Partagas 1845 Extra Oscuro Robusto Gordo
General Cigar had a nice hit with the release of the Partagas 1845 in 2012. Extending the fame of the line comes two new versions of the 1845; the Extra Oscuro & Extra Fuerte. Today I will be taking a look at the Extra Oscuro. I don’t too many oscuro cigars, but when I tried my first sampling of this cigar, I really enjoyed it. I didn’t pay a whole lot o attention to any particular flavors, just wanted to get an overall feel for it.
Cigar Stats
Size: 5.5×52
Vitola: Robusto Gordo
Wrapper: Connecticut Havano Oscuro
Binder: Proprietary Dominican Leaf
Filler: Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua
Cost: $7.26SRP* Â Â
First Looks
This is a pretty dark and “handsome” cigar. There are a few minimal veins that show on the dark brown wrapper. The color of this wrapper is almost black, but not quite enough to be called so. There is a nice deeply applied triple cap that gives good room for cutting. The foot has an aroma of some nutmeg and hints of a light hay. The wrapper aroma is similar to the foot, yet the nut meg is a lot lesser in strength. The cold draw is fairly stiff with some notes of hay.
The band is similar to the original 1845 release except the background is purple with silver lettering and outlinings. Its counterpart (extra fuerte) has the same color scheme, yet its black and silver. I think the Extra Oscuro should be the one with the black backgrounf since oscuro means “very black”.
Construction
It took a good bit of toasting this cigar with my soft flame lighter to get it going. The dense packing of it results in a slightly firmer draw than I usually care for. But, it was nothing that was too thick to want me to put it down. Although, during the middle portion of the cigar the draw did settle some and ease off. But it was still just a tad bit thicker than my usual likings. This cigar did put out a good amount of smoke, both idle and drawn. From a fairly straight burn line came semi flaky ashes of a dirty white and gray color. Each ash lasted a bit over an inch or so. I don’t like to play “the longest ash” game with review cigars. I’d rather smoke it in its natural state and not hinder or help any aspect of it.
Flavor
The first few draws give off a nice and interesting mix of charred wood, hints of dark chocolate and dried fruit. Accompanying those flavors comes a faint hint of a sweetness that adds to the dried fruit. Later on in the first third, the dried fruit turned to a raisin flavor, which I guess still is a “dried fruit”. Going out of the first third, a hint of a short black pepper note tries to make an appearance in the smoke.
The middle portion is pretty much like the first. The black pepper is still trying to become more of a key flavor, but is overtaken by the original raisin and wood notes. Now there is a nice ending to the draw with the addition of a cocoa note that adds a little bit more to the sweetness in the smoke. Around the middle of the cigar, the cocoa takes a step up and matches the raisin notes in strength. At this point, I realize this cigar has a nice and clean long finish on it. The raisin stays a bit, but the cocoa lasts even longer on my palate. Ending the middle portion, the black pepper mixes with the wood, then comes the raisin, followed by the cocoa which has turned to a darker form of its previous version.
In the final third the black pepper makes its final run for glory and moves towards the front of the smoke. Its almost too pungent and bitter for me. The raisin note gets muddled in with the cocoa and wood as the black pepper is really showing out. There starts to be a slight twang in the black pepper as I finish this cigar. Its not anything all that pleasant and I almost want to put it down here, but continue on; lengthening the time between draws. Doing this did ease off the twang some, but the black pepper is still shining over the other flavors. The wood notes have pretty much all but a thing of the past and I wish the black pepper twang wouldn’t have knocked it out of the picture. The ending of the cigar is a little on the rough side. I suggest severely lengthening your time between draws during the final part of the cigar as I believe this is the culprit of some of the off flavors I got.
Final Thoughts
This turned out to be a pretty good smoke. I actually prefer it over the original 1845 line and even more over the Extra Fuerte line. I will take another look at the Extra Fuerte in the weeks coming up. The raisin and wood flavors really draw me in from the get-go. The draw stayed a little tighter than I like; but nothing major. Other than that, the construction was pretty good. This is a good smoke for the suggested retail price point. Its not a real complex smoke, but the key flavors are nice and to my likings. The middle portion of the cigar was my favorite. If you liked the original 1845 line and are looking for something a bit more interesting, try the Extra Oscuro. This may be a shocker to some, but I would actually like to try this blend in a 6×60 size just to see if the cocoa, raisin and sweetness get some amplification.
 
*This cigar was provided to me, unsolicited, from General Cigars for this review. Many thanks to them for the opportunity to review this cigar!
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