Another couple of reviews of our smokes. It has been a couple of good cigars and one good pairing with drinks.

This evening we are joined in the Man Shed by Randy's son-in-law Brett Hille. I wonder if we will ever see Brett's Uncle Richard again in the Man Shed. Tonight we are smoking the Monte Cristo White. Randy is smoking the Robusto size while Brett and I are enjoying the Toro size. These cigars range in price from around $8 to $10. But, as usual, we got ours as part of an online deal and paid $4 a stick for them. We paired the cigars this evening with the Odell Cutthroat Porter. I'm a big fan of the Fort Collins, Colorado based brewery but have not had this particular beer before.The Monte Cristo White is an elegant looking cigar. It has a flawless light brown Connecticut Wrapper and an understated but elegant small label complete with a Fleur-de-lis. We all perceived the draw to be very good, open with just the right amount of resistance. Both Randy and Brett find the cigar to be mild. I find it to have a slight bite on the finish, but still very much in the mild category.The cigar burns extremely well, with an almost perfect burn line. It creates a compact white and grey ash that has to be tapped off. The burn remains consistently good through out the smoke with a straight burn line and no tunneling or blooming. It produces abundant smoke that is light in color and has a pleasing secondary aroma.The cigar maintains a very consistent mild, mellow, creamy flavor. I'm sure some would find this cigar to be relatively one-dimensional in terms of its flavor profile. It would be the kind of cigar that you might offer to a new cigar smoker (except for the price) as it is mild enough to be enjoyed by anyone who is new cigar smoking.We found this to be an excellent smoke and rated it a 4 (out of 5). It's label earned a spot on our Wall-of-fame. This is a really good cigar. It is on the mild side of the taste profile. It burned exceptionally well and had a wonderful draw. We appreciated its consistent flavor. You could enjoy this cigar early in the morning with a cup of coffee or later in the evening with an adult beverage. The only thing that hurt its score was the price. If you could normally get them for what we paid for them we just might give this cigar a 5, but for the normal price we find it to be fairly expensive. After all, one of our all time favorite cigars the Rocky Patel Connecticut is very similar to this cigar in many ways but retails for half the cost.It paired well with the Odell Porter, which is a London style Porter. It is a fairly rich and strong beer and may have almost been a little to much for the milder cigar. As it turned out though we liked them both so they went together pretty well.
Posted by Plains Sailor at 2:33 PM 0 comments

The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar reviews for your Mind and Spirit - Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve - Corojo
Tonight Randy and I are smoking one of his son Ben's favorite cigars, The Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve - Corojo. The RP website lists the tobaccos that make up the Olde World Reserve as follows: Wrapper: Corojo, Binder: Nicaraguan, Filler: Nicaraguan. This cigar retails between $9 and $11 but we got these in a sampler. We paired these cigars tonight with a 2008 McManis Cabernet Sauvignon.As you can see from the picture this cigar is box pressed and has two labels. It is an attractive dark brown color and is well constructed. Randy found it to not be particularly firm but nor was it soft and spongy. The pre-lite draw was very nice.The cigar burned well. It had a fairly consistent burn line early and produced a compact ash. There was no blooming or tunneling. I did experience a bit of a runner in the second half that required a touch up, but nothing major.I found the taste profile of this cigar to be a smooth medium. We both found it to be very consistent from start to finish. It had a spiciness to it that reminded me of allspice or cinnamon. The smoke was relatively thin and airy producing a pleasant secondary aroma. Randy indicated that he would characterize this as a Full but not strong cigar. The cigar never got harsh or bitter.Scores: We both gave the cigar a 4 (out of 5). We thought it was a very good smoke and we would not hesitate to smoke it again or recommend it to a friend. We probably would not, however, pay the retail price for this cigar. If we were going to pay that kind of money we would probably just buy the Rocky Patel Decade instead. This cigar also comes in a Maduro wrapper and we hope we get the opportunity to try that one as well.In terms of the pairing, I did not think this wine and cigar combination was very good. The wine turned out to be very mellow for a Cab Sav, with little tannins and a relatively sweet finish. It did not seem to match with the spiciness of the cigar successfully.