Tatuaje L’Esprit de Vérité Robusto – 2009 Vintage
Editor: Due to technical difficulties with blip.tv, this review is airing later than expected. It was supposed to air before my Top Cigars of the Year list. Never the less, here it is.
Pete Johnson has started a pretty interesting concept with cigars that has been used in France for decades. Pete visited one of the first farms the Garcia’s owned and was really impressed with the tobacco they were growing there. He had an idea about making a cigar using only tobacco from this one particular farm and sell futures on the cigars like you can buy futures on Bordeaux wine. Like Bordeaux futures, they are sold in different tiers with time limits on each tier. After the time has expired on each tier, the price goes up. Each year, Tatuaje will release these cigars in a churchill and robusto size with slight changes in the blend depending on the crops. This year, the robusto blend is 50% Habano Nicaragua, 40% Criollo ’98 and 10% Pelo De Oro. This is an amazing concept for a cigar and one I wish would catch on with other companies as well. Pete even put an A. O. C. designation on the back of the cigar band. Only 20,000 of these cigars were made and quickly sold out, although you can still find a few from some retailers. So, how did this cigar turn out? Watch the video and find out.
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Comments
Jim,
Yes, I’ve have that problem before with labels. Especially with Avo LEs, but if they get difficult, try to smoke it closer to the band. That way, the heat of the burn will heat up the vegetable glue and make the band easier to take off.
I had my second one of these over the weekend and it was great, especially the first half. It seemed to lose the intensity of flavor that makes it so special in the second half, but it’s a great smoke regardless.
Enjoyed your review, Ben. I was lucky enough to find one of these at Tobacco Haven in Brookline, NH for $13.99. Outstanding cigar, although I had trouble with the wrapper from the start. I got most of the same flavors as you and was only slightly put off by the construction problem. I also couldn’t get the wrapper off cleanly, which ended up messing up the end of the smoke, but the flavor made up for it.