Cigar Preview: Felipe Gregorio Don Cirilo Maduro

Churchill, 7” x 50 ring gauge / $ unknown

Felipe Gregorio cigars are not one that you are going to find in a lot of shops.  However the owner of my regular shop carries this line and is a big supporter of the brand.  Many of his cigars sell very well at the shop.  At this year's IPCPR I was privileged to be able to sit with Phillip Wynne and listen to him and Ammar talk cigars.  This cigar was his new release at the show and comes in a natural and maduro wrapper.  Unfortunately there isn't a lot of information out there on the blend.  I believe it comes in three sizes, but since there isn't a lot of info I can't confirm that.  If I hear more info on it I'll put it in the comments.  I did get to smoke one of the naturals and one of the maduros prior to this one.

The cigar has a nice medium brown wrapper with some darker mottling.  There are also some medium veins but they don't detract from the look of the cigar.  There was a surprising amount of oil to the wrapper in spite of it not being celloed.  When I gave it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give and I couldn't detect any soft spots.  Putting my nose to the cigar I got notes of leather and curry from the wrapper with barnyard coming from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I got notes of sweet cinnamon with a good draw.

It started off with lots of flavors of coffee and leather with a good amount of spice on the tongue and retrohale.  After taking a few more puffs on it I started to get notes of chocolate and earth.  The draw was great and it produced a large volume of smoke.  The cigar started at the upper end of medium.  Towards the end I started to get some maple like sweetness on the finish.  

As I moved into the second third the spice was still present but not as strong as the beginning.  Flavors were pretty consistent of coffee, leather and a herbal spice.  The draw continued to be great with the burn being slightly wavy.  The cigar didn't really venture out of the upper end of medium.

Finishing off the cigar brought change to the flavor into cola, earth and leather with a slightly sweet finish.  The spice did start to come back as well.  The cigar did venture into the lower end of full and gave me a slight nicotine hit as well.

Overall I was very impressed with this cigar.  It is very different than many of the other Felipe Gregorio offerings, which I haven't found to fit my palate very well.  I am definitely looking forward to trying more sizes and more of the natural as well.  If you can find this cigar and like a cigar that is full flavored with a slightly full body I would definitely give this a try.