There is one special cigar in the June-July batch included as a tribute to the legendary Alejandro Robaina who died last month.
The Robaina family have farmed tobacco continuously since 1845 on their precious vegas (fields) at Cuchillas de Barbacoa situated in the Vuelta Abajo, Cuba's premier tobacco-growing region.
Born in 1919, Alejandro worked on his farm from age 10 until his death this year. He took over the family farm in 1950 and remained an independent grower even after the '59 revolution, when most tobacco farms were grouped into cooperatives. Robaina said himself that he "told Fidel I did not like cooperatives or state farms and that the best way to grow tobacco was through family production." For many years he was one of the unofficial ambassadors of Cuban cigars abroad, and in the 1990s the government recognised his outstanding production (80% of his tobacco leaves were good enough to be used as premium wrappers compared with 30% for most farms) by creating a brand named after his family: Vegas Robaina.
We have the Vegas Robaina Clasico, which, as Greg and myself found out the other night, is a cracker. It's a cigar with perfect balance, sweet and smooth but mingling many interesting flavours and evolving all the way through the smoke (our review posted in comment).
I can only encourage you to take time out and concentrate on smoking this one in one go - it's worth it. And this time you can think about the values of terroir and centuries old family farms that contribute to making delightful and maybe even meaningful produce for us to enjoy - perhaps against the backdrop of increasing industrialisation of production.
1hr-1hr20 smoke.
Size: Cervantes
Length 16.5cm. Ring gauge 42.
Strength: Medium-bodied
Drink match: port, sherry? and maybe even switch to whisky at the end.
Box date unknown.
This was what Greg and myself thought of this cigar the other evening:
ReplyDelete- Pre-light: sweet, sheepdung and spice in the foot
- 1/3: Honey with touches of cinnamon and perhaps nutmeg, pepper with dry finish reminiscent of an Australian Shiraz, hint of green grass. Combines a few classic cuban tastes but the whole package has a very distinctive flavour, unusual spiciness suffused with an almost liquid sweetness.
2/3: The green pepper and its intriguing bitterness has taken over as the dominant flavour - no secrets here: this is the ligero leaf shining through. But still the honey and cinnamon sweetness remains, and is gaining a homebaked gingerbread softness.
Last third: the ligero ensemble has grown to the point that it sticks on your lips and has even developed a definite mint leaf tang with a chilly mentos after-effect. As the great John Mitchell said, this is a Journey, and you definitely want to give this cigar your full attention lest you miss out on the dynamically evolving intrigue of the plot. Greg offers a tour of his palate to the adventurous french-kisser right now, lick all around as the delicate nuances linger still.
Just had this cigar. I had been saving it as my top choice, partly because of its heritage as outlined in Xav's description and also just as a good looking cigar- worthy of respect and appreciation.
ReplyDeleteA storm came through the valley today. I worked the lavender this morning while wind howled outside and in the afternoon found refuge from the heavy rain in the caravan with Hannah. As the light began to fade in the evening, stillness descended on the hills. Darkness gently made itself known, but you could still make out the different shades of clouds. Mist enveloped the mountains and light rain lingered near-by.
I snipped open the cigar then listened to its end crackle in the flame of my lighter. The draw was a little bit too hard, but not too tiring. It became very enjoyable after about 10 minutes and I was gifted an easy draw between the 20th and 50th minute. The taste was consistently soft. It burned evenly. The ash wasn’t too keen to hang around and kept jumping off. 5 million hours later, and after some nice reflections, I still had some way to go. The draw became tiresome near the end and I would use a candle I had close by to tickle the end before I took a puff.
A great meditative cigar- requires patience but not a big fight. Ideal in the middle stage.
Great Review as always Art. I’ve always heard these were fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
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