Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente Sun Grown Cigar Review
Yesterday, I did a review for this cigar with the natural wrapper and the green band that holds the cedar sheath. To cut a long story short, I did not really care for that cigar and I rated it at 87 points. The flavors were all fine but the cigar just lacked life, complexity and most everything else that makes a cigar truly enjoyable. But maybe with a different wrapper this cigar will be better – maybe an Ecuadorian sun grown wrapper will do the trick.
I effortlessly slide off the cedar sheath, with the black band this time, and a well constructed cigar is revealed. It’s definitely darker than the other one, maybe a little bit more oil and packed tighter but not too tight. I can smell something sweet from the foot of this cigar. Let’s see if it’s better than the other one or not.
Cigar Stats
Robusto
Length: 4 1/2″
Ring Gauge: 50
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun Grown
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Price: $4.55
Echo Torch!
I smelled sweetness from the foot and now I can taste it. There’s also a coffee flavor that has a good helping of cream added in. Unfortunately, there is a pervasive burnt blandness that sticks around as the main aftertaste. Fortunately, that negative flavor is relegated to the bottom half of my olfactory system. The flavors I get through the nose are good.
During the first half an inch or so the flavors I mentioned are the main ones. After that point a dirty earthy flavor comes on stronger and I actually like it. It gives the cigar some interest. Surprisingly, at about this same time that burnt blandness has begun to fade into the background, almost disappearing but not quite gone.
The Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente Sun Grown is a medium bodied cigar with a slightly erratic burn and a good draw. That negative flavor of burnt blandness has come back for the last third of the cigar, which is too bad. I was enjoying this cigar, somewhat. With the negative flavor this cigar falls precipitously in my estimation. Without the problematic flavor this cigar is one or two points better than the natural wrapper (which scored 87 points) version of this cigar but, with the negative flavor, the sun grown wrapper version of this cigar is at least two points worse.
It has its ups and downs. However, its highest highs are not very impressive. Couple that with the lows and this cigar can be avoided. The natural wrapper wins!
84 points
Sol Cubano Cuban Cabinet Churchill – Cigar Review
[Editor's Note: type in www.sulcubano.com and you get redirected to cigar.com's website. Does this mean that cigar.com owns the brand? I don't know.]
Cigar Stats
Length: 7″
Ring Gauge: 47
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder & Filler: Nicaragua and Honduras
Approximate Price: $5.75
Decent construction – there are a couple of stretch marks on the cigar which makes me worry about how well the cigar will draw because if a cigar is rolled too tightly there is an increased chance that the draw will be tight. There are also some raised veins and the color of the cigar is medium brown.
Da Flame!
The draw, as I feared, is a little tight. There is some spice coming through. Mild-medium bodied. Overall, it has weak flavors. Very little smoke.
A couple inches in now and it is still a very bland cigar. There’s some spice and it’s a little sweet. The draw only gets tighter. This has to be at least partially responsible for the bland flavors.
It doesn’t even burn evenly. About halfway through the cigar actually gets a little sour. Still very boring and the draw just gets worse. What can I say? I’m just disappointed with this cigar.
Near the end it becomes a better cigar. The draw opens up and the spice and sweetness sing true. But it’s way too little way too late. Avoid this cigar.
81 points
Sol Cubano Cuban Cabinet A – Cigar Review from In The Humidor
Cigar Stats
Length: 9
Ring Gauge: 48
Tobaccos: Ecuador (wrapper, I think), Nicaragua, and Honduras
Price: $8.00
I was scouring the web earlier today looking for interesting stuff and I came across a blog I have never seen before called In The Humidor. It’s a great blog about, you guessed it, cigars. And what really piqued my interest was the fact that his most recent review is of a Sol Cubano, which I have had the opportunity to smoke a couple of recently.
I’ve got to say that while I do agree with his review I don’t agree with the rating, I think it is too charitable. Their system over there is to rate cigars on a five-star scale. He gave the Sol Cubano Cuban Cabinet A a 3, which roughly translates to 85-90 points using the 100-point scale, or, to put it another way, it’s a good cigar in his summation.
Even though I haven’t posted my rating yet I smoked one of these A’s recently and I gave it an 81 for my score. It is just a bland cigar that I could have lived without ever having smoked it. Alright! That’s enough of me blathering on lets get to the very thoughtful review from the guy over at In The Humidor:
You may recognize this marca of cigar if you have been a In The Humidor reader for a while. I did a review on the corona size of this cigar and was very disappointed. Well I decided to give another vitola a go and decided on the rather large “A” size. This vitola had a nice wrapper with little veins present. The construction appeared to be of decent quality. I don’t usually smoke cigars of this size so it was a tad awkward at first but it felt fine after the first 3rd.
The cigar itself is a nicaraguan and honduran filler with a Ecuadorian wrapper. The medium to full bodied flavor is of earth and a bit of sweetness. The cigar is not overpowering however, in fact it falls flat compared to other medium to full sticks. I found this cigar to be rather boring by the end of the second 3rd. The flavors never produced anything that grabbed me as it started to taste like air by the last 3rd. This big boy was going to hit the ashtray without getting nubbed.
This is a boring cigar and it probably isn’t worth your time or money. This all brings me to another issue that I want to discuss at some point in the future, which is you can’t always trust your cigar retailer because, after all, they are in the business of selling cigars to you and not in the business of telling you which cigars not to buy.
Cigar Humidors
