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Here is my take on this cigar I got the chance to review with Art (you can read his here) last November at the Partagas Festival: Back in November I attended the famous Partagas festival in Havana Cuba along with the Toronto contingent. This was my first time going and I must say I am now hooked. After a few days of hunting in every cigar store in town, I was invited by the good people at the Montreal branch of the Casa Del Habanos to a pre-launch tasting of this year’s Edicion Regional Canada, the Vegas Robaina Anniversario XV. I went along with Art Sanchez another cigar blogger (thedirtyashes) who was invited by the Toronto counterpart. We were greeted by Roger of Havana House and we promptly sat down with a questionnaire and an example of this cigar to taste and rate: They are sublime size vitola which is a 54 ring gauge and 6.5 inches long. This size was chosen by the retailers and consumers of the Canadian market. Last year, Havana House, Canada’s distributor of Cuban cigars, sent out a survey to get a feel of what people were looking for as the sixth Canadian regional edition. The Vegas Robaina Anniversario XV is the result of this. These are great looking cigar. It is firm to the touch and I must say this was sitting very nicely in my hand. The Vegas Robaina is not a marca I particularly appreciate but I was more than ready to have my mind changed. This cigar is very well constructed and let itself get cut easily. My example had an easy draw and scents of chocolate and good tobacco at cold. The construction on these are perfect. The first third started with a blast of sweet flavors of chocolate and coffee. This is a medium/full body cigar with great amounts of thick smoke. You can almost chew it. Sitting to my left was Ajay Patel from la Casa Del Habanos in London and he mentioned that this cigar reminded him of the Vegas Robaina Maestro, the 2007 Edition Regional Espana. I never tasted this cigar but I totally trust his expert palate. Given that the Maestro is a highly regarded cigar, this meant I was in for a treat. Second third, I got to say this cigar is not the typical Robaina flavors I am used to get. It now sits at medium body with the same sweetness but with a touch of cream and leather. This is excellent. This turned into a very enjoyable and tasty cigar. My smoking partner, Art, points out that this cigar is very tannic like a young wine. It leaves your mouth dry and makes your lips pucker. That is spot on. The bottom of the last third is starting to be a bit too harsh for me; it has picked up to a full body and has some fruit flavors which I am sure will develop nicely. One thing I noticed is that this cigar didn’t have too much ammonia in the smoke that makes some fresh cigars so robust. It burned very nicely with a marble colored ash. I think that with a few years, less than five, this cigar will turn into something very special. I have no doubt that it will develop it’s chocolate, coffee, leather and fruits flavors into something much more defined. These are now available at your local cigar store and I think it is worth picking up a couple to see how they age. I didn’t smoke enough to say if they are box worthy but I can say that making them a ten count box will more likely help sales. There will be 5000 boxes made so I am sure there will be around when they turn into that serious smoke I think they can transform to. Hereis the write up of this tasting that was made by HabanosNews: