Hoyo De Monterrey Le Hoyo De San Juan – Review
This cigar did a really good job of surprising me. The flavour profile was totally unexpected, with an unlit aroma that had me wondering whether it had been dipped into a stagnant pool before being dried and put into a box. Expecting the worst, I got instead a topnote of young leaves that changed in the first five minutes to an aroma akin to a bowl of grandma’s pot pourri. Honey and caramel on the palate on the first draw, all the way down to the first half inch of ash. The leaves and dried flowers mature over the next inch or so, as does that barnyard smell I first encountered, to mossy undergrowth and then freshly baked brioche. Limited spice, instead I got milky undertones from café au lait and light chocolate. The final one third of the cigar develops further complexity, ending in rich dried fruit and sweet cedar wood.
This is a long smoke. Occasionally untended, the cigar lasted me almost an hour and forty-five minutes, so you should very easily expect it to last through an entire evening. I found the floral notes complemented a gin martini perfectly, the drink with which I began the evening, all the way through to the end where it stood its ground against a young Cognac.
Length: 5 7/8 inches
Ring Gauge: 54
Origin: Cuba
Appearance
Wrapper Colour: Colorado
Rolling: Very good
Cut employed: guillotine, shallow cut
Tasting/Flavour
Aroma (Unlit): Barnyard, wet mud, bittersweet
Cold Draw Aroma (After lighting): Topnote – Fern; Secondary notes – Dried flowers
Cold Draw Flavour: Honey, caramel
At 1/3: Moss, brioche
At 2/3: Café au lait, milk chocolate
At 3/3: Dried fruit, cedar
Overall
Burn: Consistent throughout.
Ash:Firm and dark gray.Strength: Medium bodied
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