Montecruz #3

[Don Fernando]

A while ago, we had a new member on my Dutch website Sigarenliefhebber who didn't smoke cigars but she got a box of Montecruz #3 in an inheritence. She wanted to sell them and a few questions told us that these cigars were something special. It turned out that the cigars were produced on the Canary Islands and the cigars were only produced there between 1967 and 1977, when production moved to the Dominican Republic. The cigars are at least 34 years old and the yellow cellophane proved that the cigars were aged. We did a box split amongst some members of my board and here's my review.




The cigar has a Montecristo like band. The wrapper on this 5½x42 cigar feels like fine sanding paper. It is chocolate brown and has lots of veins. The construction feels good and the cigar has a strong horse stable smell. The predraw is good and I taste a musty tobacco flavor with some black pepper.



I taste a quite full and spicy peppery coffee flavor with some earth and leather. The cigar tastes a bit like a Cuban cigar and I am surprised by the amount of flavor. A quarter of an inch into the cigar the coffee disappears. All I taste is a mild creamy leather with earth and a weird chocolate flavor.



After a third I taste a nasty dirt flavor with some chocolate. Halfway the cigar tastes less muddy and I taste more chocolate. The flavors are still unpleasant, ashy and bitter. After two thirds the cigar gets a little more spicy but the flavors are getting worse.



The smoke time of this cigar is only fifty minutes. I got a decent amount of thin smoke. The light gray ash is firm. The burn and draw are great. This cigar is full flavored and medium bodied.



Would I buy this cigar again? No, glad I bought only one in the group buy

Appearance: 7 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 8 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Aroma first part: 8 / 10
Aroma second part: 6 / 10
Aroma third part: 5 / 10