Hoyo de Monterrey - Le Hoyo du Maire

An excellent cigar for coffee or when you only have only half an hour to spare. Don't be fooled by the size, this little cigar is flavoursome, wood, leather and almonds abound with a hint of mint/cloves. Neither sweet nor spicy. Medium in strength, with delightful aromatics.
These are aged almost a decade so all the ammonia of the new tobacco has worn off. Smallest cigar in the "Le Hoyo" series.

15-30mn smoke. Drink match: Very light - tea, coffee, milo.
Size: "Entreactos" - Length: 3 6/7"; Ring Gauge: 30 (100mm x 11.91mm)
From 2 boxes dated 2001

Brand info: This brand was established in 1865 by Jose Gener and is named after the fertile valley in the Vuelta Abajo which has been farmed by Gener since at least 1860.

Hoyo de Monterrey cigars gently flow over the tongue with light, rich and aromatic sensations.

WRAPPER EXPERIMENT
Note that if Sam has done his job right you will have one with a lighter wrapper and one with a darker wrapper from 2 different boxes. At the cigar factories, they try to group all the cigars with similar tones of wrapper colour so as to get a homogeneous colour for each box. Comparing the two will give you an idea of the influence of the wrapper leaf's colour on the flavour of the cigar. It's a very subtle difference but it is noticeable - generally for a given cigar the darker the wrapper leaf, the sweeter and stronger the flavour (with a hint of underlying bitterness).

There has long been a debate about how much of the overall cigar flavour is given by the wrapper leaf. Estimates vary between 10%-50%...

Comment on this post with your own experience of these cigars.