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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Punch Royal Selection No. 12 - 2000

Hahah, that's the way to start THIS entry, look at that thing!  A dream wrapper enveloping a perfect little bunch, screaming for a light, but patient like all great beauties.  Allowing the visual gratification a connoisseur demands; a lush, oily wrapper, translucent and fragrantly alluring.  Neatly clipped and draw tested, no major irritations present themselves, and the cigar takes a deep and fast light.  The tongue is immediately coated with a dark, herbal and creamy finish.  The body is light with a prominent aged tobacco and hay character. 
As the cigar burns down, the body becomes light with a more tea-like taste.  A citrus and menthol hint comes in about every third puff.  The fact that this cigar was not dryboxed becomes apparent near the middle as it gets a bit steamy and harsh.  I let it go out then carved out the ash and re-lit it, purging it.  It came back darkly chocolatey with some bitter coffee hints.  A core of herbs continued as the main body element.  The finish got a little shorter as the cigar got shorter, and the strength became about medium moving to high.  I put it down immediately, wanting to make sure the cigar ended as soon as the pleasure did. 

This smoke got out of hand fast, although to say it was not enjoyable is wrong.  It was just a bit too old for my palate.  I like a cigar 5 to 7 years old, or as fresh as I can get.   These are fantastic cigars for a developing palate.  Fresh sinuses, non-smokers, movers-up.  My palate was ruined young.  Ehh.  We'll see how that goes.  But these look, smell and taste powerfully funky and sweet.  They are right up somebodies alley, perhaps a slower smoker than me.  This one, 86.  It was a 83 taste and  3 points extra for the gorgeous visage.

3 comments:

Heiko Blumentritt said...

At first: thx for another nice review and pix.

Normally I´m not the big Punch guy if it comes down to regular production... I like most of the ER´s but not the other stuff.... but: a friend hooked me up a while ago with a box Punch Royal Selection from ´98 which is really mindblowing good...

Maybe I should givem another try... btw: the ´86 Exquisitos I have are also great cigars.... maybe do they just need a lot of time to be pleasant for my goat palate...

James said...

I really, really like the RS12s with 10+ years of age on them. I have only had the chance to smoke 4 samples of ones with that age, but every one delivered a full spectrum of flavors. Funny that I do consider myself to have a developing palate.

Marketeer said...

I had one of these tonight. Pretty close to your description, but with a somewhat tight draw, and very little smoke produced. I should have dryboxed it.