La Aurora 100 Años Churchill
Apr 7, 2009 Cigar
Todays Cigar Review is the La Aurora 100 Años Churchill.
The La Aurora 100 Años (100 years) pays tribute to La Aurora’s time in the business. In 2004, it was rated the 3rd best cigar for that year by Cigar Aficionado Magazine. The secret to the 100 Anos blend is in its wrapper. Growing wrapper tobacco in the Dominican Republic is nearly impossible given the agricultural difficulties, but those growers who succeed in making it, are rewarded with the most flavorful wrapper in the world. The La Aurora 100 Anos has a Corojo seed Dominican wrapper that covers mostly Corojo fillers making it one of the worlds only cigars to use 100% Dominican Tobacco. Only 300,000 cigars were ever produced.
On to the review.
APPEARANCE and CONSTRUCTION -
The 100 Años Churchill has a chocolate brown wrapper with a nice oily sheen to it. You can actually feel the oils as you rotate the cigar between your fingers. It has a very clean looking triple cap that appears to be well applied. Visually, the cigar is very appealing except for one small detail. There is a rough looking vein that circles down toward the foot of the cigar. While the vein itself is not so bad, there appears to be a portion of it that looks like a bad stiching. It’s the only flaw of an otherwise beautiful looking cigar.
SMOKING CHARACTERISTICS -
The 100 Años has some nice aromas from the wrapper and foot. There are notes of earth and wood particularly at the foot. The cigar lit perfectly and evenly. The draw was perfect with just enough resistance to keep it interesting. It generated a nice volume of smoke. The 100 Años maintained a fairly good, even burn and needed almost no touching up. The ash was a nice white and remained solid.
FLAVOR -
In the first few puffs, I noticed a woody flavor along with a hint of spice. That woody flavor persisted throughout most of the cigar. Somewhere around the halfway point, I started noticing light flavors of chocolate and some walnut. That specific walnut flavor was actually very noticable in the last third. The body started out fairly full and then actually progresses to become more medium. The only aspect of the flavor that I didn’t enjoy was a dryness on the palate that I had on the finish. That dry finish stayed through almost the entire cigar and made me reach for some water about halfway through.
OVERALL IMPRESSION –
I enjoyed this cigar, but found it a little one dimensional. With the amount of quality aged tobacco in its makeup, I anticipated a little more range of flavors and complexity. While enjoyable, it was somewhat simple. For a cigar with this much pedigree and at an MSRP of over $13, it was slightly disappointing.
TOTAL SCORE – 89
