Montecristo Seleccion Piramides 03

[laficion]

Hi everyone,

Before I start, I must say that I did not have any intention to review a Montecristo on the board, let alone start a thread on a tasting .

It so happend that I was invited to a friend's home with other friends from our cigar club and we were told of the evening at the last moment, as usual here in the south of France. Its one of the good things living on the Mediteranean, anything can happen. You'll see what I mean later on.Coming back to my evening, before leaving, I was looking in my humidor and came across my box of Seleccion Pyramides that I had gotten in Cuba in 2004. This box contains five Pyramides from five different brands, Partagas, Cohiba, Hoyo de Monterrey, R y J and finally, Montecristo. Normally I would just check it out and put it back in the humidor with the rest, but this time, looking at the date and code (LLN-SEPT-03) I was suddenly struck by an irresitible urge, like Bernadette at Lourdes or Jack the Ripper in London, to open the box and grab one of the Pyramides. I took the Montecristo because I am not a big fan of Montecristo so I told myself that this way I can keep the better ones for later. Putting the cigar in my cigar case, I told myself, it has been five years now and that for me it is long enough !

Arriving at the friends home, we all started to light up our cigars and taking my Montecristo Pyramides to my nose I noticed it had great aromas of earthy, cedar with chocolat tones. I knew this was going to be a special moment. On the first draws on this Pyramides what came to me first, was that this Montecristo was very opulent. Great taste of leather and coco with surrounding caramel on the palate. At this point, I was still sane and conversing with my friends. After the first third I can honestly admit that I went into hiding leaving my friends on their own while I went savouring my cigar. The second third opend up into a new dimension of kinky saddle leather, taking me back to a taste long lost since the late 70's early 80's, a rich creamyness with notes of mushrooms, hints of licorice. At this point the burn was coned on the side but was not disturbing and for the last third corrected itself. The last third was an explosion of rich tastes always dominated by leather, white pepper, roasted almonds, hints of some green tea with dry fruits. The finish was just great, leaving my lips with a creamy aftertaste. I nubed the cigar to the very end. I still have four other cigars and brands in this box and if they are as good as this Monty, then five years was not to long to wait to experience an exceptional cigar.

I give this cigar 97/100. Cheers:waving:

[Tampa1257]

Nice review, I love it when the cigar catches you off guard and surprises you with being something extraordinarly special!

[shrink]

Great review. Glad you enjoyed it. But...

kinky saddle leather?

[zuma]

Great read and review... it sounds like it was an awesome smoke. cheers!

[kjellfrick]

Great review and congratulations on getting any taste other than cedar out of the cigars from the seleccion box!

[Professor Twain]

Great review.

I am curious, are these cigars any different than Monte 2s?

[Ken Gargett]

i am fascinated by this as i remember these well - had some from cuba as well. same code and a second box from LLN Feb 04. some of the worst cigars i ever encountered so terrific to see that someone at least got some goodies. will be very keen to see what you think of the rest. i really was of the view that they were a dodgy tourist ripoff for flicking dud cigars. that said, i think i remembered that the monte was the pick, though more a case of best of a bad bunch (and i remember talking to a few others who had similar dismal experiences). checking over old notes, i see they were US $43.75 in feb 04 for the presentation box of five - only mention prices for historical perspective. by july in havana, they were US$56.90. The five were a Cohiba, M/C II, Hoyo de Monterrey, Partagas and R & J.

bits from the notes (have edited irrelevant bits). gives an idea of how unimpressed i was but i cannot find any notes on the monte. may have just given them away. and back then, i was far more generous with scores than i am today so knock a few points off.

04/05 - tried the Hoyo and Partagas. Both very disappointing, esp’ly the Hoyo. This was extremely ord. Lacked fl, except for dirt. Was the dirtiest cigar I’ve tried. Really did not like this at all. 55. The Partagas was not great but much better. Liked it more with some richness and fl. 88. Smoked two during the disappointing game. The Cohiba had some complexity and weight of fl with green coffee notes. Better in 3-5. 89. The R & J was fair but a hint grubby. Reas lgth of fl but not exciting. 87. further notes on another hoyo. ~ If this cigar isn’t proof that PT Barnum was correct and there is one born every minute, then some folk will never be convinced. One can only imagine that this box of five was conceived of as a way to finger those tourists to Havana not keen to fork out for a full box. This was the worst of the five - extremely ordinary and lacking any recognisable flavour except dirt and more dirt. In fact, the dirtiest cigar I have ever had the misfortune to try. Very disappointing. Trying to get one’s head around the concept that this came from the same people that brought you the fabulous Hoyo Limited Edition Piramide 2003 is like trying to understand that Roseanne Barr and Elle MacPherson come from the same gender. 55.

and the cohiba - must say that it was a hell of a lot better than the Hoyo. 90.

[laficion]

Hi Ken,

You have really surprised me in your reply and I

Thank you for your remarks. Now you have me scared and

what I can tell you is that I will smoke the rest and let you

know how they give out.

My box of Piramides were sold at the Casa del Habano

in the Melia Cohiba Hotel, at that time the shop was very small

and on the ground floor in the lobby. I got them for 43.75 Dollars.

My Robustos Seleccion, which I still have not taken from,

were sold to me at Palacio de la Artesania in downtown Havana.

They cost me 42.35 Dollars and have a code date of GKI-AGO-03.

I just hope the rest will be a good surprise as was my

Monty Piramides.

CHEERS Ken

[sandholm]

Great review,

Merci beaucoup

// anders

[Ken Gargett]

i really hope you have better luck than i did. will be fascinated to hear. i got mine from either the same store or possibly from the R&J factory, more likely the latter, though in the early days i did buy quite a bit from the melia place. be especially interested in the hoyo. i think i ended up giving away any i had left a few years ago.

and you want the really bad news? i also had some of the robustos and from memory, they were even worse.

good luck!!

[El Presidente]

Great review my friend.

It really is luck of the draw with these. I think the consensus over the years has been that the Piramide seleccion pack has been underwhelming. A great gift but not something for oneself.

Now that you have bucked the trend with a magnificent Monte 2.....please try the Romeo.

Let us see if the next review is a revelation of what age can accomplish........or whether the Monte was a fluke :-D

[laficion]

Will do, thanks to all for their attention and remarks.

I'll keep all 4 fingers crossed