cuppajack
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2006
- Messages
- 741
I haven’t had a whole lot of time to smoke recently, especially during the week, but on Thursday I really had a hankering so as soon as I made it home from work I popped open the humidor and reached for the “mystery stick” that I got from Burnt Tongue as part of the “blind Review Pass it Backwards” pass. Unfortunately the stick is a beast and at over 7” long I didn’t think I had the time to properly devote to it. Also, since I haven’t been smoking as much recently I knew my pallet would not be as keen as I would like it when sitting down to smoke a review cigar. I realized then that what I needed to do was “re-tune” my pallet with an old-standby smoke that I know and love so I reached for a 2 year old La Gloria Cubana Wavell in maduro. Shortly after joining CP I was bombed by nfulton with a bunch of these lovely aged sticks and I’ve been slowly working my way through them over the past few months. This is one of my favorite vitolas, and probably the single cigar that I’ve smoked the most of in my life so I knew it would be a great way to limber up the ol’ pallet.
The stick was dark, oily, and very solidly built. The band slipped loosely around the girth, suggesting much contraction of the filler ahd occurred resulting in an extremely dense bunch. The wrapper was thick and tough and my clip was a little ragged. The foot sucked upt he flame and before long I was puffing away and remembering just why I love these smokes so much. They have a wonderfully dense and flavor and a heavy mouth-feel. The smoke started off heavy on the coffee and with that slight “twinge” on the front of the pallet that is common along the LGC line. It isn’t sourness but rather a sharpness of flavor akin to a fine cheddar or a dark chocolate. The draw was, as expected, a little tight, but nothing a firm grip in the teeth and some persistence wouldn’t fix ( and anyway, it opened up at the mid-point to a nice and silky draw.)
As I smoked down the length I could actually “Feel” my pallet re-acclimating to cigar smoke and the subtleties of flavor became more apparent. There was a dark earthy body, the back-of-the-mouth bitter coffee and espresso flavors. At about the ½ way point a very pronounced coco flavor developed that reminded me a lot of the PAM ’64. Throughout all of this the burn was spot-on and razor-fine, which I’ve found to be a bit of a rarity with the LGCs. I think knocking my humidor down to 65-68 degrees humidity has done wonders for the burn-qualities of all my smokes. The ash was an exceptionally dense grey-white that never wavered for the entire smoke. I rarely attempt to keep overly-long ash on my sticks as I smoke them as it invariably ends up in my lap (or in my drink, or down my sleeve,) but this smoke was so solid I couldn’t help but try for an ash-stand.
The LGC Wavell is a great little smoke that is at once bucolic and refined. Last night’s smoke really reminded my why I love them so much, and it was a great way to put my out-of-practice pallet through a little work-out before this weekend, when I will hopefully get to smoke a nice selection of sticks…
The stick was dark, oily, and very solidly built. The band slipped loosely around the girth, suggesting much contraction of the filler ahd occurred resulting in an extremely dense bunch. The wrapper was thick and tough and my clip was a little ragged. The foot sucked upt he flame and before long I was puffing away and remembering just why I love these smokes so much. They have a wonderfully dense and flavor and a heavy mouth-feel. The smoke started off heavy on the coffee and with that slight “twinge” on the front of the pallet that is common along the LGC line. It isn’t sourness but rather a sharpness of flavor akin to a fine cheddar or a dark chocolate. The draw was, as expected, a little tight, but nothing a firm grip in the teeth and some persistence wouldn’t fix ( and anyway, it opened up at the mid-point to a nice and silky draw.)
As I smoked down the length I could actually “Feel” my pallet re-acclimating to cigar smoke and the subtleties of flavor became more apparent. There was a dark earthy body, the back-of-the-mouth bitter coffee and espresso flavors. At about the ½ way point a very pronounced coco flavor developed that reminded me a lot of the PAM ’64. Throughout all of this the burn was spot-on and razor-fine, which I’ve found to be a bit of a rarity with the LGCs. I think knocking my humidor down to 65-68 degrees humidity has done wonders for the burn-qualities of all my smokes. The ash was an exceptionally dense grey-white that never wavered for the entire smoke. I rarely attempt to keep overly-long ash on my sticks as I smoke them as it invariably ends up in my lap (or in my drink, or down my sleeve,) but this smoke was so solid I couldn’t help but try for an ash-stand.
The LGC Wavell is a great little smoke that is at once bucolic and refined. Last night’s smoke really reminded my why I love them so much, and it was a great way to put my out-of-practice pallet through a little work-out before this weekend, when I will hopefully get to smoke a nice selection of sticks…
