AVO - 77th Anniversary

I posted this review on 8/29/2007

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Gerry (GAW) sent me a couple of these elusive cigars to try. These are the celebration cigars for Avo Uvezian's 77th Birthday in 2003. These were blended the year following the AVO 22s. I've been looking forward to smoking one of these for awhile now.

I received these last Saturday (8/25/07). After a short rest of 3 days, I decided to light one up last night since I was heading out to Highland Cigar.

Here is a picture of the pair Gerry sent me.



Frontmark/Vitola/Size: AVO 77
Toro - 50 x 6.5

Wrapper: ??

Binder: Proprietary

Filler: ??

Local / Online Sources: Limited Production cigar from 2003 that is not available at any retailers that I know.

First Impression: The wrapper looks and smells simply amazing. The aroma reminds me of the LE5s that I have remaining with lots of sweet cocoa/cinammon and tobacco. I spent a few minutes taking in the aroma before lighting this one. The wrapper is a lighter hue of brown than the LE5. There are several veins in the wrapper, but the construction is flawless.

Prelight Draw: The Pre-light draw was a little on the easy side, just how I prefer it when I plan on sipping a cigar.

Light: Clipped with a double-guillotine toasted the foot and took the first draw.

Pairing - Warres Otima 20 Year Tawny

Smoking the Cigar: The first draw hit me with pleasant tobacco and light cinammon spices. This cigar does not produce alot of smoke and starts on the mild side. This cigar settles in a rich creamy and nutty flavor profile somewhere between the LE-5s and AVO 22's that I'd smoked. There is the slightest hint of sweet spices when smoked is blown out the nose. This cigar is sublime almost intoxicating. It was easy to get lost in the cigar forgetting about my surroundings.

The cigar maintained this profile throughout. Into the second third, I picked up nutty flavors that I could feel myself trying to chew to get more of the flavors. This cigar does not produce alot of smoke when sipping but when I gave the cigar a hard draw, I found myself lingering in the smoke pouring out of my mouth enjoying the aroma of the smoke after taking in the flavors. This cigar burned flawlessly. I'd find myself looking at the burn every once in awhile to find it burning even and true. No touch-ups or re-lights required.

Ash: Ash was a light gray almost white that held solid.

Conclusions/Comments: This is a amazing example of an AVO Limited Edition Cigar. I wouldn't find finding a box somewhere. We'll see.

My Scale for rating is as follows:
Appearance: 1-10
Construction: 1-10
Burn: 1-10
Taste: 1-10
Overall Experience: 1-60

For this cigar:
A- 9
C- 10
B- 10
T- 9
O- 58

For a total score of: 96