Your Favorite LE

[CigarsRLife]

It sounds like I need to track down some 1966 LE 2011. 

[Dimmers]

6 minutes ago, rusticdonut25 said:

It sounds like I need to track down some 1966 LE 2011. 

Perhaps but maybe not worth it for today's asking price (i dont know but assume redonkulous). Great cigar yes but not worth a kings ransom imho. If LEs are your thing, then consider looking at the recent stuff that have rave reviews. 

[subport]

Monte GE was always great but it is just smoking way out of space right now. So sad to see only 4 left. My vote goes there. 

Partagas seleccion privada is absolutely stunning 

[Ken Gargett]

On 05/04/2017 at 9:28 AM, Smallclub said:

Those who think the Regalos is a great EL haven't smoked the 2003 Hoyo Pyramid…

agreed. superb.

2003 was a glorious year for the LE program with those, the stunning cohiba DC's, the partagas D2s, and even the R&J 1s. sadly, there was also the blight of those hated monte Cs. why, havana, why? i may have mentioned them before.

i'd add the cohiba sublimes from 04, the great partagas pyramides from 2000, partagas D1s from 04 and also loved the 06 cohiba pyramides. i think the younger ones have been well covered.

[CigarAsh]

The Monte Grande Edmundo was my first LE cigar.  Loved it so much I went long and ordered 5 boxes from an old Live from the Humidor here.  Imagine my surprise when 15 boxes showed up a few weeks later!   A quick conversation with the First Lady and I was quickly in business selling the extra boxes for her.  Think it took all of 24 hours for friends and family to claim the extra. rob being the generous host he is gave me one box for my sales efforts.  I still remember the look on my wife's face when the 15 boxes showed up in the mail.  I had some 'splaining to do! 

[CigarAsh]

Also, while not necessarily one of the great LEs, I do love the Hoyo short pyramides from 2011. A very underrated cigar in a nice smaller format.  They've been consistently good cigars, but I haven't really noticed much evolution in them over the years.  But that's ok.  I like them enough as is.  

[Smallclub]

17 minutes ago, CigarAsh said:

Also, while not necessarily one of the great LEs, I do love the Hoyo short pyramides from 2011. A very underrated cigar in a nice smaller format. 

Agreed, this one was good.

[godpheonix]

12 hours ago, rusticdonut25 said:

It sounds like I need to track down some 1966 LE 2011. 

 

12 hours ago, Dimmers said:

Perhaps but maybe not worth it for today's asking price (i dont know but assume redonkulous). Great cigar yes but not worth a kings ransom imho. If LEs are your thing, then consider looking at the recent stuff that have rave reviews. 

i checked the prices recently, the best you'll find is about 800 euro for a box of 10, that's basically more than twice the asking price in euro from when it first came out. unless your sleeping on a bed made of money...i'd skip it and get lots more for the that kind of money.

[godpheonix]

On 2017-04-04 at 8:28 PM, Smallclub said:

Those who think the Regalos is a great EL haven't smoked the 2003 Hoyo Pyramid…

 

12 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

agreed. superb.

2003 was a glorious year for the LE program with those, the stunning cohiba DC's, the partagas D2s, and even the R&J 1s. sadly, there was also the blight of those hated monte Cs. why, havana, why? i may have mentioned them before.

i'd add the cohiba sublimes from 04, the great partagas pyramides from 2000, partagas D1s from 04 and also loved the 06 cohiba pyramides. i think the younger ones have been well covered.

that makes sense, but the Hoyo Pyramid has got 4 more years of aging over the Regalos and that can make quite a difference, generally speaking of course. unfortunately i was on a cigar hiatus at the time the LE program first brought out those first beautiful cigars so i have not had a chance to smoke any cause the prices went RIDICULOUS by the time i got back into the hobby!

[CaptainQuintero]

I can't see past the Montecristo Sublime, none of the other recent attempts by HSA have come close to it. Just pure chocolate milkshake. 

Enjoyed the Monte D quite a lot. The 2008 Cuaba was delicious too.  Very much agree with the 2011 Hoyo, very smooth and rich.

Not many since those days have peaked my interest really. The prices have gone into silly territory for me. 

[NSXCIGAR]

On 4/5/2017 at 5:08 PM, CigarAsh said:

Also, while not necessarily one of the great LEs, I do love the Hoyo short pyramides from 2011. A very underrated cigar in a nice smaller format.  They've been consistently good cigars, but I haven't really noticed much evolution in them over the years.  But that's ok.  I like them enough as is.  

I've never had a Hoyo SP, but there are still a few at a reasonable price at the LCDH. I don't know why I've avoided them other than I'm not a big Hoyo fan (although I did very much like the Regalos when they had wrappers that burned). I'll try one next week and report back.

I also tried a 2010 PSDE a few months ago. Good, but too much of that old typical EL profile. This one has more in common with the old ELs than the newer ELs. I think 2011-2012 was a real turning point for the program. I saw a big improvement in overall quality and percentage of quality releases after that period.

On 4/6/2017 at 5:40 AM, godpheonix said:

that makes sense, but the Hoyo Pyramid has got 4 more years of aging over the Regalos...

Not sure if you're referring to the Hoyo Piramdes from 2003 which I don't recall hearing anything overly positive about (I believe I've had one as well back in the day and if I don't remember it, it wasn't good) but Ken and others are referring to the Hoyo Short Piramides from 2011. 

On 4/6/2017 at 8:24 AM, CaptainQuintero said:

...The 2008 Cuaba was delicious too...

I must say I smoked a couple of these when released and was very disappointed. I recall I was very much looking forward to trying them. IIRC, these were generally not well received. Of course, they may be great now, but I don't know if these were really hits for most people. 

[Ken Gargett]

5 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

 I think 2011-2012 was a real turning point for the program. I saw a big improvement in overall quality and percentage of quality releases after that period.

Not sure if you're referring to the Hoyo Piramdes from 2003 which I don't recall hearing anything overly positive about (I believe I've had one as well back in the day and if I don't remember it, it wasn't good) but Ken and others are referring to the Hoyo Short Piramides from 2011.

couple of points -

no, i am not. apols if i misled. smallclub's original post referred to the 2003 hoyo, i took it to be in a very positive way. i was very much in agreement with that. loved them. absolute crackers and some of my fave LE's of all time. i was not referring to the 2011 (i'm like you in the general sense - i think i might have had one but i can't remember it being anything exciting therefore i am not ranking it highly).

your thoughts re the 11/12 being a turning point. in some sense, i understand that, but i think it is demeaning to some fantastic earlier smokes. there were numerous superstars from the LE program in the first decade, as i think this entire thread attests.

[Ken Gargett]

by chance, i was in the "humidor notes", for an entirely unrelated reason and just happened across this note i'd made for myself.

i guess it is not my fave LE.

 

Hoyo de Monterrey LE 'Short Hoyo’ Piramides 2011.

31/3/16 – at home. A single. And I’m not sorry about that. What a disappointment. Started as a wind tunnel. Took quite a while to settle down. It did pick up flavours a bit around half way but it never sat comfortably. Unbalanced. Things are there but they are not together. Very disappointing. 80,

0.

[Orion21]

I stopped buying ELs after 2012 because I objected to the pricing change.  I am happy I stocked up on the 2010s when they were so reasonable.  The Monte GEs have aged amazingly well!  The 2010 Partagas, while less consistent in quality to the GE, are stellar.  

I purchased a couple of boxes of the Club Allones, because they were less than $20 each and am still on the fence...

Honorable mention to the Mag48.  Great cigar, even if it was an inch too short!

[SloppyJ]

I might be in the overwhelming minority here, I haven't had any special release (RE, LE..etc) and I really don't care to. Sure, they are a limited release but with the pricing and the fact that they all aren't going to be great, I'd rather put my money into favorites that I know I will enjoy. I think they've overdone it with all of the different releases and the associated pricing. That's just me though.

PS - they intrigue me so I'll keep reading all the posts about them. 

[NSXCIGAR]

4 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

couple of points -

no, i am not. apols if i misled. smallclub's original post referred to the 2003 hoyo, i took it to be in a very positive way. i was very much in agreement with that. loved them. absolute crackers and some of my fave LE's of all time. i was not referring to the 2011 (i'm like you in the general sense - i think i might have had one but i can't remember it being anything exciting therefore i am not ranking it highly).

your thoughts re the 11/12 being a turning point. in some sense, i understand that, but i think it is demeaning to some fantastic earlier smokes. there were numerous superstars from the LE program in the first decade, as i think this entire thread attests.

I did miss that, and you weren't unclear. I didn't see you name the 03 Hoyo, but now I see it was an "agreed. superb." to the quote. Then Smallclub posted the agreement to CigarAsh that the 2011 SP that it also was excellent. The discussion morphed right there from the 03 P to the 11 SP without me noticing. 

Also, definitely not saying by any stretch that the 04 Cohiba Sublimes, for example, are inferior to the 2013 RyJ De Luxe just because there was a shift around 2011. There were indeed some great ELs prior to 2011, but I will say that the batting average for ELs has increased since ~2011. There were an awful lot of duds and ELs with that generic EL profile for the first decade of the program. There have been very few of those since 2011, and I'd also say the old generic EL "forest floor" flavor that was so persistent for the first decade of the program has pretty much faded away, and the marcas DNA is more often represented in the ELs than they seemed to be for many years prior to 2011.

So I don't think I'm taking anything away from the handful of ELs that were superb from 2000-2010 by saying that the program began delivering more consistent results and less duds per release after circa 2011. 

[DBNInc]

I don't have many LE's under my belt, but the 2010 Monte GE and the 2004 RYJ Hermosos #2 stand out of the ones I've tried so far.  Both had great burn, great flavor and decent smoke output.  Everything I look for in a cigar.

[Dimmers]

On 4/8/2017 at 1:12 PM, Orion21 said:

The 2010 Partagas, while less consistent in quality to the GE, are stellar

So tried the Serie D Esp for the first time in a long while on the weekend. Very very nice, but no real partagags dna for me. No spice at all. Some earthiness yes but in the main cedar and lots and lots of cream. LE bitter choc as well. A very nice smoke, and look forward to smoking down the remainder of the box.

[Fuzz]

'03 Cohiba DC, '08 Cuaba Piramides, '08 Monte Sublimes, '11 Cohiba 1966, '11 RA Allones Extra, '15 RA Club Allones

[jp1979]

Limited experience with most EL but favorite so far is the 04 RyJ

 

 

[joeypots]

I got into Cuban cigars just as the EL program was getting underway. I'm not sure I ever liked the cigars and by chance quite a few I bought blind never came around for me. There were consistency issues. I think quite a few of the cigars had multiple releases and the second or third iterations were not as good as the first. The first Hoyo Pyramid comes to mind. The only box of cigars I ever bought where I know I got cheated was a box Of Cohiba DC EL from Spain. The vendor was reported to have been caught mixing counterfeit cigars in with the authentic ones. I got careful after that with vendors. Most of the Els never rang my bell. PSD#3, R&J Robusto EL, MC DC EL, and quite a few from there on. I think the MC Grand Edmundo, Sublime, and 520 are very good and are worth buying. I'm looking forward to the new MC Dantes EL. The truth is, though, I'd take a good aged Cohiba any day over just about all of the Els, but that's just me.

[merkonakis]

Another vote for the Monte GE.  Pains me knowing I only have 4 left. Recently smoked a Ramon Allones Club Allones and loved it.  With some age, I could see it going on a "best of" list of EL. 

[rascalmonkey]

2003 HdM Pyramide was my first box purchase...  those things were so good straight out of the gate

[kwsaw63]

On ‎6‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 11:24 PM, CaptainQuintero said:

I can't see past the Montecristo Sublime, none of the other recent attempts by HSA have come close to it. Just pure chocolate milkshake. 

Enjoyed the Monte D quite a lot. The 2008 Cuaba was delicious too.  Very much agree with the 2011 Hoyo, very smooth and rich.

Not many since those days have peaked my interest really. The prices have gone into silly territory for me. 

+1 on the 2008 Cuaba Piramides. Don't know what they were like then but they are smoking great now.

[Smallclub]

9 hours ago, joeypots said:

 I think quite a few of the cigars had multiple releases and the second or third iterations were not as good as the first. The first Hoyo Pyramid comes to mind.

There was no third iteration; the two second iterations were the Partagas D3 and the Cohiba pyramid; there was only one Hoyo pyramid in 2003, the 2011 release was a SHORT pyramid, which was good but didn't have the class and richness of the 2003…