Cohiba Corona Especiales (PFY ENE05)

[cigardawg]

The last in a 4-cigar series. Here are my thoughts...

Cohiba Corona Especiales (PFY ENE05)

This was a very attractive cigar with an oily, medium-brown/colorado wrapper. There were no veins to speak of. The wrapper had a very silky feel to it...wonderful. The seams were tight and near invisible and the triple cap and pig-tail was expertly applied. The pre-light nose was of sweet hay and sugary coffee. The pre-light draw was firm, but promising.

Upon lighting, I was treated to an absolutely perfect draw. The smoked production was out of this world...each easy puff coaxing billowing mouthfuls of thick smoke out of the cigar. The ash was dark gray and firm, with good striations. The cigar burned very even thoughout and it was cool down to the nub. Perfect construction.

The cigar was medium bodied and started with flavors of sweet hay and coffee. There were some good toasted flavors with a hint of sweetness. Maybe toasted nuts (macadamia? almonds?). The sweet hay was intense and the toasted tones mixed perfectly. There were also some molassas notes as the cigar went to the 2 inch mark. Then, toward the middle, the cigar became a bit empty. The flavors were very muted...no sweet hay, toasted nuts or molassas. There was only the clean tobacco flavors. This was a bit disappointing and I can only chalk it up to some kind of "sick" or "vacuum" period (I think both terms are overused, but I have no other suggestion as to the sudden loss of flavors).

This was a perfect smoking cigar...a connoisseur's size with some intense flavors. Unfortunately, I think I caught this cigar at a bad time. Will be interesting to compare this to another in about 6 months and then in about a year. For now, I rate this a B+ (87-89)...mostly based on the construction and initial flavors.

[Mel]

Thanks Dawg. I bought two boxes of these from Rob about the same date codes and really like them. Kind of like a mini Lancero for me which I love. I find them to be rich in the vanilla bean and grass.

[El Presidente]

Great review and I concur with your descriptions. I am starting to wonder if the "holes" in flavour you and others have experienced over the past few years is a sick period or a subtle lack of Ligero. 2006 cigars certainly do not have this charachteristic. See the Juan Lopez Seleccion No 2 review for where I am going with this.

[Well Armed]

hmmm, I just had two from same code and they were both un****ingbelievable from start to finish. Changing every tenth - not third! I'll trade you JL#2's for yours CE's!

[Well Armed]

this has me thinking because I have many 2005's that are very strong. I agree 2006 vintages seem to be stronger blends across the board. This is apparently due to facts you've stated such as aged ligero. But they must be altering blends by doing this, possibly adding more ligero across the board? But it doesn't seem to me that they hoarded 2005's ligero allotment to use it in 2006. It is a very interesting topic in my book.

[El Presidente]

» this has me thinking because I have many 2005's that are very strong. I

» agree 2006 vintages seem to be stronger blends across the board. This is

» apparently due to facts you've stated such as aged ligero. But they must

» be altering blends by doing this, possibly adding more ligero across the

» board? But it doesn't seem to me that they hoarded 2005's ligero

» allotment to use it in 2006. It is a very interesting topic in my book.

2005 was the best since 1998 in my opinion. I thought the tobacco quality was exceptional. The wrapper in 2005 was superior to the wrapper so far in 2006. However...again in general....2006 is significantly stronger in body.

I will see if I can dig out a little more information next week.