Ramon Allones Estupendo RE TEB OCT 07

[Colt45]

Smoked my first (and only) from this box in December '08. A recent discussion with a member prompted me to give another a try.

Construction: Feels just a tad heavy in the hand. Foot and clipped head look a little tightly rolled. Quite firm to the touch

with what feels like a ridge running the length of one side.

Wrapper: Beautiful colorado in color with a uniform sheen of oil. Not completely smooth, but on the silky side to the touch.

Pre-Light Aroma/Draw/Taste: Light aroma of barnyard and raisin. Good draw with a light taste of tobacco.

Draw/Burn/Smoke Volume: Good on all points.

Taste: First draws are rather dry and of supple leather with a bit of nuttiness and a very light raisin aftertaste. Smooth and

medium plus in body right out of the gate.

An inch or so into the first third fruit elements begin to become more apparent. Lightly stewed fruits, savory spices (no real spicy sensation),

an underlying buttery smoothness, with the raisin finish remaining.

Midway through the first third, just the slightest hint of milk chocolate, a little more earth, a touch of white pepper on the finish.

Body continues to gradually increase.

Moving into the middle third, some tanginess, zestiness - a little brighter with the fruit with the tobacco core in the middle of

earthy and toasty. None of the elements mentioned so far are overt, but nor are they difficult to identify.

At midpoint the core has hollowed out some, overlayed with a perimeter of hard fruit candy. My overall impression at this point is of a

cigar which straddles the line of finesse of flavor and power of body, wrapped in a relatively smooth delivery.

Meandering into the final third, the sensation of sucking on a hard fruit candy moves a little toward a cotton candy sweetness with the

core filling back in with quality tobacco. Body is fairly full, but a little deceptive given the overall smoothness of the cigar.

Suddenly and unexpectedly it becomes darker and tinged with green, though not bitter, notes. Continuing on the core earthiness remains

while the green notes mix and mingle with the earlier hard candy elements, giving an impression of menthol.

It finishes up as a straightforward, earthy cigar.

Score: 89. An overall sense of high quality tobacco. The first half, while still just a little disjointed, showed promise while the

second half (and the cigar overall) makes me believe that these are still maturing and still have some maturing to do.

[tmac77]

Nice review Colt. I have a box of these with the same box code sitting in my humidor that I have been debating about whether or not to light one up. I think that, after rerading this, I will give them some more time.

Tom

[aavkk]

interesting Colt, I've got a cab of 06's that I'm very slowly working on while the 07's sleep. I trust your judgement so it seems my plan is sound. I was actually going to sample an Original release 06 this weekend to see how they are coming along.

[bassman]

Very nice review. Curiously, I am smoking one of the same code as I type. Very enjoyable cigar & IMHO, much better than the 06s which suffer from tight draws, lack of flavor, or both.

[Colt45]

Yeah guys, if you have a box, I guess it couldn't hurt to try one for yourself. I also had an '06 box, but I can't really make a comparison

as the '06s suffered from poor construction. While the '06s did show flashes of greatness, if I had to speculate from what I was able to

pick up, at this time I'd say the '07s are deeper/earthier overall, and perhaps more representative of the marque, with the '06s, while

sharing some traits overall with the '07s, a bit more on the "sweet" side.