Cigar Review: EP Carrillo, Edicion Inaugural 2009

5.375 x 52 ring gauge, $13.65
I like to refer to Ernesto Perez Carrillo, Jr. as "a scary-looking guy." With his shaven head and intense look, it's easy to understand why. The couple opportunities I have had to meet him, though, he was as nice as you would like. Carrillo is the man who put La Gloria Cubana cigars on the map and started the trend toward fuller body and strength with El Rico Habano. After decades in the business, mostly as part of the General Cigar family, Carrillo decided in 2009 to go into business with his son and daughter. I still fear what this will mean for my beloved El Rico Habanos--one of the finest full-bodied smokes around, really--but it is time to see where Ernesto's journey is taking him...and us. The "regular" EP Carrillo line is supposed to show in early 2010 (maybe by the time this publishes), but first we got to see a limited edition "Edicion Inaugural 2009." The filler is Nicaraguan and Dominican; it boasts two binders, one from Nicaragua and one from the DR; and if features an Ecuadorian wrapper.

The wrapper of this cigar was a medium-light-brown with some mottling. I chose poorly in the store and my stock came pre-damaged with a crack about 2 inches above the foot. The feel was velvety and oily and the body had aromas of hay and subtle autumn spice; the foot had an unusual aroma that I could not place, but there was a bit of chocolate and barnyard hidden in there, too. The prelight draw was excellent and featured wonderfully intense flavors of hay and caramel. The cold draw tasted so good that I almost did not want to light it up.

I cannot remember a cigar that was this difficult to light--it took over a minute of toasting the foot and even then it did not get a fully orange-glow foot. The initial puffs were quite rewarding, though, as they gave up some aromatic spices, hay, and black pepper. Strangely for the person that gave us El Rico Habano, this is not a full-bodied smoke. It does start off very full of flavor, though. Early on the EPC developed exploding cigar syndrome, in which the ashen foot starts to diverge in 2 or more directions. Not at all a pretty sight and a cause for caution lest I end up with a lapful of ash. The flavors in this first third were superb; very much like a classic mild cigar profile with more spice, both pepper and otherwise.

When removing the smaller of the 2 bands, a piece of wrapper leaf was cracked. Shortly after, the heat buildup caused the pre-existing crack (from when I purchased the cigar) to split open and join to this new one. Apart from the fairly serious construction issues, though, this was shaping up to be a very tasty cigar. The overall impression at this point was of sweet, creamy smoke with plenty of hay and caramel notes along with subtle coffee and black pepper. (Even though the wrapper was cracked when I bought it, I still consider there to be construction issues that are problematic in this stick. I have had plenty of cigars where the wrapper has cracked or had a chunk torn out by an overglued band, but the burn plows on through the area like there was no problem at all.)

Unfortunately, just when things started to go right in construction, the flavor started giving way. The massive crack burned through straight and clean for the most part, but almost immediately into the last third, there was almost no flavor upon retrohale. I don't use the term "creamed out" very often, but that is what seemed to be happening here. After such a promising start where I was tempted to buy a whole box of these, the EPC had a disastrously disappointing final act that was practically devoid of flavor. Coupled with the construction problems, I would have trouble paying half the asking price to smoke another one. It started off with great promise, but in the end did not deliver the goods.

Body: 5/10
Strength: 4/10
Complexity: 3/10

AFP Scale:
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1/2
Flavor: 3/5
Value: 0/1
Total: 6/10