La Gloria Cubana Medaille d’Or No.1 2002 (FEBW1)

[Capn_Jackson]

What to do when you travel to San Antonio for Professional Development? Finish up with the day’s chaos and head to On the Bend, where they have an open deck upstairs for smoking. Good spot to rest and enjoy a smoke.

@fisherclive kindly sent this to me in the FOH Secret Santa, and I’ve been eager for a chance to put flame to it, so here goes. While I was buying a drink, I struck up a conversation with the man next to me, then asked if he wanted to join me for a smoke. He said he’ll be playing music downstairs. I looked at him for a moment, and said “Drummer?” “How’d you know?” he asked. I told him I’m a drummer, too, and just had a feeling. He said I should sit in, and I said “y’all playing jazz?” When he affirmed, I told him I’m a lifelong rock drummer, and absolutely love jazz music, but couldn’t play jazz drums to save my life. He jovially shot back “Then you’re DEFINITELY sitting in for a couple songs, haha!” Let’s see if I can make it through the evening without obliging him.

This stick is fairly bumpy, a couple major veins running around. Beautiful long skinny cigar, though. Cold draw gives me some sweet cashew and smoked paprika. On the opening light, I get a lot of hickory wood and some raisin, with maybe cashew on the finish. Going on, the overall opening flavors are mushroom and a spicy cream at first, maybe jalapeño cream? No, more smoky… poblano cream. Followed shortly by a very potent floral note. The finish is all roasted almonds. 

Interesting cigar, and quite a difference between palate and retrohale. On the palate, I get mostly over-toasted bread and cayenne pepper, very good indeed. The retrohale, though, is where all the forest floor funk resides, and that earthy, smoky poblano. The strength is fairly mild, but flavor is bold as can be. Approaching the 2nd third, the mouthfeel gets a little more dry, and so I’m reminded of ancho chile powder more than poblano. That floral note quickly backed off in intensity, but is still there giving a nice halo to everything. The jazz combo downstairs is legit, and this drummer is remarkable! There is no way in seven hells that he is going to convince me to sit in and play. 

As if announcing the second act of the cigar, I start to taste some coffee that I’ve been looking for, and also very faint shades of that raisin that I got in the cold draw. Mushroom and dark chili powder still roll along and dominate the mix. The jazz coming from the combo downstairs, mostly slow and smooth but occasionally hot, is as enjoyable as the smoke. This drummer is seriously good. I make a note to buy him a drink before I leave.

At the midpoint, strength has shown no signs of increase, fine by me, and remarkably this burn line has evened out and is sharp as a dagger.

Heading toward the last part of the cigar, some decadent burnt sugar starts to show up, the first hint of anything overtly sweet that I’ve noticed. Then honey shows up in the retro of the final third, and it’s a welcome guest. Spiciness has mostly faded… Paprika, poblano, none of that remains. The honey and hints of blueberry come to replace those spices, though the honey does have just a twinge of heat to it. The mushroom and nutty funk has stayed on for the long haul, but the nutty character is more like a Brazil nut than anything else. Burn line, still, is killin’ it straight, dead on. I think I can finally say that the strength feels about medium, but not a notch past it.

Interestingly enough, the sweetness fades away at the end of this cigar, and it finishes almost as it began, mushroom and just a touch of poblano. Truly musical in nature, like an ABA-form sonata movement. Reminds me of (Story Time, sorry…) when I met the renowned conductor Helmuth Rilling. After rehearsing the choir for awhile, he went outside for a cigar. I wish I remembered what he was smoking, but it was almost definitely from Cuba. HdM or Monte, maybe. I asked and he simply responded “A good one.” He told me that he loved a good cigar because it’s like a work of music. The opening figures are presented in bold statement, then altered through development and variation. You’re left to guess whether they will return unchanged at the end, or whether they will be modified, enhanced by all of the transitions. Usually it’s the latter. With this cigar, remarkably, the flavors I noticed at the start are almost repeated verbatim in the last section. More like Mozart, than Beethoven.

I’m able to get an hour and a half of sheer delight from this smoke, and I manage to sneak out without embarrassing myself as a rock drummer trying to play jazz…

I’d love to have this experience again someday. Sad indeed that this cigar is no longer made. 

My score: 98

 

That was a long review, thanks for humoring me 😁

[MrBirdman]

Eloquent review! 

[Tunkat92]

6 hours ago, Capn_Jackson said:

My score: 98

Its hard to beat a LGC, that has aged enough to develop those creamy notes! Great review! 

[KCCubano]

Such a spot on review. All the OSU 02 boxes of the LGC MdO series I purchased were superb. They have become somewhat legendary. Wish I still had a few left. We will probably see them again one day in a worthless luxury box with a enormous price tag!

[Capn_Jackson]

8 hours ago, Tunkat92 said:

Its hard to beat a LGC, that has aged enough to develop those creamy notes! Great review! 

To be honest, cream wasn’t at the forefront as I expected. The creamy aspect had a spicy kick to it, and it was far secondary to the mushroom-esque, savory notes. Really rich experience!

 

7 hours ago, KCCubano said:

We will probably see them again one day in a worthless luxury box with a enormous price tag!

This! Such a shame. It was one of the great flavor experiences I’ve had recently.

I’m a little worried that whatever I smoke today will not live up 😄

[Glass Half Full]

That could have been a "Holy Grail" cigar!  Sounds like a wonderful experience overall.  Thanks for the review!

[Justins123]

That batch from 2002 is one of the all time classics. So good. 

[Capn_Jackson]

1 hour ago, Justins123 said:

That batch from 2002 is one of the all time classics. So good. 

It was so savory and one I’ll remember for a long time.

[fisherclive]

Nice review @Capn_Jackson

Glad you enjoyed the cigar

[Capn_Jackson]

11 minutes ago, fisherclive said:

Nice review @Capn_Jackson

Glad you enjoyed the cigar

One of the all-time best I can remember. Thank you!

[vinnyvega]

Great review and great cigar!

[Chitmo]

I’m always jealous of people that have words to describe things. I’m lucky if I can get the point across when I’m having a medical emergency.