HBD Reviews the Perdomo Estate Seleccion “Royale” Maduro

[Herfin Bigdog]

Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Size: Unknown

Perdomo Estate Seleccion “Royale” Maduro – This cigar will be officially released at RTDA 2003 in Nashville, TN. It has been “pre-released” to 100 select tobacconists who have participated in the 2003 Perdomo Factory Tour.

The “Royale” is the only cigar in the Estate Seleccion line that is not box-pressed.

My Review:

I smoked this at the HFF III. This cigar does not appear on the Perdomo website and I did not measure it. But it was about 5.5-6.5 inches in length and tapered from a ring-size of about 48 at the foot, gradually decreasing in ring size along the length to the tapered head. The wrapper was somewhat rough in texture, but still tempting in appearance. It appeared well rolled.

I clipped the cigar with my curved, double-bladded guillotine cutter. The draw was a bit tight. On the draw scale of 1-5, (1 - sucking on a straw and 5 like sucking on a rock), I would give it a 2.5. No noticeable flavors during the pre-light draw.

I applied the flame to the foot and fired it up. I took a few puffs to stoke the coal. I began paying attention after a few minutes. The cigar smoked very nicely. No particular flavor poked through. It was good, but nothing spectacular to my taste buds.

The ash was tight. No problem tapping it off, it fell away easily. It was interesting looking in that it was not flaky, but it had deep nooks and crannys…something I hadn’t noticed in any cigar before. The majority of well-rolled cigars I have smoked have had uniformly solid ashes. The ash was a mix of black, grey and white.

The cigar had no burn problems beyond a minor correction or two.

I’ll rate this a mild-bodied cigar. Not a very memorable smoke which makes it hard to write about after having smoked it 5 days ago. I have one more that I’ll really pay attention to when I smoke it. I would certainly smoke it again were someone to give me this cigar. But I doubt that I’ll be shelling out any $$ for it myself. I’ve enjoyed some of the other Perdomo lines much more.