CW Review: Don Diego Reserve Maduro No. 4
Cigar Weekly reviews are blind taste tests conducted by our readers. Reviewers are sent three samples with all identifying marks removed. Reviewers are chosen randomly from the list of everyone that has signed the Cigar Weekly Guest Book. Their comments are below.
Pre-Smoke Comments
Dick Ulmer (croozertoo): A lightly box-pressed corona with a smooth chocolate color wrapper, almost a maduro shade. A few veins and bumps with a nicely done smooth cap. The bunch was firm and produced a nearly perfect draw. A good looking, well made cigar.
Henry Lach (hank164): Its box pressed, dark brown in color, that is fine too medium in texture, The cap is smooth, and the bunch feels firm. The burn is very even, with a very firm dark gray ash, a nice easy draw with no throat burn at all.
Isaiah J. Hammonds (drkaje): really well constructed and uniform color between the samples. nice oily sheen with well applied caps. pre-lightaroma reminded me of an ERDM, VSG or Bolivar fuerte. nice tooth on thewrapper. and one minor soft spot on each cigar.
John Marcello (Oppie X): The cigar had a nice dark wrapper with a few veins and no soft spots were noticed.Both samples looked and felt like they had been well kept.
Kevin Elder (nivek): Good looking old style box pressed cigar. Nice prelite aroma. Looked to be well made with no soft spots on inital inspection. Wrapper was a little veiny but had no blemishes at all!
Ron Sena (RonS): This cigar looks promising. It appeared box pressed, oily to the touch, and felt very nice. I used a V cutter, which made a nice clean cut in the cap. Prelight draw was perfect.
Scott Stockton (Churchill): The little beauty was a dark chocolate color, very smooth with few veins. The cap and bunch were excellent. I excellent looking cigar, that was very oily. I am looking forward to this smoke!
Smoke Comments
Dick Ulmer (croozertoo): Both examples started with a bang - lots of spice and woody flavors. Soon each settled into a medium bodied earthiness, but with a very dry finish that tended to spoil an otherwise decent flavor. At the halfway point, the first example started a nosedive from earthy to downright muddy and by the band was very funky and bitter. The second cigar performed much better at this point, maintaining its flavor to the nub. Both produced light gray ashes and burned evenly.
Henry Lach (hank164): I would call this medium body, with a very nice flavor, that is sightly tangy and the balance is perfect. There is a little sweetness mixed in with the taste, no bitterness at all.
Isaiah J. Hammonds (drkaje): med-full bodied smoke but with a little harshness that comes from youth. seemed to need time to mellow a bit. its strngth tended to overpower the rest of the cigar leaving it lacking balance.
John Marcello (Oppie X): The cigar started out with a bit of promise but never opened up into anything.The strength of the cigar was mild to medium until I had to relit it a couple of times and then it just turned harsh.The flavor that I did get out if it would be best described as earthy.
Kevin Elder (nivek): This solid medium cigar in strength. First one was a bad rolled cigar, with loose rolled tobacco in the center but the second one burned better but still had to correct it at times. It had a lite salt and pepper ash which was flakey. Flavor was sort of bland, nothing to write home about, It almost had the perdomo tin can taste i dislike! The flavor was not very complex and strength did not increase. Draw was good, but the amounts of smoke could have been better!
Ron Sena (RonS): Plenty of smoke from start to finish. It had a distinct flavor that exploded from the first to last puff. (Metallic?) Taste mellowed towards the finish.
Scott Stockton (Churchill): The burn was even with no problems or runs. Excellent ash that held to past 1/2 inch before I removed it. The draw was excellent with no problems what so ever. This cigar was very well constructed. The flavor was lacking but the strength was there. Plenty of smoke.
Summary Comments
Dick Ulmer (croozertoo): It's hard to make a call with such different performances, so I'll focus on the better of the two and say that this was a decent medium to full-bodied corona with earthy flavors and dry finish. The flavor profile was similar to many Hondurans and the finish reminded me of some H2000 wrapped cigars I have tried. Overall, this cigar did not impress me enough to purchase more.
Henry Lach (hank164): I smoke a cigar with a smaller ring hard at the start, and that gets them hot. And I did that with these, after I backed off it cooled down, overall a very agreeable smoke that I like. It smoked without any problems, it is a very good cigar that I liked a lot.
Isaiah J. Hammonds (drkaje): would really like to try one after a 6-8 month nap. Or, this may be a brand that benefits from storage a little closer to 65% RH, or a "dry box" for a day or so prior to smoking. these things might even out the burn, and let it mellow a bit allowing some of the more subtle flavor out.
John Marcello (Oppie X): Cigar # 166 was a nice looking cigar that was a disappointment.The pre-draw and draw were its only good points.The cigar was very lackluster in flavor and strength.
Kevin Elder (nivek): This cigar would not be on my to buy list! Although its not a bad cigar, neither is it that good, there are so many other cigars that the flavor is more to my liking that this one just does not fit in! Again there is nothing special about this cigar. It was rather boring and a bit bland.
Ron Sena (RonS): I had high hopes for this cigar. It felt great and burned just as well. It had a nice aroma, but that flavor and aftertaste just blew it all.
Scott Stockton (Churchill): Overall an excellent looking cigar, dark and oily. The flavor was somewhat lacking but the strength was there. It was similar to toned down Camacho Corojo in strength but with little flavor, very one dimensional, but enjoyable.
Scores
| Reviewer | ||||||||
| Dick Ulmer | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 6.0 | 30.0 |
| Henry Lach | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 47.0 |
| Isaiah J. Hammonds | 4.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 30.0 |
| John Marcello | 3.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 17.0 |
| Kevin Elder | 4.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 26.0 |
| Ron Sena | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 27.0 |
| Scott Stockton | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 25.0 |
| Averages | 4.1 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 27.6 |
| For more information see the link below for Review Methods. | ||||||||
Review Results
Final Score: 27.6 out of 50
3 Stars -- Average
I thought this was one of the better new cigars. Don Diego Reserve is a fuller-bodied extension of the popular Don Diego brand, aimed at today's more "seasoned" cigar smoker. I actually found it fairly mild -- almost medium -- bodied but with lots of earthy and leathery flavor. The flavor was somewhere between a typical milder Dominican and a heavy Nicaraguan puro -- probably a result of the Peruvian tobacco in the filler. The Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper was dark and oily and smooth. At $3.70 each in box quantity, I would recommend these for a change-of-pace morning smoke.
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