Macanudo Vintage

General Cigar is a very large producer with over a dozen marks and brands.  Yet, they are able to maintain a consistent quality and innovation by letting each of the brand teams work on their own.  Macanudo has had an excellent reputation and made an excellent and dependable cigar for years.  Using the same box and band style as the Macanudo vintage 97, these cigars should be on the market within the next month.

General states in its press release to introduce the cigar “The Vintage 2006 Connecticut Shade wrapper was cultivated under perfect weather conditions.  Ideal sun, rainfall and temperatures yielded an extraordinary crop of shade tobacco that is beautiful to see, and even better to smoke,” said Bill Chilian, director of marketing for Macanudo.  A strikingly lustrous golden wrapper takes center stage in Macanudo Vintage 2006. Imparting a wonderfully balanced and complex flavor which is punctuated by the traditional Vintage blend, Macanudo Vintage 2006 will debut with just two frontmarks, as dictated by the leaves themselves.

When you first look at the cigar you will notice the band.  It is solid metal, sort of like a napkin ring.  Macanudo originally told us that the ring was used as a humidity gauge.  If the ring would not stay on the cigar the stick was too dry.  If you couldn’t get the ring off the stick was too wet.  Eye catching and gimicky, but not particularly useful.  Once you get past that, you’ll find a typical Macanudo cigar.  On my stick there was a small blemish just under the band, probably due to a shipping problem.  It did not present any problem.  The cigar itself was veiny with a consistent even feel to the pack.  Te cold draw was leathery.  Made with a Connecticut Shade wrapper the color was a beautiful golden brown.

The cigar was well constructed with an open draw and an even edge.  But it did not hold a long ash.  To be fair, I only smoked one of these for this review.

The flavor started mild and got stronger for the length of the smoke.  At the outset a grassy or straw taste became more creamy.  As I moved to the second third of the stick the earthiness and leathery taste returned and became predominant.  During the final third the pepperiness grew in intensity.  The flavors were always complex and never one note.  And whenever I felt that the spice was getting too much, I skipped a puff.  The flavor had such a short aftertaste that even skipping one or two minutes of smoke cleared my palate.

At slightly over $8 per stick this isn’t cheap.  But, it is a novel cigar with its band and great packaging.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to try one of the Macanudo Vintage 97 cigars, give one of these a try.