Tag Archives: ORTSAC

by CigarCraig | August 7, 2012 · 9:39 am

IPCPR 2012 – Victor Vitale and ORTSAC 1962 Cigars and The JD Hightower Cigar

I spoke with my buddy Victor Vitale of The Cigar Agency at the show and shot a quick video with him. It was one of my early interviews, so I was kind of awkward and just let him do the talking. Victor is an awesome guy, and is making some tasty smokes. I had an opportunity to sample the ORTSAC San Andrés and it was delicious. I’ll get my hands on some more, because the trade show floor, in my opinion, is a terrible place to sample cigars! I actually only smoked this one cigar on the floor the two days I was there. Hard to believe, I know. Here’s the video:

Also, and I dropped the ball on this one, Victor showed me a cigar that he debuted on Saturday at the show on Friday, so I would have the scoop on everyone else. I blew it, but here’s a few pics of the JD Hightower cigar Victor is making for Jose Dominguez. This is an enormous 6″ x 70 ring gauge box pressed cigar that Victor wouldn’t give me any other information on. It’s a monster, roughly the size of a jumbo Three Musketeers candy bar. However, from the looks of it, the box press may make it manageable. I look forward to trying this cigar when I have plenty of time to devote to it. Here are the pictures, one of which I took next to a 5″ x 44 cigar for scale. I can only imagine how big the hands of the folks rolling these must be!

That’s it for now! Last day of vacation, and I need to recover from the 16 hour drive yesterday! More to come!

CigarCraig

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Filed under IPCPR, News, Video

Tagged as cigar, Cigar Agency, cigars, IPCPR, ORTSAC, Victor Vitale

by CigarCraig | July 29, 2012 · 7:47 am

A Couple Pre-Release Cigar Samples and the Final Hoyo de Monterrey Contest!

Victor Vitale, the man behind Ortsac 1962, Tortuga and others, sent a few pre-release samples my way a few weeks ago. I wanted to smoke them and give him my input before I ran into him at the IPCPR show and he said something along the lines “what about those cigars I sent you, you mooching weasel?” So I started with the sizable 7″ x about 54 box pressed parejo. If I had to guess, I’d say it had a Habano wrapper, and was predominantly Nicaraguan. It really was an attractive cigar, and it burned perfectly. It was solidly medium in strength, but loaded with flavor. It burned a little quicker than I would have thought, and I’ve been smoking much slower in the last few years. I think I got an hour and a half out of this, including a lap around the neighborhood with the dog. All in all, I really liked this smoke. It was well balanced and flavorful. A perfect way to wrap up a Friday.

Saturday I selected the San Andreas Maduro from the same batch of cigars from Victor. I fully expected to smoke this one first, given my affinity for that wrapper. However, the San Andreas is a 5 x 50 (it might have been 5½) and I had more time available Friday evening for the larger smoke. I like to take into account the time I have when I select a cigar, and it’s a rare occasion that I smoke anything longer than six inches. This cigar had an unusual color, and I have to say that it wasn’t a really appealing shade for a maduro. It was almost dark grey, instead of a very rich, deep brown like I’m used to seeing on this wrapper. None the less, it was delicious. It was incredibly smooth and almost creamy. It didn’t have any sharp edges at all and was a delight to my palate. It had a uniqueness that set it apart from other San Andreas Maduro cigars, like Victor’s Tortuga Maduro is unique, but in a different way. I know that sounds redundant, but I can’t figure out another way to say it. I have one more cigar that he sent, another 5 x 50 that’s labeled as a Habano Rosado wrapper, with Nicaraguan filler and binder. It will be interesting to see if this is the same blend as the first cigar in a different size, or the second cigar with a different wrapper. Victor tells me that he doesn’t know what these will be yet, but whatever they end up being, they will be excellent! I appreciate the opportunity to try them!

Contest

Today starts the fifth and final week of my Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros contest. Hoyo de Monterrey’s Box-a-Day contest runs through Tuesday. As I said before, I can’t promise when I will announce the winner, as I’ll be driving to Orlando on Wednesday and Thursday, and I’ll be dependent upon WIFI connections while I’m on the road. I will announce a winner eventually, so leave me some comments for a chance to win two (2) three-packs of Reposado en Cedros cigars, courtesy of General Cigar Co. Usual rules apply, if you’ve won one of my contests in the last three months you’re ineligible. It’s also important to note that in order to receive the prize, you must get in touch with me with your mailing address!

So that’s it for now, stay tuned for IPCPR coverage starting sometime around the end of the week.

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, hoyo de monterrey, IPCPR, ORTSAC, Reposado en Cedro, Tortuga, Victor Vitale

by CigarCraig | November 20, 2011 · 2:58 pm

A Monte Pascoal, an ORTSAC 1962, a CAO OSA Sol and a Video

My Wednesday “Take a Cigar for a Walk” cigar was a Monte Pascoal Belicoso courtesy of Wes Gensel at Monte Pascoal. I recently included one of these in a prize pack and figured it might be a good idea to sample one myself before I give them all away! This is a 5½ x 52 belicoso that really burned well. It’s a Brazilian puro that has a very nice, well balanced flavor. I often think of Brazilian wrappers being maduro, which this one is not, but I’d love to try this cigar with an Arapiraca wrapper. One does not often find a Brazilian puro, but this is one to seek out and try.

Friday I took the heater out on the back deck and fired up an ORTSAC 1962 Bulletproof Robusto. I got this from the IPCPR show, where an old friend happened to be working in the booth. Mike introduced me to Victor Vitale who gave me the tour. I included a video of Victor talking about this cigar before (here). I think the name ORTSAC is dumb, I don’t mind saying it. However, it’s a well made and reasonably tasty cigar, although it wasn’t overly distinctive to me. One of the interesting things about this cigar is that it comes packaged in a ballistic nylon/kevlar “box”, which really does nothing to enhance the flavor of the cigar, but it is kind of neat and stands out on the shelf. Again, dumb name, pretty OK cigar.

Saturday’s “Take a Cigar for a Walk” cigar was an CAO OSA Sol Lot 54. This is a hefty 6 x 54 cigar that I’ve enjoyed before. I really enjoyed this one. In the past, I’ve thought that the Lot 50 was better, and that may be true, but this particular example was much better than the previous one I smoked. These have a “bright”, kind of refreshing flavor to them that I enjoy. Good for a mile or so and the necessary “cool down” in the front porch afterward.

Since I don’t have too much to say this time around, so I thought I’d include a video from the IPCPR show. I met Don Juan of Dignity Cigars at a General Cigar event which was held at a swanky night club. I had just wandered in and was at the bar to get a Coke and he introduced himself. We made arrangements to meet the following day on the show floor. He gave me one of his organically grown and eco-friendly Costa Rican puros at the time and I recall enjoying it, although it’s really hard to pay a lot of attention to samples smoked at the show. Needless to say, I didn’t take notes, but I will pick one up to re-sample the next time I come across one. Here’s a little video from the show, standard volume disclaimers and apologies apply! Thank you to Don Juan for taking the time to talk to me, he’s a super nice guy!