La Escepcion Longos 1986

[Mike33]

Great review Rob!!

I love my box of these. A fantastic aged cigar that still is fairly strong after 21 years. Man, now I'm probably going to have to go and fire another one up tomorrow ;-)

[El Presidente]

La Escepcion Longos 1986

Ninfa 178mm x 33

This was a generous gift from Brian. Not everyday you can sit back and enjoy a cigar from the period when Dionne Warwick had her No 1 hit " That's What Friends Are For". I hated that song

Good looking Ninfa with only a slightly loose wrapper section to worry about (and it proved not to be a problem). Box press, well rolled and with a funky musty tobacco aroma at cold. Love this size. You can twirl it in and around your fingers. If I saw someone holding a Ninfa at a dinner or function I would treat him in the same vein as golfer with a 2 iron and a suntan....with a little caution and professional respect ;-)

Pre light draw (which is good) is rather nondescript. Aged tobacco, hint of citrus. Fired up the elegant lady to be met with a medium body, woody tones, slight herbacious notes, a little white pepper. The smoke is a little thin and the flavours one dimensional at the outset. This confused me as I had heard that these are powerfull cigars. Woody nature of the cigar building and overtaking the dry grass edges. Slowly building a spine of earth, minerals. On the outer edges of the woody profile are just a hint of orange peel. The cigar is evolving.

The Longos has found a nice safe mid body woody profile by the first inch. It occasionally opens windows to let in some citrus, cream and dry grass stalks. Earthy undercurrent. Good cigar but not great. Struggling to make a statement.

From the halfway point, something miraculous occured. I can't explain it except it was the cigar exquivalent of someone turning the lights on. Within a few draws the Longos went from medium to full body and from whispy to lush. It is now a powerhouse. Big licks of earth, plenty of wood but with increasing spice (black pepper) and citrus peel whch is used with great effect to round out the bolder elements. Now .....this is a hell of a cigar. Good levels of nicotine, nice white pepper bite through the nose. Satisfying every pore in my body.

Still building in body which is now at DEFCOM 4 levels. Insanely huge and yet diplaying the same flavour complexities previously described.

Nubbed it :-) How can you score such a cigar. Forced to do so I would Rank the first half an 86/87 and the back half a 93/94.

Thank you for the opportunity Brian. Great experience!