New Release - La Reloba Seleccion Sumatra

Alex Svenson

While this cigar launched earlier in the year, it was still a new release at the show and was proudly displayed at Pepin Garcia's My Father booth at IPCPR. I'm still on my glass of 8 yr old Basil Hayden and cleansed the palate with a glass of club soda. The preflight has a woody character and easy draw with no noticeable tight spots. Upon lighting the cigar has a unique flavor that has some ashy qualities to it. The smoke is silky in nature and has a well balanced feel across the palate and a moderate finish. This cigar is definitely medium to full bodied with a nice and pronounced flavor. There are oaky and bready notes cloaked under a thick layer of a flavor I can only describe as the same sensation you smell and feel on a cold day when the leaves start to turn in the fall. It sounds obscure (and a little corny) but it is a unique cinnamon like spice sensation. Moving into the second half of the stick, the cigar takes on some bitter qualities but the finish remains fairly moderate.

On my scale of poor, fair, good, very good and excellent, this cigar falls on the high end of good. Something I will revisit in the future for sure and I think it would do best after some time at about 65% as I think less moisture would bring out the bouquet of flavors much more prominently.

wwhwang

I love Pepin Garcia.

betasynn

I reviewed this on Ubi Cigar a little while back; I really liked it. If you are a Pepin fan, this is similar to his other stuff while still taking a few steps off the beaten path. Definitely the better of the two (also comes in a Habano format.)