Here goes my first ever cigar review, so please forgive my amateurish attempts at describing mellow tones of coffee and chocolate that so many cigar reviews seem to include. I must confess I have never tasted spice, coffee, chocolate or vanilla in a cigar. It may well be my uneducated taste buds that are letting me down.
The cigar I have chosen to review is the Montecristo No 2 a cigar that measures 6 and 1 eighth inch in length with a massive ring gauge of 52. I purchased a box of 25 whilst on holiday in Spain in September 2001 the date stamp on the bottom of the box indicates a date of manufacturer of May 2001. I smoked a couple whilst on holiday and upon my return, with the remainder put to rest in my humidor, until now. It is one of these rested cigars that I have chosen to review.
I planned the entire day around smoking my cigar and managed to set aside one and half hours. It was early evening one Saturday and I encamped myself on the patio with a large glass of single malt.
Now down to the cigar itself. A very dark wrapper (which I prefer) with only slight veining (not really noticeable), nice and firm along its entire length, neatly constructed cap, slight oily shine to the wrapper. All in all a nice looking cigar. I sniped the end off with my cutter, the pre-light draw was nice and easy with a very pleasing aroma and taste. I knew I was in for a good smoke. I lit the cigar and what I noticed first was the huge volumes of smoke that swelled up into the air from the first couple of draws. A very easy draw, no plugs evident, the first few draws were very mellow not harsh in the slightest.
The first third of the cigar was providing a very mellow taste, with plenty of strength but not over powering. The cigar was still generating huge volumes of smoke. I always thought that a Monte would be too strong for my uneducated taste buds. The ash was building nicely, however there was a slight hint of burning unevenly down one side which soon corrected itself. Now into the second third and the true strength of the Monte was being to kick in, the mellow undertones were being to give way to very strong full flavour, this was a rather pleasing experience having had my taste buds warmed up by the first third of the cigar. A really rich deep powerful taste was developing within the cigar the draw was still easy and the smoke nice and cool. With the ash dropping off a couple of times I was now approach the last third of the cigar. The smoke was still in abundance and that great deep powerful taste was still evident. The smoke was starting to get a little warmer but not lip burning. Towards the end now and the strength of the cigar was getting a little peppery not unpleasureable but it was time to lay down this stick and finish the single malt in my glass.
A very pleasing cigar, well worth a try I would give the monte No 2 a very strong 8 out of ten.
Garry Burdett
