Flores Y Rodriguez CRV Robusto

[Don Fernando]

When you’ve been a cigar geek for some time you may recognize when certain manufacturers stepped their game up and it is a defining moment in the history of their company, raising them to another level. For Arturo Fuente that was the moment they released the Opus X, for Oliva it was the release of the Oliva Series V and later even an extra step up to the Series V Melanio and more recently you could really see and taste the development from the Garcia family when they released the My Father and My Father Le Bijou series. All of these lines were better, more refined and more expensive than what they previously did and it elevated their status in the industry and amongst cigar smokers. I have a feeling that this Flores y Rodriguez is that ‘stepping up the game’ cigar for Abe Flores from PDR Cigars.

For years PDR made good cigars, medium priced, good quality cigars but nothing extraordinary, nothing that could compete in the big leagues but early 2016 Abe released the Flores y Rodriguez Connecticut Valley Reserve with completely other tobacco, well aged, in bolder packaging for a bolder price. After the initial release he even took the next step and released the cigars into beautiful jars and released a follow up line in the Flores y Rodriguez Connecticut Valley Reserve Azul. I got both this regular Connecticut Vally Reserve robusto and the Azul robusto from Abe at Intertabac 2016.

The 7 year old Connecticut broadleaf wrapper looks amazing, it is oily, shiny and dark with some marbling but no real veins. The construction feels great and the triple cap is placed straight but it quite big though. Not that I mind, I punch a cigar with this ring gauge of 52 anyway so I won’t have unravel issues anyway. The cigar has a red cloth footband, then a brown ring with two golden outlines on the top and botton of which the inner one has white dots. In the ring you read Connecticut Valley Reserve in golden letters. The top ring is round and red with golden outlines, a golden crest in the centre, then a golden circle around it, then a red circle with the name Flores y Rodriguez, Tamboril in white letters. The cider have white and red vertical stripes and the text handmade. I smell a mild aroma of barnyard and straw.

Like I said I punched the cigar. The cold draw is perfect and I taste some raisin, pepper and some spicy leather. I taste a pleasant coffee flavor after lighting the cigar with a soft flame. Slowly the flavors change to earthy flavors with some citrus and a little metallic flavor. Although the flavors are nice they evolve so slow it goes secretly and almost unnoticed. After a third I taste earthy flavors with some licorice, cocoa and nuts. Halfway I taste some chocolate too. After two thirds the cigar gets a sudden change of flavors, nuts, a little bit of pepper and a mix of herbal flavors. The flavors are dark, this is an autumn or winter kind of cigars. The pepper gets a little stronger and so does the earthiness.

The smoke is medium plus thick and full in volume. The draw is fantastic. The ash is salt and pepper colored and very firm. The cigar is medium bodied and medium full flavored. The balance is great and the evolution very secretly until the final third. The smoke time is an hour and a half.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yeah, this is a nice cigar that fit the colder months of the year.

Score: 90

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