Winston Churchill Marrakesh by Davidoff

At the last Mossback Herf, Papajohn handed my ass to me with a selection of truly fine smokes: A Davidoff 100th Anniversary Robusto, an Avo LE 2007, an Avo 787, a Winston Churchill Marrakesh by Davidoff, and a La Gloria Cubana lancero!

He mentioned to me that not very many people like the Winston Churchill cigar but wanted me to post a review of it anyway.

The Winston Churchill: Wow, I really liked it. It wasn't what I was expecting - for one thing, it was far more full bodied than I thought it would be!

It had that signature stale-mildew style aroma that Hendrik Kelner always seem to be able to sign his cigars with. Its one of the things that (for me) sets a Davidoff-made cigar apart. I absolutely love it!

As I was smoking it, I couldn't help but to be overwhelmed by the Nicaraguan style flavor that seemed to prioritize itself above all the other flavors in the cigar. I doubted my own tastes though because I smoked a very powerful all-Dominican cigar earlier in the day and figured that perhaps it was just some very Nicaraguan-tasting Dominican tobacco (which is fine and dandy!). Later, I looked up the filler blend, and sure enough, Nicaraguan tobaccco was indeed a component.

It definately built in strength as it progressed and it certainly had complexity. The flavor profile, while I found very interesting, was actually very good. Even though Kelner ages his stuff for years on end before rolling the tobacco into sticks (Davidoffs anyway), I wondered if this could do with maybe another year on it.

I ended up enjoying it for an hour and 45 minutes, nursing it along. All in all, an interesting, flavorful smoke! This will certainly be one of my future box purchases

Thanks again to Papajohn!!!

[omowasu]

Thanks for the review - I am a bit of a Davidoff 'ho myself, with one humi of only Davidoff rolled cigars. I had heard of the Marrakesh, but have not had one or smoked it...

That said, you are very specific on the "mildew-style aroma". I have found this same aroma in other Davidoff rolled cigars, especially the Paul Garmirians and some Zinos - but never in the Davidoff branded line itself. I have actually had people tell me that the PGs smell like mildew and bad p0t before! The standard Davidoff line (e.g. thousands, millenium, etc) always had a nice cedar, paper / pine aroma when burning. Granted, I have not yet smoked the Davidoff Maduro - its on my purchase list.

Either way, I am adding this one to my list as well, and will post my thoughts in the next couple weeks. Thanks for the inspiration!