Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage Maduro Epicure

Initial Thoughts

I have high hopes for the Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage Maduro Epicure after thoroughly enjoying Perdomo’s 10th Annivesary I wanted to smoke another stick from Perdomo and see what else they had to offered. So I chose to go to the other end of the wrapper spectrum and chose a nice dark maduro wrapper. I’m hoping the Habano Maduro wrapper brings out some serious kick with this cigar and increases the body to really get a full circle of flavors involved. Taking a look at this cigar I know it’ll be about a 1.5 – 2 hr smoke.

I’m enjoying this cigar while chatting with my good Jeremy we’re sitting on his porch talking about the pleasures of life and catching up from the last couple of weeks. He’s just coming off a terrible case of strep throat so what better way to celebrate than to smoke a stogie right? He’s not smoking the Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage Maduro Epicure, he chose the Aging Room which I can’t wait to try. I’ve heard wonderful things about it. Ok lets get on with this review!

Looks

The Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage Maduro Epicure is a nice sized toro. It’s a little thicker than the normal Toro vitola at a 54 RG. The dark chocolate-esque Maduro wrapper is gorgeous. The dark color of the wrapper allows the band to pop out at you. With a bright silver embossment the band is centered by the Perdomo “P” and encircled by tobacco leaves pointing outward to me they resemble ancient hieroglyphics of the sun. This cigar didn’t resolve to using flashy packaging on the band, but just enough pop to draw my attention and make me pick it up and buy it.

Function

I had really high expectations for the Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage Maduro Epicure after such a great results from the previous Perdomo that I had smoked. I performed the pinch test and realized this cigar was packed incredibly full of Nicaraguan leaf. The barrel was very tight with no give whatsoever. When I feel this I usually begin worrying about how it’s going to affect the draw of the cigar.

I clipped the cap and began testing the dry draw. Just as I had expected the pull was quite stiff. So I trimmed the cap down a little bit more and was able to pull more air through the barrel. However the dry draw was harder than I typically prefer (#TWSS?). I was a little worried about how this smoke was going to perform given the difficulty of the draw but I had faith that this cigar would be just fine. The wind had kicked up a bit tonight and I was having some difficulty lighting the stick, I know, most of your are yelling at me right now saying “Why in the hell aren’t you using a butane torch?”. Well to answer you people that are yelling, it’s because I like matches. There I said it and I stand behind it! Finally after about 5 matches the foot took to the flame and we were off to the races. Just as I suspected the barrel opened up a little more once it was lit.

Smoking

The smoke coming from the Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage Maduro Epicure was a thick white smoke. As you might expect from the size of the stick it’s putting off quite a bit of smoke. From the beginning this cigar is burning beautifully, it must be do to the precision lighting from my matches.

After the initial light this cigar was dead even with the burn, but somewhere in the middle of the first third the wrapper started hooking around. It started looking like one of those “hook echoes” they talk about on the weather radar that are indicative of a tornado. If you’ve ever lived in Oklahoma then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

During the 2nd third the wrapper straightened up and started flying right again. The burn stayed fairly even until the middle of the 2nd third. What the hell is that all about? Am I smoking it wrong? I thought to myself. It’s just a little off kilter for my liking so I’ve knocked down the rating on the construction to an 8/10, in case you all don’t know by now I’m all about consistency here. The final third the wrapper corrects itself again and burns fairly even all the way to the nub. This Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage Maduro Epicure produced that thick white smoke all the way until the end. It had a nice white ash right at the edge of the burn and then it faded into a dull gray ash.

I was pleasantly surprised I didn’t have any issues whatsoever with the draw on this stick. I was worried on the outset that there might me some issues, but it turned out to be just fine. To me a good draw can save just about any cigar even if it’s burning poorly and is light on flavor. Speaking of flavor thats up next, keep reading.