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Montecristo Grand Edmundo LE 2010

Review 10 Oct 2011

Beverage: Sugar Loaf Creek 2003 Shiraz

Location: Late evening, cool but comfortable, out in the garage with my mac resting on the wine fridge/desk.

Construction - Beautiful dark wrapper with a nice sheen. Construction excellent - very solid.

Aroma at cold was a slight barn yard, hint of coco.

Draw - hard to tell (has been a while since I have smoked a cigar of this length) but the taste was dark with a real spicy tingle on the tongue.

Initial firing up - Volumes of smoke. I especially like a cigar that ebbs a small amount of smoke at the head in addition to the foot. Differently found the smoke from the head packed a smoother richer aroma of dark coco.

First third - Draw was perfect with lots of thick flavour-some smoke being flawlessly generated with a thick tail continuing from the foot between puffs. Taste was dark rich coco and mocha.

Second third - Continued as the first. It took me a while to smoke this cigar as I was working on the house plans at the same time. However re-lighting was not an issue. Taste was maintained with a small amount of purging. Flavour slowly shifted towards a darker mushroom/earthy direction.

Last Third - Flavour became incredibly complex to the point that I am still thinking about it. Dark coco drifted in and out without dominating the mushroom/earth base that at the same time did not taste like strong mushroom or earth. A real mixture of dark dark dark flavours that kept you smoking with no strong dominating bite.

Rating - 91-92. An intriguing smoke that has expended my flavour experience of cigars. This cigar has really crystallised where palette is at the moment, given that I would probably reach for a more chocolate creamy vibrant Monte P2 over this one. However having said that I can't stop thinking about this one. Definitely a cigar for the rotation and one that I am keen to try in the future where both cigar and smoker have matured.