Initial Thoughts
Honestly I had seen some Perdomo cigars on the shelves, and never thought much about them. I do like the packaging they have, but I had never picked one up to try. I had no clue on what I was missing out on! I had been following these guys on twitter and facebook for awhile and they are phenomenal at marketing. Finally I guess that marketing just sank in and I bought four different sticks when I walked into my B&M. The Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne was the first one that I decided to smoke. I had no clue what I was about to get myself into.
Looks
This cigar looks sharp! The orange cellophane protector draws you in and makes you want to pick this up off the shelf. Once you remove the cellophane you’re exposed to a beautiful silky claro Connecticut wrapper. As your eyes are drawn towards the head of the cigar you notice a gigantic band. The Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne band sticks with the same orange and black color scheme and it looks beautiful when laid over the wrapper. There are zero large veins running through this delicate wrapper and it looks absolutely flawless.
Function
I’ve recently learned about detecting soft spots in cigars, I’m still trying to figure if what I find is a soft spot or if I’m just too strong for the cigar and cause it to crumble under my unattainable strength. Moving up and down the barrel I couldn’t detect any soft spots on this smoke.
I was ready to nip the cap and test out the pre draw on this guy. Holy smokes (see what I did there, smoke / cigars???) the draw on this cigar is absolutely incredible. I didn’t prepare myself for such a good draw and actually ended up hacking around a little like it was my first cigar. Oh well I still have a lot to learn! The pre draw brought out a very sweet and light nutty taste to it, and it finished with a black pepper twist. I was ready to light this thing up and see what other surprises it had to offer!
Smoking
If you’ve been following along chronologically, I’m becoming a master of lighting cigars with matches. This Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne smoke only took me 2 matches to get it going. Please, keep your applause until the end! As soon as I got this thing lit up it produced a wonderful thick white smoke. When I exhaled it looked like I was a locomotive puffing out steam, and I love that! The burn on this stick was incredibly straight all the way around.
Lately, I’ve been trying to let my cigar “rest” so I don’t get it too hot and produce all the nasty tars and make the cigar taste terrible. So I was trying that on this cigar and I was amazed at how easily it stayed lit. The barrel never got hot, I never tasted bitter or anything. When I decided I was done with the cigar I laid it down in my ashtray to let itself go out. I came back out 30 minutes later to empty the ashtray, and the nub of the cigar was gone. It had burn itself all the way down into a complete ash! I’ve honestly never seen that happen before. So I’m going to contribute it to great construction over at Tabacalera Perdomo
I only have one knock against this cigar. When I was trying to remove the band (I’m collecting them now) the glue stuck too tight on the wrapper and even though I was as delicate as possible. The glue peeled away two tiny sections of the wrapper which when the heat got closer and closer it began to expand and unravel. I wouldn’t blame this on the construction nor the smoker, it just happened. Other than that, this cigar had absolutely flawless appearance and construction!
Flavor
This was cigar was wrapped in a Connecticut wrapper which I have found to typically produce more mild-bodied flavors. I got a lot of mixes in flavor. The first third of the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne came out with a nice nutty almost almond taste to it, and then on the finish or exhale I would pick up a light peppery taste. I was confused for a bit and then it kept happening over and over until I reached the 2nd third.
In the 2nd third I picked up an even stronger black pepper finish. It began to dominate my palate. I even began to sneeze I could taste the pepper so distinctly! (That’s a joke by the way.) From the 2nd third all the way out the flavors kept jumping back and forth between, smooth, nutty, and peppery by the time I was finished I was completely confused, but I was sitting on cloud 9 realizing what an incredible cigar I had just finished. The cigar definitely mixed up its flavor notes, but it did it in such a way that combined all of them perfectly.
Would I Buy It Again?
Without a doubt. I want all of my friends to try one of these, I think it might even make it into their daily smoke circulation.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
I would say so, even though it’s a big cigar 6″ x 54 it smoked rather quickly. I took this thing down in under an hour and a half with ease. I think this will make its way into my humidor as my go to smoke.
Would I Buy a Box?
I think I’m going to have to be able to add it in my daily rotation.
Conclusion
I love when I have no clue about a cigar and have zero expectations and I’m completely blown away. I read a ton of cigar blogs and reviews, luckily I think this was released a while ago and I actually missed most of the reviews on it. That way it couldn’t sway me one way or another. I’m typically not a fan of Connecticut wrappers but this was one was absolutely incredible.
If you’ve never tried a Perdomo before, you should start now. Go pick one of these up, you won’t be sorry!
