, I probably still have some from years past that I can’t figure out what they are and Google isn’t even a help. That might be a fun blog post, I guess I need to work on that. Anyway, several things I’ve either posted about in the lead up to the show through news items, or read about elsewhere, piqued my interest. From Drew Estate, really the notable cigar to grab my attention is the Liga Privada H99. The bundles the announced really don’t excite me, I think La Viaja Habana comes very close to playing in this space and I don’t understand the need, just expand that brand into the bundle space, but JD is the master of marketing, not me, he has a job and I don’t so who am I to say? The Liga 10th anniversary is cool but I’ve smoked it, been there, done that. But a Corojo wrapper grown in the Connecticut River Valley intrigues the crap out of me and I’m in. Same with Willy’s new Brazilian wrapped Herrera Esteli, and I’ll give the Ligas a shot in the Corona Viva sizes if the opportunity arises (or opportunities arise) and the Undercrown Dogma is a proven winner in my book. From the Joya side, of course I’m interested in the Cinco Dècadas, the Quatro Cinco was exceptional, and I’ve been a big fan of the brand for a long time. The Joya Silver is also on my radar, although the Red and Black in that series have not been in my wheelhouse for some reason (the Cabinetta having been added to that new age kinda series is still a little weird for me, it came out in 2010, still a favorite in the shade wrapped genré).

Friday evening I went back to a cigar that came out at the 2016 IPCPR show, the Fonseca Nicaragua Toro, a classic 6″ x 50 Nicaraguan Puro, with a Criollo ’98 wrapper from Jalapa, Jalapa binder and fillers from Esteli and Ometepe made at Placencia for Quesada Cigars. I smoked this at the show back in ’16 and was quite impressed and bought a bunch at a local shop when I got home. These are reasonably priced, I think the Toro being the largest and most expensive in the line in the $6 range online or in reasonable cigar tax states. This cigar continues to impress me every time I remember to smoke it, the flavors are kinda woody with some sweetness and a little coffee and maybe a hint of spice here and there.  Cigar Aficionado had this on their Best Buys of 2017 and I tend to agree, this is a good deal, and aged very well.

Of course, there were plenty of other cigars I look forward to trying from the show, and General Cigars has a bunch. The Hoya Black is one for sure, along with the new Punch Diablo, which I posted the news about back on July 6, both made by A.J. Fernandez. I don’t think there is one cigar media outlet that will tell you otherwise, General Cigar Co. rolls out the red carpet for media, and gives a structured, on time, tour of the booth, with supporting media, samples, whatever you need, and they are simply the gold standard when it comes to booth tours for media. I’ve been through their booths at seven of the eight trade shows I’ve attended (one was pre-blog) and have always gotten first class treatment. I missed seeing all my friends there too!  I look forward to the new La Gloria Cubana Esteli (different from the Serie R Esteli), the new Partagas Legend, CAO Nicaragua, and I’d happily sit down with my old buddy Sean Williams and smoke the new Cohiba Spectre, but at $90 a cigar, I’m not holding my breath!

Yesterday I was assembling and IKEA piece on the porch and I find that the best way to reduce the profanity during one of those projects is to have a cigar while doing it. It worked, and everything went together like it should have. The cigar I chose, the Diesel Whiskey Row, I chose while writing this piece in my head, because it’s the one new release from General Cigar Co. that had been released in advance of the show. Justin Andrews, who’s the brand manager and ambassador for the Diesel line is very proud of this cigar, he told me that it took him several trips to Nicaragua and well over a year to convince AJ to put his tobacco in bourbon barrels. I’ve since heard that AJ is now begging for more barrels, he’s so fond of the results. In the official press release, I found this one passage interesting:

AJ Fernandez says, “A lot of passion went into this process and I am very pleased with the results. Aging the binder leaf in the bourbon barrels added an unexpected layer of flavor and aroma right beneath the wrapper. When you smoke Whiskey Row, you get a unique and complex experience that engages the senses unlike any other cigar I’ve smoked.”

I imagine he said something more like this:

“Pasé un montón de pasión en este proceso y estoy muy satisfecho con los resultados. Envejecer la hoja de encuadernación en los barriles de bourbon agregó una capa inesperada de sabor y aroma justo debajo del envoltorio. Cuando fumas Whiskey Row, obtienes una experiencia única y compleja que atrapa los sentidos a diferencia de cualquier otro cigarro que he fumado “.

OK, so that’s just my own twisted sense of humor, unless AJ’s English has gotten a LOT better since the last time I “talked” to him…anyway, the Whiskey Row is an interesting cigar. Of course, the burn is excellent, the draw is perfect, the ash is nice, but that’s the way cigars are supposed to be. As always, any spirits references are lost on me, but the base flavor to my palate is an umami I guess, I want to say, mushroomy, kinda savoryness, that is one of the few flavors that doesn’t really resonate with me in a cigar. There are obviously some people who are going to love the heck out of this cigar, and it’s not that it was offensive to me or made me want to throw up (that’s a mushroom story from the ’80s for another time), it’s just not my go to favorite flavor. Based on the blend, which is Nicaraguan Ometepe, Condega and Jalapa, each aged 5 to 8 years, bourbon-barrel-aged Mexican binder, wrapped in Ecuadoran Habano which is aged for five years, I don’t think I should be tasting what I’m tasting, and maybe I’m way off, maybe it’s just earthey and woody, but a, earth and wood I don’t care for. I like most nuts, but I can’t stand walnuts. It’s a solid cigar, it got me through my project with minimal swearing, and I did get to about the 1″ mark before I put it down, so how objectionable could it have been? I’ll have to get a series of bourbon barrel aged cigars together and see how they compare one of these days, is there any non-alcoholic bourbon so I can get an idea what the flavor of bourbon is? 🙂

Some other cigars I heard about at the show and look forward to trying are Foundation Cigar Co.s new The Tabernacle Havana Seed CT #142, another new strain to the Connecticut River Valley. Another I’m looking for is the Inch Ringmaster from EP Carillo, just because anything from EPC interests me, and I’m still exploring his line up. I’d say what everyone else is saying and put Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust’s Sin Compromiso on the list, but I’ve smoked it, and it’s fantastic (Oh yeah, the pre-release samples I smoked I was asked not to write about…they were really really good, the torpedo had pre-light nose of the wood fire curing that Saka talked about in an interview I heard with him recently, might have been on one of Cigar-Coop’s podcasts…an absolutely stellar cigar, I look forward to the regular production, although the price will up there!). Crux cigars is a line I need to familiarize myself with with the addition of my old friend Roy McLaren to the team. Except for the few Ninfa darks some time ago, I’m relatively ignorant of the brand. I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head, although I’m sure someone will remind me of a glaring omission.  Like I said, I’m on a rapid spiral to curmudgeondom, I could probably be happy smoking about twenty brands in rotation these days.

Last night I decided to treat myself with another cigar from the 2016 IPCPR show. I have vivid memories of stopping in the Tatuaje booth first think on the third day of the show and finding it empty, to my delight. For once, I had a chance to sit down with Pete Johnson uninterrupted, virtually unheard of. My first show as a blogger, Pete was the first person I met, and he gave me a La Riqueza Lancero, and, due to a scheduling snafu, I was only on the show floor for about 3 hours, so that was my only cigar of the show, and I didn’t meet too many people. So I was ready to get some great video and have a good conversation with Pete for a change. Dontcha know, Laura, who handles social media for the IPCPR, and should know better (yeah, I’m throwing you under the bus, Laura!), excuses herself to interrupt to introduce some middle-eastern journalist to Pete, who ends up monopolizing the discussion for about 20 minutes, introducing another guy, and it all went to hell. Pete had an appointment, I had an appointment, we were both (Pete and I) too polite to tell this guy to F-off), and I didn’t get my great one on one video (again). On the positive side, Pete did give me a couple of the Tatuaje Reserva Broadleaf J21s, as they were launching that huge $1200 100 count box collection of the Broadleaf wrapped Reservas at the show, and I smoked my last one last night. Boy was that a great cigar, and I’m envious of the folks who had the coin to drop on those cigars. I would have bought singles here and there, but the smallest quantity I was presented with to purchase was ten (one of each size) and I didn’t have the hundo in the budget at the time,  and I only wanted specific sizes.  This J21 with  two years of age was smooth, sweet, rich with everything I love in broadleaf, in Tatuaje cigars in general. Two years after release, are people selling singles now?

That’s all for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig