Por Larranaga Montecarlo RAT AGO 21 (P&PLRW)

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I smoked a Por Larranaga Montecarlo tonight while reading after work and dinner. Pizza for dinner, Stephen King for reading (it’s almost Halloween, though I happily read scary stories any time of the year. 

For those unfamiliar, the Montecarlo is a skinny panetela; 6 x 33 if I’m not mistaken. It’s a great size and often a great overall cigar. This one had a wrapper on the lighter brown side. The cigar felt a tad overstuffed and I used a cigar tool to clear it out a bit. The scent from the foot was mostly wood with a little sweet tobacco. The cold draw was also mostly cedar. 

This cigar ended up being pretty linear and kept the same flavors throughout pretty much the entire smoke. That’s not always a bad thing, in my mind. Often (like many others) I find caramel in PL cigars, but sometimes it’s honey. This one had the honey flavor through and through. I’ll still split it into thirds, but they are pretty similar.

First third: Honey, cedar, maybe a touch of floral. The draw was tight, but not to the point where I didn’t enjoy it. 
 

Second third: Honey, cedar, a little of the bitterness that can live in young PL cigars. It reminds me of Connecticut wrappers. Construction was pretty good. It loosened up a bit by the halfway point, though I’d chewed the hell out of it by then. Bad habit I have with tight cigars. 

Final third: The honey was still there, and so was the wood and bitter flavors. White pepper too for most of the last few inches. Construction finished up pretty solid, and I nubbed it with maybe an inch to go. 

This is always one of my favorite vitolas. This wasn’t the best example I’ve ever smoked, but far from the worst. I always love the mix of sweet and bitter in Por Larranagas around this age (also love the full on sweetness a couple years down the road). 
 

Final Score: 90/100

Total smoking time: 61 minutes