Tag Archives: Gran Reserva

by Craig Vanderslice | August 28, 2022 · 9:59 am

A New Rojas and a Couple More PDR Cigars

I smoked a few more new cigars this week, but I’ll revisit them another time because I was less than impressed with them. It’s not that they were bad, it’s just that either they needed more time, or weren’t the ideal size. I’ll get back to them eventually. I was really impressed with the Rojas Unfinished Business. I see where Rojas has been celebrating the grand opening of their factory in Esteli, I know a few people that were there. I’ve really enjoyed the recent Rojas cigars I’ve smoked. The Street Tacos, and the cigars by Stolen Throne have been impressive. There’s a few I need to smoke yet, but, overall, Noel is making great cigars. I night have an old Guayacan cigar in the humidor someplace! Anyway, I smoked the Unfinished Business Toro this week that Noel gave me at the PCA show and it was really to my liking. It has an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers from Nicaragua and Mexico. The blend hits a lot of “likes” for me. It was dark and rich, with all the flavors I like, espresso, a little spice, and some sweetness. I very much enjoyed this cigar. Definitely a future revisit.

I’m catching up on the PDR cigars, I think I only have one more in the queue for now. I actually need to organize the humidor I put these in to make sure I’m not missing any! I started with the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Maduro in Robusto. This is a 5″ x 50 robusto, and PDR has done a great job with consistency in branding with the little paper sleeves on each cigar and the name of each cigar on the band. The look is uniform and quite classy. This cigar has an Ecuadorian Habano Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder and Nicaraguan Habano and Dominican Corojo fillers. Oddly, this is not a sweet maduro, but more on the savory side. Burn and draw were acceptable and it was an enjoyable smoke. In the past few years I’ve gotten away from the Robusto size, but on a Saturday when I am going to smoke two cigars, this fit the bill.

I followed the Serie Privada Maduro with the A. Flores 1975 Gran Reserva Maduro, also in a robusto size, after dinner. This cigar has a Mexico San Andres Maduro wrapper, with Olor Dominican Republic binder and Dominican Corojo and Nicaraguan Habano fillers. It seems to go without saying that all of PDR cigars are made in the Dominican Republic. The PDR originally stood for “Pinar del Rio” after that region in Cuba, but they recently changed it to “Puros Dominican Republic” to better reflect the brand and factory. It was still on the savory side for a maduro, but had more spice and a hint of sweetness. It must be the Dominican Corojo that has the savory component. I enjoyed it while listening to Will Cooper guest on The Cigar Authority (I think he’s now one appearance behind me!). He gave me a shout-out and I appreciate that! He referenced my interview with George Hamilton (available here in the archives and still out there on my long defunct podcast, which is one of the few that Coop has never been on!). I always thought Hamilton missed the mark by not having a lighter wrapper under the band, so when you took the band off it looked like a tan line. The A. Flores 1975 Gran Reserva Maduro was good.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow marks the thirteenth anniversary of CigarCraig.com, looking forward to year 14! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as A.Flores 1975, cigar, cigars, Gran Reserva, PDR, Rojas, Serie Privada, Unfinished Business

by Craig Vanderslice | April 29, 2021 · 5:44 pm

News: Joya De Nicaragua Introduces Antaño Gran Reserva GT20 Inbox

More news from Joya de Nicaragua! This is exciting news, as the Antaño Gran Reserva is one of my favorite cigars. The Churchill, which was a TAA cigar a few years ago if memory serves, was delicious. I’m a big fan of the Antaño 1970 and Dark Corojo too, this completes the trilogy. Add that to the fact that it’s a toro, how can I not be delighted with this? What a great 20 years it’s been for Joya de Nicaragua. This week marks 8 years since I visited the factory. I’d love to go back!

JOYA DE NICARAGUA INTRODUCES ANTAÑO GRAN RESERVA GT20

It was 2001 and in the dawn of the new Millennium, the cigar industry was still shaking-off the jabs and uppercuts of the last few years; blows that included natural catastrophes in Nicaragua and the implosion of the cigar bubble worldwide. It was then that Joya de Nicaragua once again demonstrated its strong character and forged another of its monumental contributions to what would become the undisputed king of the tobacco world: the Nicaraguan cigar. This instance was sparked by the introduction of Antaño, an original Nicaraguan puro that transformed the appreciation and acclaim of Nicaraguan tobaccos forever; a blend that became popularly known as the “The Boldest Cigar out there.”

Twenty years after the initial sweats and excitement during its release at the 2001 RTDA show, the legendary Antaño continues to be a cigar enthusiast’s favorite, driven by its unparalleled boldness. These traits result from Joya De Nicaragua’s doctrinal obsessions with quality and consistency, utilizing for more than two decades, without alteration, the same leaves from the same tobacco varietals grown in the same plots of land in northern Nicaragua; a composition that delivers on that unequivocal character loved by so many. It is for good reason that Antaño has become one of the company’s best-selling brands around the globe.

Today, the Antaño family has expanded to encompass four sub-lines with more than 24 vitolas in total, all distinguished by the authentic Antaño lineage: the original Antaño 1970, the super full-bodied Antaño Dark Corojo, the award winning creamy Antaño CT and the smooth and elegant Antaño Gran Reserva.

“When anybody thinks of Nicaraguan powerhouse cigars, they undoubtedly think of Antaño. This is the cigar on which cigar legends are inspired,” says Dr. Alejandro Martínez Cuenca, Chairman of Joya de Nicaragua and Master Blender of Antaño. “When we first tried the blend in progress, it was a bomb! Everybody in the room became so excited because it was exactly what we wanted: it was full-bodied and really hit your palate in all the places where we wanted it to hit … and we knew it was to become a game changer.”

To continue building on Antaño’s ongoing legacy, Joya de Nicaragua introduces Antaño Gran Reserva GT20, a special edition that highlights only the best of Antaño. “Instead of only celebrating another wonderful occasion, we wanted to focus on forging the thriving future for Antaño by giving our cigar lovers an enhanced experience of Antaño. Thus, the blend selection was intricate, drafting on our more than 53 years of experience and on the best leaves of Nicaraguan tobacco in our bodegas. We chose to do a special version of our Antaño Gran Reserva blend, with all Nicaraguan leaves aged for more than five years. In this way, we have the original tobaccos and the original character, but with a smoother and more complex flavor profile that just upgrades the smoking experience to a whole new level. We guarantee this is the best Antaño you’ll ever smoke; that’s why we call it our GT!,” says Juan Ignacio Martinez, Joya De Nicaragua’s Executive President.

Antaño Gran Reserva GT20 is a box-pressed Gran Toro (6×52), that comes in a 20-count box, with an MSRP of $9.50/cigar. It will be available for all Drew Estate customers in the United States as of August 2021.

Antaño Gran Reserva GT20 will be formally announced by Juan Martinez and the Drew Estate team during the Freestyle Live:Special Edition event on May 6th at 7pm. We invite cigar lovers around the world to join the online celebration and share their Joya de Nicaragua experience using.

ABOUT JOYA DE NICARAGUA

Joya de Nicaragua is a family-owned tobacco grower and cigar factory. Established in 1968, it is the first and most authentic premium handmade cigar manufacturer from Nicaragua. Base in Estelí, many regard Joya De Nicaragua as the patriarch creator of the Nicaraguan cigar industry, and its cigars are sold in more than 55 countries around the world. The company’s commitment to quality along with its skillful and resilient people, have awarded it the industry recognition of Cigar Factory of the Year 2018 & 2019. For more information, please visit. www.joyacigars.com

ABOUT DREW ESTATE

Founded in New York City in 1996, Drew Estate has become one of the fastest growing tobacco companies in the world. Under their mantra “The Rebirth of Cigars”, Drew Estate has led the “Boutique Cigar” movement by innovating new elements to the tobacco industry with their unique tobaccos and blending styles that attract new and traditional cigar enthusiasts. In their Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, the Nicaraguan headquarters, Drew Estate produces a variety of brands such as ACID, Herrera Estelí, Herrera Estelí Norteño, Isla del Sol, Kentucky Fired Cured, Liga Privada, MUWAT, Larutan by Drew Estate, Nica Rustica, Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented Cigars, Tabak Especial, Undercrown, Florida Sun Grown, and Java by Drew Estate.

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Tagged as Antano, cigar, cigars, Gran Reserva, Joya

by CigarCraig | November 26, 2014 · 9:39 pm

Gran Habano, Martinez and Foundry Cigars

The weather’s been all over the place this week, from 70 on Monday to a few inches of heavy, wet snow today. Between the weather, trying to get stuff done in the house so we can move in this weekend, and Thanksgiving tomorrow, it’s been a busy week. I still managed to get a few cigars in, they are helping me retain any sanity I have left. I started off Sunday afternoon with a nice cigar from Gran Habano, the Gran Reserva No. 5 2010 Gran Robusto. This is a 6″ x 54 toro presented with a cedar sleeve. The wrapper and binder are identified as Corojo 2005 and Habano 2005 respectively, with filler from Jalapa. I’m not entirely sure where the 2010 comes into play, or whether the 2005 wrapper and binder are crop years, but this is a really nice cigar. It burned perfectly and had a nice smooth spice. This was a full flavors smoke and considering it’s priced well, has the taste and feel of the well aged cigar that it apparently is. Certainly a cigar that would have a broad appeal and could be smoked just about any time.

Monday’s cigar was delicious, but it was a little over humidified, so I’ll revisit it at a later date. It didn’t smoke they way it should have and I always give cigars the benefit of the doubt when they don’t work right. Tuesday I decided to try a cigar I bought when I was in New York City a few weeks ago and visited the Martinez Cigar factory. This cigar was from their Pasion line, which is a blend of Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers with a Nicaraguan wrapper rolled right in New York City. When I tell you this factory is small, I’m not exaggerating. They have one and a half pairs of rollers! One roller concentrates on one line and makes a bunch of their small cigars every day, and a pair works in the normal fashion of a buncher and a wrapper. They age all their cigars in a basement escaparate. It’s a tiny little hole in the wall near Penn Station. The Pasion is a little rustic looking, but it had a free draw and had a very Cuban feel to way it smoked. The flavor had a nice spice and was smooth. This is a place to visit when in the big apple, especially if you’ve never seen cigars being rolled. The cigars are in the $8 to $10 range for the most part, which isn’t uncommon for NYC.

Tonight, in the snow, I smoked a Foundry Rare Air ET-P2 in a 5 ½” x49 robusto (the same size as the Partagas Robusto, which is an unusual size that I really like). The story with the Rare Air series is that they used some seeds from the 1960s that General Cigar has in their library of seeds, germinated and grown on their farm in Mao in the Dominican Republic. I had the good fortune to visit Mao in 2011, although it was before the growing season and was just being planted with some experimental crops unrelated to Foundry. As with most of the Foundry lines, there is little info about the blend, except that it’s grown in the Dominican Republic. I personally have really enjoyed the majority of cigars in the Foundry portfolio, and this was no different. It’s a dark cigar, with rich, lush flavors that suit my palate to a tee. It also has a little different something there that makes it unique, and special. This is one of those cigars that could be a go-to smoke, it’s a shame it’s limited. I’ll be interested to see how the other cigars in this line smoke. There are a lot of very reasonably priced cigars in the Foundry line, alas, this isn’t one, coming in just under $10. A fine smoke in my humble opinion.

That’s it for now. For all my American readers, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Try to find time to follow your feast with a nice smoke. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Foundry, Gran Habano, Gran Reserva, Martinez, Pasion, Rare Air