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Taste Test Challenge

F

FatherTiresius

Watcher of the Skies
Joined
May 4, 2002
Messages
1,364
Sam, I posted my review in the Lobby in the other Taste Test Challenge thread. But I'm going to repost it here because this is where the reviews really belong. So post yours here instead of over there.
 
Cuaba Millenium 2000 Distinguido
6 3/8" x 52

Have you ever gotten that feeling just before lighting up a prized cigar that you just know you're in for something special? You know, that tingly anticipation? Sure, sometimes it ends up being a bust. Ahhhh, but when it doesn't.....

A brief wine sidebar.

Any good cigar deserves proper liquid accompaniment. For this one I chose a late harvest Zinfandel from Dashe Cellars, vintage 1997. This varietal used to be the Rodney Dangerfield of wines. No respect. Nowadays, however, a wide variety of different types of wine are made from this grape. There are powerful wines almost like a claret in their backbone. There are fruity wines reminiscent of the Rhones of France. There are earthy versions that remind one of Burgundy. But a dessert Zin was a new one on me. Something told me it was going to be perfect. It turned out to be all of these things and more. Sweetness balanced by acidity and powerful cherry flavors. A port without the fortification.

But I digress. This, after all, is a cigar review, not Wine Enthusiast.

The Distinguido is a throwback. It is made in the old figurado style with a rounded head leading to a tapered body that grows in diameter right up to the perfecto foot. It was quite firm throughout; there were no soft spots to be found. The wrapper was a gorgeous deep brown with a few veins. I'll never know who rolled this cigar but I wish I could shake his hand. It was, in a word, flawless especially given the difficulty in rolling this particular shape.

I settled into the couch and got down to business. The cap cut cleanly. The cross-section thus revealed how tightly this stick was rolled. Draw problems? Not a chance. A pre-light pull offered the perfect amount of resistance and an earthy flavor. It lit quickly - love those perfecto tips - and the first flavors were a powerful melange of leather and nuts (pecans to be exact). As soon as it burned to the wide part of the cigar the taste settled down a bit. The flavors softened but didn't change in character. A woody undercurrent joined the other flavors soon thereafter.

At this point I'm starting to realize that this really is something special. I'm beginning to wonder if a cigar can get any better. The question was soon answered.

The beauty of the cigar wasn't in the flavors it expressed but rather in the way it expressed them. They seemed to play off of one another in an everchanging medley. Like a tapestry made of different threads, the flavors evolved from nuts to cocoa to cedar to spice. In and out the flavors danced and weaved their spell. No one taste ever dominating the others. It never became harsh even to the spicy finish; it remained smooth and creamy throughout.

This fine cigar burned almost ideally too. The final two thirds burned as straight as any cigar I've ever seen. If I had to find a flaw in it it would be that the smoke volume at first was a bit disappointing. But, again, that was only a problem at the beginning.

A final observation: I noticed as it was burning between puffs in the ashtray that its aroma was like incense. Not that it smelled like incense, mind you, but it had an intoxicating power to it. I could have been in an opium den in Shanghai. Sam, your cat would have loved it.

I can sum up my impression of this cigar thusly: it was a work of art. I don't say that lightly. Whoever made this smoke knew exactly what they were doing. When I finished it, my first thought was that I wish I could smoke a cigar like that every day. Upon reflection, however, I'm glad that I can't. To smoke a cigar like this regularly would only dull its brilliance.
 
I had already posted there before seeing this thread - but here it is again.

Excellent review my friend and I can see that in my review here I definately have to step up to the plate, raise the bar, strecth my limitations and deliver a hardcore review...

And so it begins...


Smoking a fine cigar is all about experiences. Each brand, each line, each individual cigar has an experience it is made for. The more premimium or rare a cigar is, the deeper the experience. Despite this review competition happening I had reason to celebrate last night. We had taken some big steps in getting our new house the way we like it, with new furniture for the front living room, a new big screen TV and the completion of our bonus back room with furniture being settled into place.

For the occassion of breaking in the new furniture and TV I decided that a premimium cigar was needed. I broke out a Ashton VSG Spellbound that has been aging in my humidor for the last 8-10 months. A monster size cigar weighing in at a 54 gauge by 7 1/2 inches, it was firm, dark and gorgeous. The smell of the cigar itself in pre-light stage was incredible with a rich, dark tobacco odor with a hint of light, sweet pepper.

I found the bullet cutter opened up an excellent hole for smoking this cigar with and I was dead-on with my cut, allowing a smooth, long draw upon lighting it. The flame took quickly and burned evenly, leavng a near perfect white ash for the first couple of inches before it needed tapping.

The rich, thick smoke reminded me of unsweetend chocolate that instantly attracted my Princess - the cigar loving cat and whose favorite cigar is a VSG. She literally bathed in the smoke for the first few minutes before curling up on the arm of the chair next to me and remained in calm, relaxing lounge for the duration of the cigar. Afterwards drunkely finding her way to the couch to splay fully out and go to sleep. I am finding with her that dark and maduro cigars work better than catnip with affecting her mood.

The taste of the Ashotn VSG Spellbound is simply second to none amongst sun grown cigars. The first third started off with tastes of dark chocolate, light pepper and fresh minty spice. The mixture of tastes relaxed and enthralled over the next 2 1/2 hours with gradual changes that happened so slowly, one was almost unable to detect except you would stop and think - hmm a distinct change has taken place, and always for the better and stronger as the cigar smoked down.

The second quarter of the cigar the taste changed subtly to that of sweetened coffee, still with hints of pepper that were to bloom even further in the last third of the cigar. As it burned even further down, unsweetend chocolate and coffee flavors strengthend this full body smoke and I was in nirvanna even before the spectacular finish of this cigar.

This cigar can be reviewed in one word: strength. Strength of construction, strength of smoke, strength of taste. The latter reaching a high peak of pepper, spices and coffee, leaving the aftertaste of these for a long time after the cigar was finally laid down to rest.

Cigars are all about experiences. The Ashton VSG Spellbound offers a great experience. That of time, relaxtion and an enjoyment of abundance. With 2 1/2 to 3 hours of smoking time, this cigar is not one to be rushed. Because of the nature of the complex tastes it is one that needs this time to enjoy and to relax. With the abundance of taste, smell and textrue, this cigar reeks of abundance and in my new living room last night, watching some movies ( ended up watching "A River Runs Through") gave me ample time to do but one thing: enjoy the little successes in my life and to take time and enjoy them. That's what the Ashton VSG Spellbound experience is all about for me.

I rated this cigar a strong 93 and my cat Princess made no score - she was too busy in feline nirvanna passed out and purring the entire time and well into the night.

Sam a.k.a. "the newbie reviewer"
 
Awesome Sam. I'd have to give you the edge right now because of the cat. I'll do you a favor and not tell MO that you don't even have a cat. :D

Now everybody else head over to cgarsltd.com tomorrow and vote for either Sam or Greg's review.

Good luck and may the best review win. :thumbs:
 
Doesn't look like you guys got your in in time. I see a few familiar names on the May 2003 reviews though. :)
 
I think those are still last month's contestants. Hope so anyway...

Hmmmm, I just went back and looked and it seems that Matt is right. Can't explain it. Deadline was today and I sent mine in last night. ???
 
I thought we had till today to get it in?

Shooottttt!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the compliments FT, yours was pretty awesome on the review too and I would have put the edge in your favor though, since it did include more cigar-jargon I am still learning.

Either way I think we both put forth fine reviews and heck with them this month if our entree's aren't included - we'll work it out for next month's competition.

Course, would of been nice to have those particular cigars *sighs*.

Sam
 
I'm getting them anyway. Turns out I ordered that same sampler pack several days ago before I was aware of the taste test challenge. Hopefully MO will just enter our reviews next month...if not we re-submit them right?

In any case it was fun and that's the main thing.
 
Did you guys forget about the time difference? Add about 7 hours to your time. ;) Good reviews though, since I forgot to mention that. FT, you make me wanna smoke one or two of those this weekend. :) Sam, loved your review, just not a fan of the VSGs, so I'll probably pass on one of those. :)
 
Matt R said:
Did you guys forget about the time difference? Add about 7 hours to your time. ;)
Click to expand...
No, I took that into account. Here's what the website says: Closing Date for the next Challenge is Friday 23rd May 2003. I interpreted that to mean that they would accept reviews through Friday. Clearly that was the wrong interpretation. My review was sent last night so it would have been received early in the morning of the 23rd - before business hours. I guess Mitchell meant that we had to get them in by midnight GMT. No matter. There is a really good review of the Cuaba Divinos that probably had both Sam and I beat anyway. We'll just try again next month.

Btw, glad you liked the review Matt. Thanks!
 
Update
I sent an email to them to find out what happened and Laura sent this response.

Thanks for the email, Greg,

We just had so many reviews, that I felt it was better to put on file for
the June Taste Test.

You don't want to much competition, after all ;-)

Hope that's okay, if you'd like me to add yours into the May competition,
I'd still be happy to do so.
Otherwise it will be in for the June one :-)

Let me know.

Take care

Laura
C.GARS Ltd

I replied that putting it in the June competition would be perfectly fine. So it's all good.
 
:) Well, if you haven't already voted, help out my local herfing Bro, Jody Brown. with his 1984 Monte #4 review. :)
 
The new reviews are posted. I urge all my CP brethren to drop in at http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/taste.htm and vote for your favorite review. I'd really like it if you voted for mine (Greg Mizell) or Sam Guss's ('cause we're getting our butts kicked) but vote for the one you think is best.
 
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