Memoirs of a Cigar

This CAO Sopranos Edition Cigar was gifted from my new Barber to my Godbrother Robert, who then gifted it to me. It’s a rich chocolate and cedar tasting cigar, with a smooth and leathery texture. It’s smooth aged texture reminds me of a Cohiba Maduro, but less complex in flavor.

The Sopranos had a dry finish, which I enjoy in a cigar, with pockets of saltiness to keep you salivating. It’s a very full cigar so the airflow is a little tight, but not problematic at all. If this cigar had some creaminess and nuts added to it’s flavor profile, it would move up in scoring quickly, however it’s still a good 90 point cigar, even if a little one dimensional.

I enjoyed this cigar while watching the NFL RedZone, which shows you every touchdown in every game. It’s Football with the Scoring Excitement of Basketball! I love it! And this week there was even that amazing helmets off fight between Andre Johnson and Cortland Finnegan. What would a Sopranos Review be without a little beat down?

You can watch One of the Best Fights in NFL History below:

So I just moved to a nicer and bigger place, although with a slightly less spectacular view. I would say the view went down from a 10 to a 8, although my view now is definately more fung shui; as it now features the trees, water, earth and (enter cigar stage right) fire.

After work today I took the doggies by Petco to pick up some of their favorite food, and then stopped by Bevmo to stock up on my favorite Belgian Beers! I found a few new Christmas Ales out already, and some Duvel gift packs with Tulip Glasses, so I picked up 2 gift packs for myself. Merry Christmas. I also found some boutique Belgian Beer Sampler Packs, which will be interesting to review and compare against the boutique Cigar industry.

Now that my priorities (Dog Food and Belgian Beer) were in order, I went ahead and wasted some money on groceries. I picked up some amazing Fresh (and I mean yesterday fresh) Pressed Olive Oil, and some aged cheeses. They even just recieved a shipment of Black Truffles in the night before, and so I swiped 2 of them.

Back at home I proceeded to create a sampler platter of Acme Bread and 3 different types of melted cheeses, with shaved Black Truffles and Olive Oil. I paired this sampler platter with the Avec Les Bons Voeux De La Brasserie Dupont, which means Best Wishes from Brasserie Dupont, and is a once a year produced Belgian Christmas Ale. It was an excellent Belgian, with an aroma of citrus, flowers, hay and spices, and exhibited flavors of spice, tart orange and tangerine citrus, with champagne like carbonation and a nice dry aftertaste. Then it was time for a fine cigar.

The H.Upmann Sir Winston is an amazing Churchill sized cigar, and may in fact be the best Churchill in production. One of the best anyway. It comes from August 2007, and so it has a good 3 years of age to it. The pre-light flavors were of caramel and toasted nuts. Upon lighting my Sir Winston, I was greeted by an embrace of finely aged spices, caramel and nouget. Dried fruit & flower flavors appeared and blended perfectly with pure Aged Cuban Tobacco flavors, with a touch of nutmeg. The cigar really is excellent and deserves to remain in the top 25 cigars, year after year. The aftertaste is of creamy milk chocolate, further exhibiting the cigars rich, soft and velvety texture. Amazing flavors, exceptional construction, perfect looks and to die for aged herbal finesse make the H. Upmann Sir Winston one of my all time favorite cigars. A Classic Rating of 96 points.