Punch Petit Corona - 97 Cabinet Selection

[pnutbutrsangwich]

Over the last year I've smoked 2 of these from this particular cab, owned by a friend of mine. Both sticks have produced consistent results.

The wrappers are a very dark brown. Rustic, but very oily. The barnyard and forest floor scents coming from the cold tobacco are surprisingly strong. Clipping the cap and taking some prelight draws I find a mild resistance that is damn near perfect. In my limited experience, it seems that this is construction is typical of cabinet selection cigars from this era. The taste of the prelight draw is dense, with a mild saltiness and strong wood flavors.

Upon lighting, this cigar assaults the palate with smoked woods, strong tannins, and mild pepper. There is also a mild milk chocolatey sweetness that seems to be hiding behind the stronger flavors. This flavor element seems to balance out the profile as a whole.

Advancing past the 1 inch mark, this cigar takes on the very familiar profile of the 2001 Super Seleccion #2, which I have found to be sweeter than other vintages of this typically brutal cigar. Like the SS2, the woody strength just keeps building and building through the half-way mark. It keeps building to a point where you start to believe that it will soon be too strong to smoke at some point in the near future, however the strength plateaus and there is a very complex woody sweetness that takes you all the way to the nub.

The flavors are all still sort of "messy", which is a characteristic that I have attributed to cigars that are still in need of considerable age. Given that this cigar is already 11 years old, that really says something!

Classic, strong, strong cigar. Too few of these remain today. :-(

[Jay Hemingway]

thanks for the write up tom. :-)

[bassman]

Very nice review. either your friend's 97s are much stronger than my 98s, or I have a higher strength threshold. My 98s, while fairly strong & definitely woody, are nowhere near the powerhouse status of those 97s. Sounds like those 97s are some great cigars.

[El Presidente]

Interesting point/comparison to the SS 2. I have found the same with this vintage 97/98/99 cabinet Punch Petit Corona. In many ways they smoke like a scaled down Super Seleccion No 2.

Great review

[shrink]

Thanks for the review, Tom. I love this cigar, and find it to be one of the more reliably full-bodied and full-flavored PC's.

[pnutbutrsangwich]

» Interesting point/comparison to the SS 2. I have found the same with this

» vintage 97/98/99 cabinet Punch Petit Corona. In many ways they smoke like

» a scaled down Super Seleccion No 2.

»

» Great review

Whoah, very cool to hear that you've found the same thing!

Steve, I haven't had any of the 98s, but I must say that I was certainly not kidding about these 97s. I don't know if this was a freak cab, but they are firecrackers!

[pnutbutrsangwich]

» » Interesting point/comparison to the SS 2. I have found the same with

» this

» » vintage 97/98/99 cabinet Punch Petit Corona. In many ways they smoke

» like

» » a scaled down Super Seleccion No 2.

» »

» » Great review

»

» Whoah, very cool to hear that you've found the same thing!

»

» Steve, I haven't had any of the 98s, but I must say that I was certainly

» not kidding about these 97s. I don't know if this was a freak cab, but

» they are firecrackers!

Well, had a few hits off of another cigars from the same cab last night that another friend was smoking. I'd say it was about 65-75% as strong. Weird... very significant strength variation within the box.