Hoyo de Monterrey Churchill? '08? (HRW)

[Notsocleaver]

The Story: A while back a generous fellow sold to me for a song a lot of cigars that he said he would never get around to, mostly Cuban churchills and lonsdales. The boxes of most of these were long gone, so I can go only on the recollection passed to me. Many of these cigars have been average at best and it hasn't been hard for me to understand why they got discontinued. I love the idea of a LGC Tainos, but what was actually produced underwhelmed. These churchills on the other hand, despite me having no idea how old they are, and that they seem to have the wrong damn band on them, have been excellent.

physical performance: Wrapper has a reddish tinge to it. Construction is perfect, with a good draw. smoke time was just under two hours with no relights or burn corrections needed.

subjective impressions: If HdM is known for cream and ceder, I would say that this churchill adds an herbal layer to the typical profile that is pretty unique to the vitola. Think Lapsang Souchong tea drown in cream and honey. At different points in the cigars those elements dance in and out. the tea was predominate at the beginning, with the sweetness and cream growing as the cigar progressed, then the tea reappears in the last 2 inches. Awesome. This churchill was never boring, which is vital for a large format cigar to be worth your time. More woody than a Le Hoyo, less spicey than epicures, the HdM Churchill sits in an odd place. It didn't seem as lamented as some other more recent deletions, lingering on shelves. I don't see why. Of course, maybe what I smoked wasn't a HdM Churchill at all. I never saw the box, and the band is wrong. So who really knows, but is was quite good.