CRC Cohiba Siglo VI RME MAR 12

[joeypots]

My first cigar of '26. Happy new year to FOH. This one was rolled brilliantly. A hard cigar, no soft spots, draw resistance just as I like it, and the divot in the head shown after I punched through the cap was a thing of beauty. It smoked beautifully, long hard ash, straight burn, and no touch ups. 

The sad part is though, for all the accolades this cigar gets, this VI was a bit muted and somewhat bland. So, it's either expired or is in the dumb or dead phase that MRN describes in his encyclopedia where cigars in their teens go through a bland stage before they blossom anew into the last classification of aged smokes.  It wasn't a bad smoke, it was simply a good one dimensional cigar that had little development from start to finish. Maybe I was expecting too much! I'm going to take the Chinese podiatrist at his word and stow my few remaining Siglo VIs in tubes and leave them alone until they enter the next phase of maturity.  

The tragic part of this story is the cost of these things. Siglo VIs would sometimes in. '13 or so, go on sale or be offered in promotions, buy a box of X and get a tenner on VIs on discount. This cigar cost less than a MC#4 would today. Oh, the horror...

[zacca]

Ugh. I know that feeling…it sucks. But thanks for an objective review. It is sad that at the current Cohiba price (doesn’t matter when, it’s always been premium vs others), you don’t get a higher hit rate. 

[gormag38]

Funny that you should say that about being 'muted'. I smoked a BMU MAY 12 Sig VI this summer that followed to a tee what you described. Wasn't a bad smoke at all, just not great like I was expecting it. One dimensional despite everything suggesting it should be otherwise. I was unaware of the MRN mentioned sick period...this could certainly be a reason for why neither of ours punched at their weight class. I have a box of uncracked VIs that are just hitting five years this summer; I thought about sampling it then but may give them a couple more before I check in. 

[joeypots]

 

3 hours ago, gormag38 said:

I was unaware of the MRN mentioned sick period...this could certainly be a reason for why neither of ours punched at their weight class.

If I remember correctly, MRN writes about a dumb period, (I think I'm not exactly sure what he called it) that occurs in the teen years of a cigar. It's not a sick period like the ammonia gas off and jet lag recovery acclimation that cigars can experience when young. It's the second to last phase of ageing. 

[gormag38]

2 hours ago, joeypots said:

MRN writes about a dumb period, (I think I'm not exactly sure what he called it) that occurs in the teen years of a cigar.

I'll have to see if I can read more about that. I'm unfamiliar with a lot of what MRN has written (as I don't own the encyclopedia or Groom's book) but from what you've described it sounds pretty spot on with what you (and I) experienced. 

[cigaraholic]

One strange thing, I can’t find a RME box code ever being used on the box code list we have.

[JohnS]

Franca Comparetto, from Cigar Sense, wrote an excellent and concise summary on the second maturation or 'vacuum periods' that you refer to for Cigar Journal around ten years ago...

https://www.cigarjournal.com/stages-of-cigar-aging-fresh-vintage/

[zacca]

8 hours ago, JohnS said:

Franca Comparetto, from Cigar Sense, wrote an excellent and concise summary on the second maturation or 'vacuum periods' that you refer to for Cigar Journal around ten years ago...

https://www.cigarjournal.com/stages-of-cigar-aging-fresh-vintage/

I would just note that while the overall concept of aging does relate to biochemical processes, the article does seem to be full of lore that isn’t supported by any understanding of biological processes. 

For example, the phrase “continuous fermentation” is used to describe cigars aging post-rolling:

“…continuous fermentation of cigars produces ever increasing pleasant flavours…”

This gives the impression that fermentation keeps actively going inside a finished cigar as you store it over years. Fermentation refers to active metabolism by microorganisms, usually under specific conditions (temp, water, etc)…the fermentation phase largely happens before rolling, in a controlled environment. After rolling, temperature and moisture are much lower than what microbes need for active fermentation and there’s no continuous input of nutrients or removal of waste, which is required.

All this is to say aging is a thing, but the main action during long storage is chemical breakdown of various compounds, not microbial metabolism. So there’s no continuous fermentation…or second or third or whatever other fermentation. You simply have a palate of chemical compounds that are changing and the resultant combinations provide different flavors and aromas. Eventually though, they will all go flat and lifeless. Ferri seems to have it correct in the article in that the lifespan of a cigar is a parabola - it improves to a point where it peaks, and then starts degrading.