Cigar Review: A. Fuente Rosado Sungrown Magnum R

R56, 5.625" x 56 ring gauge, $7.60
It is not often that the Fuente Company introduces new cigars. The Don Carlos was introduced in 1976, the Hemingway in 1983, and the Anejo in 2000. The Opus X line was released sometime in the late '90s and almost everything else we have seen from them has been variations or additional to previously established lines. Actually...this is not much different. The Rosado Sungrown Magnum R line is available in 3 sizes and consists of the same Dominican filler and binder as the regular Gran Reserva "green label" cigars. They have even used sungrown leaves on those before; the difference here is that these are "extremely old Ecuadorian wrappers culled from the lower primings of the plant." Carlos Fuente, Jr., says these leaves are 8 to 10 years old, dating from the time they first created the Sun Grown line.

The revised band is very attractive--a nice variation on what you normally see from Fuente. The wrapper was quite smooth and good looking except for a few details requiring closer inspection: there was a grayish discoloration that looked almost like adhesive near the foot. Also near the foot are a few holes where leaf has flaked off, and at the bottom of the capline, there appears to be a fairly serious crack. Normally I might call this normal wear and tear, but I had a different vitola the other day and had cracks, peels, and flakes from a wrapper that seemed drier than normal. While it tasted good, I can only surmise that this wrapper is thinner and more delicate than normal, and probably drier, too. The body gave up just a bit of hay aroma, while I got next to nothing from the foot. When I cut the stick, the cap completely shredded and came off, although it did not seem to mess up the wrapper like the previous cigar I had. The prelight draw was excellent and had flavors of honey, hay and caramel.

Initial puffs give up some hay and sweet undertones. The retrohale reveals a little peppery goodness. The first third was nice and mellow with some flavors associated with mild smokes, like hay and creamy coffee, along with a nice peppery burn building up in the back of the throat. It was not a knockout so far, but was good. But not as good as the R52 I smoked before...maybe I should review one of those for more wrapper influence. The burn line started to go astray before the first third was over.

And that got even worse in the second third and would not correct itself. I put the flame to it twice to correct it in the second third and noticed that the filler bunch was rolled off-center. The flavors did not change much in this section, but the body crept up over the absolute medium mark. When I pulled off the band I discovered that way too much glue had been used, splitting the wrapper badly. Quality control just isn't what it used to be in the Fuente factory, I guess.

There really was not much to report in flavor changes in the final third. The canoe got worse until the end and small pieces of tobacco started to come out in my mouth, as if I were smoking a Curlyhead. The flavor of this cigar was not the problem--it was consistently good despite an utter lack of complexity. The problem was construction, which should not be a problem for a company like Fuente. From the cracking to the canoe, from the over-glued band to the flaking at the head, this cigar is just inexcusable. I will try the smaller vitola again to see if my impressions of its flavor are better, but it's not relaxing if you have to babysite the wrapper every step of the way.

Body: 6/10
Strength: 5/10
Complexity: 2/10

AFP Scale:
Prelight: 1.5/2
Construction: .5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: .5/1
Total: 6.5/10