A year after this blog began, there has as yet been no review on the Montecristo No.4. The most popular habano in the world, yes. On this blog? It would not seem so. Still, I always liked them, and tonight's smoke was no exception. This was clad in the same wrapper that one often finds the Monte No.4, a medium colorado wrapper that is light in color and red tones, very clean and smooth, but not anything exceptional. You can find these cigars wrapped in all kinds of wrappers, but this is the shade that is generally accepted as the "Montecristo-style" wrapper, in my experience. It cut very neatly with the perfect smoke portal. The draw was on the tight side of medium and this would play a major role in the perfect burn this cigar would offer. The photos do not do a good job of conveying the true color of the cigar as I perceived it.
The first puffs were very sharp and tannic. It played out like this for about a quarter-inch. After the initial harsh behavior, it calmed down into a creamy and lightly-spicy taste. The burn was extremely even and well behaved with each puff offering the perfect smoke. This is how every cigar should perform, allowing for the lightest possible draw and offering the maximum flavor. With most cigars, I believe that you should puff as lightly as you possibly can while still properly feeding the burn. This gives you the best chance to detect light flavors and fully understand the "language the cigar is speaking". Gulping anything, food, beverage or smoke, does not allow your taste buds to operate with the proper amount of air. I am not a scientist, and I may be characterizing this improperly, but taste is much more about the sinuses than the taste buds. The olfactory system of the human head operates on several fronts. When you smell something good, you are quite simply "tasting the air". This is the same with eating food. Your taste buds work in concert with your sinuses much more than one would think. This is why you can hardly taste food when you are sick and stopped-up. In order to taste food under those conditions, you must sniff air in or out sharply to capture the tiniest hint of flavor. Try it next time you are sick, but desparate to taste that cheesecake or savory meal. My mother used to say something when her piglets were eating at the table. "SAVOR your food." This was code for, "I just slaved over a hot stove to make this meal, so please at least TASTE it...make it last...enjoy it."
Blablabla. How does this support my statements? The less food or smoke or drink you have in your mouth, the more air you have to interact with the system. So it would stand to reason that the lighter puff you take, the more flavor you get. But again, you must feed the burn. This is easy when the cigar is at the perfect moisture content, but very difficult with a overly-moist cigar, as in my recent Trinidad Fundadore.
And now to return to where I left the roadway. This Montecristo burned absolutely perfectly. I was able to lightly smoke it with almost no hard puffs to encourage the burn. I tasted coffee, cream, cane sugar and whipped cream. There were bold notes of chocolate and vanilla with a wonderful tangy strength that was pleasing, but indicitave of not just youth, but tremendous aging potential. I pushed the band up three times on this smoke, which is my way of saying, this cigar is done, but I am going to give it another few puffs to see if this is the last thing she has to say. In each case, the cigar was not finished with me yet. I still left more than an inch unburned of this five and a half inch cigar. I smoked a good bit more than the last photo shows, however.
It's 42 ring gauge is my favorite size cigar, to me there are no better cigars from havana than the 3 or 4 or more vitolas with near 42 ring gauges. The perlas, the minutos, the cervantes, the marevas...I'll stretch it to the dalias. Maybe there are more, who knows or cares. While this cigar performed as well as any I have had lately, the flavor was not quite up to par with a really great cigar, so the score was lower than I might ordinarily give such a fantastic experience. Still,
I give her a 91.
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