Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill 2006

Decided to blog this one out, it was one of the cigars I saved for myself after meeting up with that crowd of snowball-throwing firemen outside Charlotte.  Listening to Issac Hayes, "Walk on By" off of the Stax 50th Anniversary discs.  One thing about living where I have for a number of years is that I got to meet a few of the all-time greats of soul, one being Issac Hayes, twice.  Now he is gone, and I never thought much of his music, I had only heard the theme from "Shaft" which is a sho-nuff classic, but not a singing tour-de-force by any means.  But this song is tight.  Met Al Green, too, even saw him preach once, which he did about once a month.  A surprising number of white folks, as we are called, in the church that day.  When I asked him about that, he said, "it's one of the blessings of this church, we get all kinda people in up in here, and even when they find out I ain't here, they still stick around.  We do it right in this house." 

Where was I??  Oh yeah, the RyJ Short Churchill.   I've had a few of these, this one was the best.  But it was a puzzler, too.  It was bright and rich and much more refined than the last time I had one which was right after they came out.  I couldn't see what the big deal was, in fact I didn't even like them.  But this cigar has toasted tobacco and coffee in abundance, with a core of leather and the puzzler...what IS that flavor?  I don't have a great palate, and I do not know how to read a flavor wheel.  The only clue I have is that people always describe 'black cherry' and I don't get that.  I have had several cases of Chek Black Cherry Soda in my young life, but never tasted it in a cigar.  Well, maybe that's what this taste is.  It COULD be black cherry.  It also flirts with 'twang', but it's not that.  There is no tea component, which I am almost always expecting in an aged habano.  It burned up one side to a certain extent, but a few hard puffs every quarter inch managed to keep it in check.  All in all the flavors remained consistent, strengthening in the end.  The wrapper is very reminiscent of the Habana 2000 wrapper, or a strain of it developed in the years after it's initial success.  THAT may actually be the taste I am having trouble with, although I would like to associate an actual taste with it, and I never figured it out.  But on the whole, I think the cigar performed extremely well over it's length, and I would grade this example at 92.  A pretty good smoke.  As a 'habano guru', I still cannot wholely recommend ANY of the fad RyJs, Short Churchill, Wide Churchill, Fat Churchill,  Ugly Churchill....but as a single purchase, I would recommend picking up a fiver perhaps, or it's sister cigar, the Exhibition No.4 which I DO recommend in boxes of 25.  I also would repeat my earlier recommendation for the tubos in No. 1, 2 and 3, which I find extemely flavorful and a real bargain in general.  But as I said, this cigar is really good.  If you could get 5 year old ones, heck yeah, get em.  But if you are looking at 2010 or 2009 stock, there are better cigars out there.  And take that with a grain of salt, because I have not tasted them lately.