Once again, I found myself enticed by a ridiculous deal on Cigars International. This particular deal was $39.95 for a mazo of 25 Nestor Vintage cigars, ranging in size from a standard Corona to the Churchill, and a choice of wrapper between maduro and Ecuadorian Connecticut. I must say, I have yet to find a better deal out there. I opted to get the Connecticut Churchill, because, as the backstory goes, three cigar guys (Nestor Plasencia among them), got together over dinner and decided to make an awesome cigar out of all-aged tobacco in the old cuban tradition. It would be blended to make a perfect Churchill, wrapped in an aged Connecticut wrapper and filled with a blend of tobaccos aged no less than 5 years.
Upon receiving my shipment, I was a little disappointed. Some of the cigars seemed underfilled, and the wrappers are spiderwebbed with fine veins. I let them settle in my humidor for a few days, and then grabbed one for a smoke.
As an aside, I love Churchills. I figure next to the Robusto, this is the perfect size. It has a nice gauge, so the filler won’t overpower the wrapper, and it lasts for a good amount of time without getting too hot. And, at just over 7 inches long, the cigar has ample time to mature throughout your session.
Being extremely skeptical of any cigar that costs less than two dollars, I was overjoyed upon lighting this one to detect a nice sweet taste right off the bat. Seeming a little underfilled, the draw was quite easy, but the cigar produced volumes of smoke and showed no burn problems.
The first third gave me a predominant leathery tobacco flavor with a red-pepper backing sweetness that had me coming back for more. I actually had to go grab my friend and have him smoke it to make sure I wasn’t crazy, but he also confirmed that this is a pretty damn good cigar. I was again disappointed when the ash fell off at about 3/4″ totally of its own accord – I hadn’t even touched the cigar. The ash on this cigar is mottled gray/black, and forms rings. It is quite ugly, so losing it is no skin off my neck. However, those aged tobaccos do their job very well, and this stick tastes delicious.
In the second third, the red pepper dissipated and was replaced with a mellow taste of sweet cream and a hint of vanilla. This cigar evolves very slowly, only introducing three new flavors throughout the entire session.
The last third only left me with one more flavor: fennel undertones under leather. The cigar also became absolutely squishy, probably a result of underfilling.
I have to say, for the price, this cigar is amazing. I bought 25 and have no regrets whatsoever. I wouldn’t take this out to the golf course with the attorney crowd, but as a casual smoke I’ve found nothing to match this for taste vs. price. Since these Nestors were aged for 9 months prior to boxing, I would expect these to be a good candidate for aging. I, personally, plan on aging the rest of mine and revisiting them in 3 months (one year total aging), 9 months, and 1 year, 3 months from now. I’ll keep you updated. Until then, if you have 40 bucks to spend, place an order and lets see what you think!
