First off hello to those of you who remember me. And in case you were wondering I am still alive.
And for those who know me you might remember my fondness for the Pepin cigars. I hadn't smoked too many in the last year however as I have been mostly smoking my favorite Cubans pretty much exclusively along with a Padron 1926 Maduro #6 here and there. So I picked up a few Pepins recently and here are some thoughts about that.
El Centurion Gladiadores - This cigar is very pricey as you know but I wasn't going to let that bother me considering it's supposed to be something special by Pepin. I didn't really find it to be exactly that however. It was actually a pretty boring cigar. I think its too young, it reminded me of a Cuban in the "sick period". Some kinda grassy sour notes to it. Kinda strange from a non Cuban cigar. When that wears off with age it may have some pleasing subtleties to it but it will be a bit on the mild medium side. Which is also strange for a Nicaraguan cigar. Although I have nothing against milder cigars.
I also picked up a Cabaiguan limited edition something or other. It's got a silver background behind the usual label. I haven't smoked it yet but I'm looking forward to it as I've always enjoyed all the Cabaiguans I've had. What is this cigar called? I'm willing to bet you guys know.
I also tried the red label Havana VI Tatuaje churchill for the first time and thought it was a good cigar for the money. A bit one dimensional but a lot of rich full bodied Nicaraguan flavor.
And I bought three brown label Tatuaje's I liked a lot in the past. I haven't smoked these yet either. Two Cojonu 2003's and an A. Nether of these look as they did in the past. They both used to have very oily, dark and splotchy wrappers. The new Cojonu's have an even, dark almost maduro wrapper and the A has a light almost Connecticut shade color wrapper. When did that happen? I'm actually kind of excited about the A, I like lighter colored wrappers and I imagine it might be more Cuban-esque. It's laying in my humidor next to my Magnum 46's and it has pretty much the same color as them.
So any comments that might inform me of these cigar's progression in the last year or more would be very educational. However if you could refrain from the usual comments of "there is no such thing as Cuban-esque or Nicaraguan-esque" I would appreciate it since it seems completely absurd to me and goes against all experience I've ever had with cigars and is not what I mean to discuss. Thanks in advance. :thumbs:
-mark
And for those who know me you might remember my fondness for the Pepin cigars. I hadn't smoked too many in the last year however as I have been mostly smoking my favorite Cubans pretty much exclusively along with a Padron 1926 Maduro #6 here and there. So I picked up a few Pepins recently and here are some thoughts about that.
El Centurion Gladiadores - This cigar is very pricey as you know but I wasn't going to let that bother me considering it's supposed to be something special by Pepin. I didn't really find it to be exactly that however. It was actually a pretty boring cigar. I think its too young, it reminded me of a Cuban in the "sick period". Some kinda grassy sour notes to it. Kinda strange from a non Cuban cigar. When that wears off with age it may have some pleasing subtleties to it but it will be a bit on the mild medium side. Which is also strange for a Nicaraguan cigar. Although I have nothing against milder cigars.
I also picked up a Cabaiguan limited edition something or other. It's got a silver background behind the usual label. I haven't smoked it yet but I'm looking forward to it as I've always enjoyed all the Cabaiguans I've had. What is this cigar called? I'm willing to bet you guys know.
I also tried the red label Havana VI Tatuaje churchill for the first time and thought it was a good cigar for the money. A bit one dimensional but a lot of rich full bodied Nicaraguan flavor.
And I bought three brown label Tatuaje's I liked a lot in the past. I haven't smoked these yet either. Two Cojonu 2003's and an A. Nether of these look as they did in the past. They both used to have very oily, dark and splotchy wrappers. The new Cojonu's have an even, dark almost maduro wrapper and the A has a light almost Connecticut shade color wrapper. When did that happen? I'm actually kind of excited about the A, I like lighter colored wrappers and I imagine it might be more Cuban-esque. It's laying in my humidor next to my Magnum 46's and it has pretty much the same color as them.
So any comments that might inform me of these cigar's progression in the last year or more would be very educational. However if you could refrain from the usual comments of "there is no such thing as Cuban-esque or Nicaraguan-esque" I would appreciate it since it seems completely absurd to me and goes against all experience I've ever had with cigars and is not what I mean to discuss. Thanks in advance. :thumbs:
-mark
