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Partagas Seleccion Privada No 1
Size: 170 x 43 ? Dalia
Smoke time: 1hour 45mins
Box date: Unknown Source: Ajay
Firstly, my apologies for getting my reviews out of order. This was meant to be the RA 898 ... but I forgot and will do it next time.
Appearance: Just one elegant looking cigar, slightly squared (which I guess is the result of spending most of its life in a dress box). The wrapper which carried a tracery of light veins and one prominent vertical vein was a handsome mid woody brown with translucent traces of drab khaki. To the touch the wrapper reminded me of parchment being toothy and simultaneously oily. Standard band ?A?. The Seleccion Privada were deleted in 2002, so the cigar was at very least eleven years old.
Construction: Heavy and nicely balanced, the cigar felt well packed and gently yielding along most of its length, but there was a hard spot ? about an inch in length ? just below the cap. The triple cap itself was perfectly applied. The cold draw was disconcertingly tight. The smoking draw was manageable, but a little more resistive than I would have prefered, and I think to some extent held back the smoke volume, (which was never really great enough to provide any of the characteristic creaminess I was expecting). The burn was totally straight and never wandered, and the very dark ash stayed firm and compact and needed no attention. No corrections.
Flavour: Pre-light aroma was very light, and just hay. But on lighting, Bang! Straight into a delicious concentrated woody bitter lemon. If I could duplicate and market the taste I?d make a fortune, it was that good! A little further in and the citric taste shifted, veering towards deep orange marmalade with hints of something like plum and then, just momentarily, green fig. Sweet, refreshing, the Seleccion Privada had it all, with the fruit tastes balanced perfectly on the wood base notes beneath. The characteristic Cuban ?twang? was an absolute joy in this cigar, it was clearly there but not totally ?in your face? as it can be with other vitola. Moving through the first third and the woodiness dropped down to very subtle and the citric flavours became first more honied and then towards the end of the third took on a burnt/caramalised aspect, which may not sound appetizing, but believe me when combined with the light wood tastes was totally amazing.
The second third was different in there was less movement in the tastes and flavours. Beginning where the first third had finished the flavours became more solid and then progressively deeper and richer moving towards the final third.
INTERLUDE: About this point I took the cigar into the garden to stretch my legs. SWIMBO, thinking she was doing me a favour, took the opportunity to empty my ashtray, including the band, onto the begonias. It doesn?t do the plants any harm, but I couldn?t find the band and it buggered my concentration.
In the final third the base flavours first slowly became more bitter, but in a good way and never with any loss of refreshment or hint of sweetness. These flavours then joined by stronger chocolate, expresso flavours and just for a little while the taste sensation was rich dark chocolate with the barest hint of bitter lemon. I would have liked to have finished the third fully, but the draw problem had resulted in some tar appearing, and at that point I left it.
Overall: A fabulous tasteing cigar, and so far the best I?ve smoked this year, but let down by an irritating draw. In retrospect I think the Seleccion Privada would have been better for a day or three in a dry box and smoked later in the evening, after dinner, rather than during the afternoon, and certainly away from Christine who managed to upset my concentration on the final third. The cigar is very much a cigar of delicious thirds, each is as good as the other and the progression is leisurely and seemless. Whilst not really apparent until getting towards the end of the smoke, this Partagas had also retained some power, nothing overwhelming, but enough to keep things interesting.
Marks. I?m going to give the Seleccion Privada a 7.6. Had it not been for the draw issue it would have been higher. So, by one part of one point the Partagas 898 hangs on to leading position.
Next up. Ramon Allones 898
Size: 170 x 43 ? Dalia
Smoke time: 1hour 45mins
Box date: Unknown Source: Ajay
Firstly, my apologies for getting my reviews out of order. This was meant to be the RA 898 ... but I forgot and will do it next time.
Appearance: Just one elegant looking cigar, slightly squared (which I guess is the result of spending most of its life in a dress box). The wrapper which carried a tracery of light veins and one prominent vertical vein was a handsome mid woody brown with translucent traces of drab khaki. To the touch the wrapper reminded me of parchment being toothy and simultaneously oily. Standard band ?A?. The Seleccion Privada were deleted in 2002, so the cigar was at very least eleven years old.
Construction: Heavy and nicely balanced, the cigar felt well packed and gently yielding along most of its length, but there was a hard spot ? about an inch in length ? just below the cap. The triple cap itself was perfectly applied. The cold draw was disconcertingly tight. The smoking draw was manageable, but a little more resistive than I would have prefered, and I think to some extent held back the smoke volume, (which was never really great enough to provide any of the characteristic creaminess I was expecting). The burn was totally straight and never wandered, and the very dark ash stayed firm and compact and needed no attention. No corrections.
Flavour: Pre-light aroma was very light, and just hay. But on lighting, Bang! Straight into a delicious concentrated woody bitter lemon. If I could duplicate and market the taste I?d make a fortune, it was that good! A little further in and the citric taste shifted, veering towards deep orange marmalade with hints of something like plum and then, just momentarily, green fig. Sweet, refreshing, the Seleccion Privada had it all, with the fruit tastes balanced perfectly on the wood base notes beneath. The characteristic Cuban ?twang? was an absolute joy in this cigar, it was clearly there but not totally ?in your face? as it can be with other vitola. Moving through the first third and the woodiness dropped down to very subtle and the citric flavours became first more honied and then towards the end of the third took on a burnt/caramalised aspect, which may not sound appetizing, but believe me when combined with the light wood tastes was totally amazing.
The second third was different in there was less movement in the tastes and flavours. Beginning where the first third had finished the flavours became more solid and then progressively deeper and richer moving towards the final third.
INTERLUDE: About this point I took the cigar into the garden to stretch my legs. SWIMBO, thinking she was doing me a favour, took the opportunity to empty my ashtray, including the band, onto the begonias. It doesn?t do the plants any harm, but I couldn?t find the band and it buggered my concentration.
In the final third the base flavours first slowly became more bitter, but in a good way and never with any loss of refreshment or hint of sweetness. These flavours then joined by stronger chocolate, expresso flavours and just for a little while the taste sensation was rich dark chocolate with the barest hint of bitter lemon. I would have liked to have finished the third fully, but the draw problem had resulted in some tar appearing, and at that point I left it.
Overall: A fabulous tasteing cigar, and so far the best I?ve smoked this year, but let down by an irritating draw. In retrospect I think the Seleccion Privada would have been better for a day or three in a dry box and smoked later in the evening, after dinner, rather than during the afternoon, and certainly away from Christine who managed to upset my concentration on the final third. The cigar is very much a cigar of delicious thirds, each is as good as the other and the progression is leisurely and seemless. Whilst not really apparent until getting towards the end of the smoke, this Partagas had also retained some power, nothing overwhelming, but enough to keep things interesting.
Marks. I?m going to give the Seleccion Privada a 7.6. Had it not been for the draw issue it would have been higher. So, by one part of one point the Partagas 898 hangs on to leading position.
Next up. Ramon Allones 898
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