CNC - Viaje Oro #5 Reserva 2011c?

[Çnote]

My white whale. 

For whatever reason, Viaje as a brand has always resonated with me. Maybe it's the hunt for releases, maybe it's the branding. I had a fresh Oro in 2021. Oro was the release that put Viaje on the map with a CA#2 in 2010. In the early days, it was rolled regularly and released a couple times a year as a core brand, and by 2012 was announced as an annual release. By 2015c it had become a sporadic release, similar to how Viaje distributes today. This box undated but with a CA#2 sticker on the inside lid. My understanding is that this specific package was only used while it was a core brand, but Viaje packaging is hard to research.

My unedited stream of consciousness notes:

Roast pork and pineapple

Pomegranate molasses prosciutto 

Banana bacon?

Banana marshmallow?

Barbecued meringue?

Rich warm honey - incredible 

We're an inch in

Golden treacle. Sponge cake. Crème anglaise. Spun baking spiced sugar. Verge of blonde caramel. 

Finishing up 1st3rd - tobacco < shortbread < Cointreau 

Shifts hard into savory unami mushrooms and then again into egg yolks and lime zest. We're at 1/2 way, a tiny touchup, humidity is all over the place this week and it's not burning 'perfectly.'

Getting to the band

Lemongrass? Citrus honey?

Buttermilk marinade? 

Cadbury creme egg smashed with a chocolate orange

Mushrooms in lemonade hehehe

Mushroom demiglace 

Back into roast pork with charred pineapple and a touch of paprika.

Velvet like an Elvis portrait. No harshness, retrohale is brown sugar syrup even with some humidity sniffles.

I've been consciously smoking this slow, but it's getting hard to keep the cherry cool.

Panatone, sultanas, banana foster, unflavored custard ice cream. Ginger wafers. Black pepper olive oil cookies.

With my eyes closed I could know this is the nub. Hard shift down into condensed milk & Vietnamese coffee. The end of an espresso cup rinsed with cognac. Rum raisin and horchata. 

Duck stuffed with prunes and walnuts and flamed in armagnac, lip numbing peppercorns and honey as a finale. 

96? The best cigar I've had this year?

Thanks for making an excuse to smoke this, @El Presidente!