Cigar Review: Arturo Fuente

Chateau Fuente Maduro, 4.5" x 50 ring gauge, $6.00
The Fuente Cigar Company is legendary, and the current head of said company, Carlos Jr. or "Carlito," is probably the most recognizable man in the cigar industry--and their cigars aren't bad, either! The Chateau Fuente is from their original "A. Fuente" line with the green trim around the bottom of the band. There is really no information available on the Fuente website, but from what I can gather from other sources, thie filler and binder are Dominican and the wrapper is a Connecticut Broadleaf maduro. The cigar is wrapped in a cedar sleeve with a bit of green ribbon at the bottom, making for a very classy presentation.

The cedar wrap hides a very rustic and rough wrapper that has a couple of very large veins evident. The wrapper is oily and a very dark brown. The aroma from the body is barnyard, and from the foot it's the same, only stronger. The prelight draw was slightly tighter than I prefer but not too bad. The flavors were a mix of cocoa, hay, and spice--all of them on the less-than-strong side.

This cigar was as hard to light as an LFD Ligero or Double-Ligero, but the volume of smoke was pretty decent when I finally did get it going. Immediately, the flavors were full and rich--black coffee, cedar and leather. Those flavors hung around during the first third, but a problem reared its head very early in the cigar and it proved to be the cigar's undoing--the draw was horrible. This stogie got continually tighter as I smoked despite repeated attempts to open it up.

I solidiered on, though...the second third started off more leathery and, because of the constant burn problems, a little harsh. There was still some coffee flavor, but it was starting to become more of a "burnt coffee."

Unfortunately, even as this cigar burned down to the last third, the draw did not improve--even as it burned to a length that was shorter than the pipe tool I used to attempt to open up the draw! The flavors continued to get more harsh, leaving a rather unpleasant finish. Eventually the draw opened up a bit more, but it was pretty much too late to salvage a good experience. Given the long history of the Fuente cigar company, it is hard to believe that this is at all typical of this cigar, so...I am going to decline to assign a numerical rating at this time. I will revisit this cigar at some point in the not-too-distant future, hopefully getting a cigar from a different batch and different box and getting a more typical experience.