Partagás Serie D No.4 2020 (VRRW/R)

[Capn_Jackson]

Not sure of the box code on this one, but it’s a 2020 according to the BOTL it came from.

Smoking this beauty on the porch, where the temp is about 104 degrees. I’ve been dry-boxing it all week, and saw the Robusto come up on the roulette review, so thought I’d light ‘er up.

This stick is just a little bumpy with some veins, and a beautiful medium-brown shade. Very little tooth, if any. Evenly packed and feeling ready to get burnt! Cedar aroma, with a little barnyard on the cold draw. Excellent draw on this after dry-boxing for five days. I’ve found that for my taste, I have to dry-box any Partagás smoke for about that long before lighting up. I love the Partagás letter series labels, with the unmistakable “Partagás red.”

Opening light is mostly wood, some cocoa biscuit, and a little bit of barnyard.

First third:

That cookie/biscuit flavor stays for awhile, but not so much chocolate, more like a honey graham cracker. Some kind of fruit I can’t place yet. The finish has a little red pepper, but very smooth. Just a nice little spicy accent on top. Strength is medium, maybe a little over but not much. The smoke texture is cream, cream, cream. Retrohaling an entire puff, I get warm, festive bread flavors, and a touch of anise. Without retrohaling at all, my palate gets a dry but rich earthy quality - sort of like smoked green bell pepper. Am I imagining that?? Anyways, excellent smoke output and fantastic draw on this stick.

I’ve only had the PD4 a few times, but have enjoyed a lot of the PD5. I like the way a PD5 makes its presence known right up front, but the subtly of this PD4 is hitting me a little nicer today.

Second third:

Anise is sneaking up a little bit more in the second third, and that hickory from the lighting puff is finally joining the party again. Honey and graham cracker still dominate. This is the first time in the cigar I’ve gotten a hint of leather, and I continue to sense some kind of dried stone fruit. Sorta like dark cherry. The finish on this second third isn’t as spicy as before, no red pepper remaining. If anything, that bit of leather is finding a home here on the finish. At the halfway point, ash still holding on strong!

Spoke too soon. Next puff after that picture, I got a lap full of ashes! Haha

Final third:

Here in the last third, leather is getting stronger, along with the hickory. Also, that fruit flavor tastes now a little something like apricot. Along with the cream and earthiness, it’s a great smoky swirl of flavor. Honey still lingers around the entire time, and doesn’t really get much darker like most cigars I’ve had recently. Finish is earthier and even more leather than before, sort of like a solid foot on the ground in contrast to the headier, sweeter notes. The burn line has suffered a little ever since the middle of the cigar, but I decide against touching it up, for now.

Middle of the last third, anise kicks up a notch, and the apricot turns into sort of a cobbler-syrupy flavor. As with the last few habanos I’ve smoked, I’m also getting more than a hint of sugared raisin as I approach the end.  The very last few puffs remind me somewhat of an Upmann profile, as there comes knocking a vegetal, almost floral quality. This plays out all the way to the end, on top of those other flavors. The cream has faded somewhat, being replaced by a great viscous, oily mouthfeel that I always like in a smoke. Can’t remember the last time I had a cigar whose TEXTURE changed, but this one definitely did.

This is an excellent ending to a great smoke!

An hour and 45 minutes spent in the heat, well worth it for this delightful treat. 

MY SCORE: 96

[griller]

Fantastic prose in relating your experience. The D4 is one of my favorites and you did a great job articulating the nuances a good one can deliver. They age wonderfully, too.