Revisiting the Montecristo Sublime EL

My first chance to smoke the Montecristo Sublime Edicion Limtada was in New Orleans in 2011.  At this point, the Cigar was already 3 years old, and the performance was a bit disappointing on account of several factors.  I was on a week-long trip to New Orleans and the conditions were unfavorable for smoking such a cigar.  It was a little cool and very breezy, perfect for New Orleans but no so much for porch-smoking a giant cigar.  The cigar was OK, but not something that would make me think I had spent a lot on the smoke or that this was a special cigar of some kind.


The second attempt I would make turned out slightly better.  The conditions were a cool and wet evening, coming out of a horrific heat wave, and after the first rain after a prolonged period of drought.  I did not see frogs singing Ragtime Gal, but the birds seemed happy, and so was I.  I thought it might be time to pull out the heavy hitter.  Once again I hampered myself a bit by picking the lightest stick in the box which when cut, revealed a stovepipe draw.  For a limited edition smoke of no easy price tag, I am continually disgusted by Habanos S.A.'s inability to create a quality cigar.  But I lit the cigar and took a few puffs and found an exceedingly mild smoke of weak character.  No real flavor to speak of.  Great.

The beer had more character, the Rum Cask aged strong ale from Innis & Gunn.  I was not a fan of that either, but it was tolerable.  As the cigar burned down the performance improved on all accounts.  The draw closed down a little with the high humidity of the evening, and the flavor improved slightly, giving ever-weak notes of herbs, cocoa and toasted tobacco.  It was SO light I had to keep trying to focus on the fact that this was a massive cigar, and what a crime it was to create a cigar with that much blended potential with so little flavor, punch or excitement.  This was one of the marquis Edicion Limitadas!  It had the name and vitola which had been a triumph in the Cohiba marca just a few years before.  This smoke tasted like it was made of sand leaves, although it burned a lot worse than that kind of cigar would.  I stopped smoking the previous cigar in New Orleans because it was an uncomfortable situation and the cigar was not impressive enough to keep me out in the wind.  This cigar was trying to do the same thing with the heat.  

Where was the flavor?  As it burned down past halfway, the only thing that improved was the harshness gave me the impression of some flavor component SOMEWHERE that could be a reason to continue smoking it.  I got a hint of cream and spice and a little something to puzzle over, but just not up to the name Montecristo, or Sublime, or Limitada.  This is not going to be an impressive score......72 points and some of that is for burn and appearance, or else it would have a hard time breaking 60.  Boring and weak.