Opus X Petite Lancero from 2006

[Apoco]

First review. Woohoo!

I was wanting something special last night, so I pulled out the result of one of my latest trades...a beautiful Opus X PL from 2006!

Accompanying it is Peter Schiff's "Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse" that he wrote in 2007. You'll see it in all of the pictures as white balance for my camera!

Paired this cigar with a Diet IBC Root Beer for the first third, and then Caffeine Free Diet Coke for the remainder.

Pre-light:



Prelight draws revealed prunes and damp hay. The draw felt nearly perfect to me - enough resistance to let you know it was there but not enough to make you work for some smoke. (It was kept at about 62% and 70deg for 2 weeks prior to smoking)

1st third:



Wow, this thing is DELICIOUS. I'm getting a really harsh retrohale that I am hoping will mellow out as it goes along. There are hints of a very rich, dark chocolate that are really accentuated by the root beer. The majority of the flavor that I am getting is damp hay - but not in a bad way. Maybe the correct way to describe it is "earthy"?

2nd third:



The chocolate flavors fade away, which makes me really sad. Having such a rich and creamy smoke was a dream come true! But retrohaling has become easier. This could be that it is cooling off due to me intentionally slowing down to make the retrohale easier and more enjoyable.

At this point, the earthy flavors become more balanced with a prune-esque flavor. There is something in the background that I cannot ever quite put my finger on. I'm wanting to describe it as acidic...almost like tasting a dish that has had a small amount of lemon added. You know it is there, but you don't really taste the lemon itself. Hopefully I've managed to confuse you all as much as I confused myself trying to figure out what the flavor was.

Final Third:



Getting a really nasty tar flavor at this point. I purged the smoke hoping to get back to the earthy flavor being the dominant tone, but to no avail. This is the first Opus X that had such a radical flavor shift. I'm going to call this final third "gross" and put it down. Did not nub this stick, it had probably another 15 minutes worth of smoke in it.

Total smoke time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Overall rating: 88/100

Even with the final bit being unsmokeable to me, this was a thoroughly enjoyable smoke. Many rich, subtle flavors that would poke their head out for a few puffs at a time and then go back into hiding. I'm glad to have one more of these laying around, so hopefully I can follow this up in a week or two with a review where the last bit is fantastic rather than tar-y. Even a normally good, consistent marca of cigar can have a bad egg in the bunch
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[BeerAdvocate]

The OpusX PL is the one and only Opus that I like and that I think is worth the money!

[burnem]

Nice review Alex. PL is a great stick IMHO.

[kelmac07]

Nice review Alex...thanks for sharing.

Nice review.....thanks!

[hscmit]

a very good stick, sorry it went south at the end on you

[HollywoodQue]

Thanks for the review Alex

[cobra03]

By far one of my favorit Opus and lucky for me my Opus hook up just got a box of the PLs in stock

The Opus PL always gets a lot of tar for me about half way through or so. I just clip it each time it begins to ooze a little. This, and a little purging, a few times will always fix the problem leaving the cigar to smoke great. Just clip and purge.

The PL is my favorite Opus. I've never had one change on me so radically. Sorry Alex. At least you did enjoy the first 2/3's of the stick.

[icehog3]

Nice review Alex!

I smoked an '05 tonight, and some of my experience was pretty similar:

I got quite a bit of black pepper on the retrohale, where as the flavor on my tongue was of dried fruit (maybe similar to the prune taste you had on the pre-light?). The cigar was not overly complex for me, but I did get some citrus notes (like your acidic or lemon, perhaps), and that black-cherry taste I sometimes get from an aged Opus, that might even be descrived as a fruity-mocha taste.

So....similar yet different? I enjoyed the cigar but wished for a bit more complexity. Glad you enjoyed yours.

[Apoco]

Originally Posted by icehog3

Nice review Alex!

I smoked an '05 tonight, and some of my experience was pretty similar:

I got quite a bit of black pepper on the retrohale, where as the flavor on my tongue was of dried fruit (maybe similar to the prune taste you had on the pre-light?). The cigar was not overly complex for me, but I did get some citrus notes (like your acidic or lemon, perhaps), and that black-cherry taste I sometimes get from an aged Opus, that might even be descrived as a fruity-mocha taste.

So....similar yet different? I enjoyed the cigar but wished for a bit more complexity. Glad you enjoyed yours.

The mocha-ish flavor was brought out SO MUCH by an IBC root beer. That is going to be my new pair with chocolate-y cigars going forward.

And I'm glad to know I wasn't just imagining the citrus-y note...it was really, really faint. But this reminds me that I have another one of these that I was meaning to smoke...
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[Adriftpanda]

I smoked one from 06 as well a few months back, and literally, I had to sit down because I was feeling it. First cigar that ever put me down.

[Ranger_B]

The PL is probably my favorite Opus Alex great review. Sorry it went south in the end for you. I have had some fresh and they had that acidic taste quite a bit.