A Flores 1975 Gran Reserva Half Corona
Released at the 2013 IPCPR Convention, the A Flores 1975 Gran Reserve is one of the newest lines from Pinar Del Rio Cigars (PDR). Master Blender Abe Flores blends PDR cigars in Tamboril, Dominican Republic. Said factory blends and rolls not just PDR Cigars. They also blend and roll a hand full of other cigars for other companies (ie: La Palina, Primer Mundo etc…). If you are wondering where the 1975 comes from, its the year Abe was born.
Cigar Stats
Size: 3 1/2″ x 46
Vitola: Half Corona
Wrapper: Dominican Corojo 2006
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican Corojo, Nicaraguan Habano
Country: Dominican Republic
Price: $5.10 (via Emerson’s Cigars)*
Sizes Available:
Half Corona: 3 1/2 x 46
Robusto: 5 x 52
Gran Toro: 6x 54
Robusto and Gran Toro are limited to 500 boxes of 24Â each.
The Half Corona will be available in 5pk tins in possible regular production.
 
First Looks
The smallish size of this cigar is the thing that mainly sticks out in my mind. I see petite coronas ocassionaly, but not too many half coronas. This size is almost perfect in my eyes. Its a small ring gauge and not too long. I like a corona size, but a half corona will be a great size for the colder months that are coming up quick. The wrapper is fairly rough, veiny and has an overall so-so feel to it. It is not too stiff, yet not too spongy. The cap is absolutely what I would like to see more of when it comes to cigars. Its applied pretty deep and looks to be a double, if not triple cap. Plenty of room for cap cutting.
The wrapper has a fairly musty wood smell to it. The foot has a nice straw and light cinnamon aroma to it. With a straight cut, the draw is a little looser than I’d like. But not loose enough to cause any alarm. The prelight draw has some sweetened tobacco tastes to it with an almost herbal note as well.
Construction
The draw stiffened up a tad bit more once let and made it right where I’d like it to be. The burn was pretty spot-on and from it came a antique white colored tight ash with a few darker gray and black lines in it. Each ash lasted for a little less than one inch, which is typical of smaller ring gauged cigars. The smoke was dense and had a decent room note. A non-smoker possibly wouldn’t care too much for it.
 
Flavor
I lit the cigar with a Commonwealth Cedar Spill. It gave the cigar a more “truer” flavor start than a hot torch lighter that can give off misleading flavors during the first few draws. The first portion had nice cedary flavors with a nice black pepper note that wasn’t too strong nor too weak. In the background was a sweet coffee and leathery note. The sweet note and the bitey pepper made for an interesting mix of flavors. Kind of like how Sweet & Sour Chicken works out to be a good mix.
The cedar and black pepper eased a good bit off in the second portion and revealed more of the leathery notes that were off in the background previously. The black pepper was still in the smoke, just in a lesser form, but more distinct in the retrohale. Towards the middle, I got a hint of a chocolate flavor mixed in a vegetal flavor.
The end of the cigar got more leathery and earthy like the first portion (minus the cedar). The “DPR Twang” that I usually get from PDRs showed up finally. Usually it is there through out the cigar, this time it shows up at the end. Sometimes the twang is a interesting addition to the flavor profile, other times its not. This time I am on the fence with it. I could take it or leave it this time. Right at the very end, the black pepper showed back up with slight vengeance. It was stronger than before and bit more bitey with the “PDR Twang”.
 
Final Thoughts
The smoke was pretty cool and moist. Coming from such a small cigar it puzzled me. At times, a small ring gauged cigar can give off a hotter smoke, this cigar was opposite of that. The flavors were pretty good and offered a nice complexity in such a small cigar. For about 45minutes, this was a pretty darn good smoke! Like I said before, this is a great short smoke for the winter season or for a lunch break smoke.. You could smoke this cigar faster, but I wouldn’t. Too fast and it could get too hot and offer off or foul flavors. It offers a nice medium bodied complexity with cedar, leather, black pepper, some sweetness and earthiness. I usually like to suggest a beverage to pair this with and this time I’d suggest maybe a whisky or possible bourbon. I would suggest coffee, if the coffee notes would have been more pronounced and longer lasting in the smoke.  I suggest to try this cigar and definitely worth buying the 5pk tins.
*This cigar was provided to me, unsolicited, from Victoria of Pinar Del Rio Cigars  for this review. Many thanks to Victoria for the opportunity to review this cigar!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment