Opus X Petite Lancero - my take

[Mad Dawg]

I've made no secret of the fact that I have been consistently underwhelmed by the Opus X line. However, enough people whose tastes I trust have had glowing things to say about the Petite Lancero - which I had never had - to decide to give them a try. About a month ago, I scoured the web looking for a decent deal on them. I found plenty of places that would charge $25-$30 each for these cigars (a gouge I was unwilling to put up with), but finally located one retailer who sold them for close to MSRP, so I popped for a fiver. I figured a month of humidor time would at least allow me to do a fair appraisal. So given that our frigid weather of the last few days finally broke and I was really ready for a cigar, I decided today was the day.

Cigar: Fuente Fuente Opus X Petite Lancero

Venue: My front patio

Weather: Sunny, cool (~47 degrees), breezy, dry.

Beverage: None

Construction: Amazing. Perfectly symmetrical, even the pointed cap. Very firm, no dents, bulges, or soft spots. There is a distinct curl of black ligero visible in the bunch at the foot of the cigar.

Wrapper: Medium colorado, lightly veined, slightly sparkly in the sunlight...maybe the beginnings of plume? Very uniform in color except for the last 1.5" at the foot, where there are some dark, irregular blotches, especially at the edge of the leaf.

Pre-light: A small, conservative clip yielded a very good draw, maybe slightly on the firm side, but not enough for me to take a bigger clip. Flavors were subtle: solid, slightly toasty tobacco core with cedar and a hint of leather. The band would not slip off easily, so I left it alone.

First impressions: The cigar lit easily and evenly, giving an immediate impression of nuts (Brazil, cashew), cedar, and a faint oaky woodiness. Medium to full body, with a slight harshness a few seconds after exhaling, but quite pleasant overall. About a quarter of an inch in, I got a distinct bitterness via my lips and tongue, so I took a close look at the clip. Yep, tar. More on that in a bit. The ash was medium-dark gray, mottled, flaky, very firm. Tapped off the ash at 1/2", by which time the tar was becoming a serious distraction from flavors that I really wanted to like. I worked pretty hard to avoid it, with no luck. The pictures suck, but they will give you an idea as to what I was dealing with:




Immediately after taking those pictures, I had to relight the cigar. I then re-clipped it to shave off the tar, and purged it thoroughly. As before, gentle draws (necessary with any narrow RG cigar) yielded plenty of smoke, which was good. The flavors remained consistent, but still the bitterness was still a major distraction. Body still medium, frustrating hints of nice flavors winking through at times, but the cigar was not getting any better.

Mid-point: I'm back to seeing tar oozing through the clip, still unable to avoid it. A slight spiciness (cinnamon?) fades in and out , still not enough to make it much past the bitterness from the tar.

Two inches to go: I re-lit the cigar again, then purged it. No help. I re-clipped the cigar again, then purged it. Still no help. At that point, it was clear that nothing I could do was going to save this thing, so I pitched it.

This business with heavy tar is something I've experienced over and over again with the Fuente cigars that I've smoked. It doesn't seem to matter which line it is, tar oozing out at the foot is just about always an issue with Fuentes. I don't know why that is, because it's very rare for me to see anywhere near that much of a tar problem with cigars from other manufacturers. It is one of the things that steers me away from Fuentes in general. I had hoped that their flagship line would be better, but that's not what I found in this one.

I was really, seriously hoping that I would be able to write a glowing review of the Opus X Petite Lancero. I'd go so far as to say that I had psyched myself up to the point of biasing my impressions to the positive side before I even got started, which is NOT something I normally do. It didn't take long for this cigar to kill off that bias and yank me right back to earth.

So I have 4 of these puppies left, and I'm not thrilled about the prospect of smoking them. I'll sit on them for a while, wait for the weather to warm up a bit before I try again, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope for a great experience. I have a couple of other Opus to try (corona size) courtesy of ak2000...maybe they'll show better.

Given the consistently perfect construction I've seen in every example of Opus X that I've had, it's clear that the Fuentes have some seriously talented rollers working for them. If the guy responsible for blending these cigars could just beat this tar thing, then they'd probably have something I would love to smoke. As it is, not so much...especially given the price.

Bottom line: If you like the Opus X line, more power to you. Smoke what you like, and like what you smoke. I still can't recommend them, though.