southern draw cigars
At the 2017 IPCPR Convention & Barter Show, Rocky Patel Cigars showed off a cigar that featured two firsts for the company.
That cigar is Vintage 2006 San Andreas, and it is not alone the aboriginal Vintage alloy to absorb a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, but is additionally the first alloy beneath the Vintage cast that is actuality produced alfresco of Honduras.
The name of this accurate absolution is a bit odd, as San Andreas is absolutely a area in California, whereas San Andrés, where the adhesive acclimated on the cigar comes from, is amid in southern Mexico.
“The Vintage 2006 will be the absolute accompaniment cast to the Vintage Series,” said Patel in a columnist release. “It may be the youngest amid the siblings, but it delivers with able-bodied acidity and power.”
The four vitola band that is covered in an 11-year-old Mexican San Andrés adhesive accoutrement a Connecticut broadleaf adhesive and Nicaraguan tobacco in the filler. The approved assembly cigars are actuality rolled at the company’s Tabacalera Villa Cuba S.A. (TAVICUSA) branch in Estelí, Nicaragua and alien to retailers in August packaged in 20-count boxes.
The aboriginal affair to jump out at you back you see the Rocky Patel Vintage 2006 San Andreas Robusto are the attic orange bands, followed carefully by the espresso amber adhesive that is acutely bland to the touch. There is a blow of oil present as able-bodied as a brace of arresting veins active up and bottomward the length. Aroma from the adhesive is a aggregate of massive aphotic chocolate, manure, buttery oak, awkward and peanuts, while the algid draw brings flavors of the aforementioned able aphotic chocolate, buttery oak, leather, atramentous pepper and a blow of boilerplate sweetness.
Immediately afterwards lighting the foot, the aboriginal third of the Rocky Patel Vintage 2006 San Andreas starts off acutely candied on the palate, featuring the aforementioned aphotic and absinthian amber from the algid draw as the ascendant note, interspersed with added flavors of buttery oak, leather, apple and hay. In addition, there is a apparent bulk of pepper on the finish, but around annihilation on the retrohale, and I am acrimonious up some distinct raisin sweetness. Both the bake and draw are accomplished so far, with neither giving me alike a adumbration of a problem, and the smoke assembly is copious off of the foot. The all-embracing backbone starts out durably amid the balmy and average ranges, declining to hit the average mark by the time the aboriginal third comes to an end.
Coming into the additional third of the Vintage 2006 San Andreas, the aphotic amber agenda is still absolutely dominant, although there are added addendum apparent that are calmly able abundant to accomplish an appulse on the profile, including espresso beans, buttery oak, anise, hay, covering and a blow of floral. In addition, both the raisin acidity on the retrohale and atramentous pepper on the accomplishment abide to accomplish a absolute impact. Construction-wise, the draw continues to impress, and while the bake has started to waver a bit, it is not abutting to bad abundant to charge affecting up. The smoke assembly charcoal absolutely high, and while the all-embracing backbone does appear abutting to the average mark by the time the additional third ends, it still does not absolutely accomplish it over the line.
The raisin acidity becomes a above allotment of the contour in the final third of the Rocky Patel Vintage 2006 San Andreas, accumulation affably with the still ascendant aphotic and absinthian amber note. Added flavors of espresso beans, leather, earth, absolute peanuts, cream, oak and aggrandize dance in and out, and while the atramentous pepper on the accomplishment that was so accustomed in the aboriginal two thirds is still noticeable, it is crumbling fast. The bake has counterbalanced up accurately and the draw charcoal fantastic, while the backbone does assuredly hit a solid average right afore I put the nub bottomward will a little beneath than an inch to go.
Final Notes
Rocky Patel Vintage 2006 San Andreas Robusto
Brooks Whittington
91/10
91 All-embracing Score
Rocky Patel sometimes gets a bad rap, but I accept enjoyed a cardinal of the company’s releases over the years, and I was attractive advanced to seeing what the Vintage 2006 San Andreas brought to the table. It concluded up actuality one of the best I accept smoked from the company, with a circuitous and bland contour bedeviled by oak and aphotic amber as able-bodied as some assiduous raisin acidity that alone gets stronger as the cigar burns down. This is a very, actual acceptable cigar, and one that best bodies will adore badly if they accord it a try.
I accept been smoker cigars for over eight years. A documentary bells columnist by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 afterwards acumen that there was a charge for a cigar blog with bigger photographs and added all-embracing advice about anniversary release. SmokingStogie bound became one of the added affecting cigar blogs on the internet, accepted for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, acutely hard-to-find and big-ticket cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.
