Well I forgot to post this here...thought you might enjoy it.
Well the trip to the DR was terrific. We (Rob Maushardt & I ) arrived Sunday night and were met by Jose Blanco from La Aurora. He took us to our hotel and gave us a couple of new blends to try. Very nice.
Monday was spent with Manolo Quesada. Unfortunately he was sick from a cold or the flu and he felt lousy, but still he gave us 5 hours of his time as we got the full tour of MATASA. We also had the chance to smoke his Vintage and the Cubano Limitado lines. These are two excellent smokes and the Cubano Limitado has now become one of my favorite smokes. It is medium yet complex with a great finish. (There won’t be many details here because this information will be in a future magazine issue and I don’t wanna scoop myself.)
After our time at MATASA, we went over to La Aurora to visit Jose and Guerillmo. Things are very busy for them these days. They separated from Philip Morris which had owned a portion of Leon Jimenes and for whom they made cigarettes. The separation was announced in November but actually happened in January. Their new smoking room was filled with software types working out all the systems and dividing the cigarette operations from the rest. (Or something more technical). Anyway, Jose and Guerillmo told us they are looking to move the factory in the coming months…the cigarette operations will stay where they are and they will consolidate the cigar factory into one campus of several buildings about 10 minutes away.
Around 7pm we went to dinner at a little restaurant which had terrific mufungo. (We had gone last year but they were out of it now we know why it is one of the best on the island.)
Monday night the rest of our group arrived (Joe Phillips, David Catsoris, Rick Baledlli and Trey Harris). We spent some time in the casino before having a few cocktails where we met with Rick from General Cigar. He is studying under Benji Menendez so he can represent the product nationwide. Rick is a great guy and promised us a box of cigars the next night. (Amazing what buying a guy a drink can do.)
Jose picked us up at 7:30 and we headed over to the factory. Since there were six of us, we went to the old smoking room upstairs where we quickly filled it with volumes of smoke. Jose had told us not to smoke anything before getting to the factory. We began with one of several test blends….we do hope these come out but can’t say much about them. While we enjoyed our first of many smokes of the day, we also went over our test from headmaster Blanco. Jose has been banging his head against the wall trying to educate us unwashed masses. He has been trying to get us to be able to identify different cigars and wrappers. In the fall he sent us a selection of smokes to identify. We failed miserably. Let’s put it this way, the best score was 30% right. But Jose is evil. One of the cigars, which I got correct, was a Cuban but with a wrapper so light it looked Connecticut ( it wasn’t). Earlier in the year when we first tried this, he did re-wrap a cuban so I have learned to expect anything from him. Anyway, it made for good laughs as Jose kept telling us what the cigars were and how lousy we did. He enjoys tormenting us this way and we like learning, though we are slow learners.
Our tour of the factory was impressive as always. We love the barrel area where tobacco for the preferidos is aged in rum barrels…..ah the smells!! We had lunch at the La Aurora cafeteria with Jose and Guerillmo and we ate what all the workers get…this day it was a fish and lasagna for the main courses. Delicious. In the afternoon, we sampled another cigar which when they have the blend right will be a super premium stick. It looked gorgeous….I cannot report the taste because mine was still too wet ( being only a day old. Thought everyone else loved it.)
Around 4 we left La Aurora so Jose could finally get some work done and we headed to the hotel pool where we were joined by Rick from General. He brought us a box of Partagas Black. We all lit up and were enjoying our sticks when Rob had a plug in his so he clipped a bit more off the end. When he did the black wrapper fell off revealing a very nice silky wrapper underneath. And then under that was a binder. Ut Oh…double wrapped. THAT explains the taste. Rick had no idea about the double wrapper but was going to lunch with Daniel Nunez the next day…we couldn’t wait to hear about that.
Wednesday we went to the fields. Guerillmo and Jose had been saying that last years crop was fantastic and we agreed having seen it last year. When we asked about this year’s crop….they simply said wait til you see it. Well it looked beautiful. The DR used to have only one growing season, but now they are doing two so they have tobacco year round. This is similar to Cuba. La Aurora’s agronomist was out in the fields with us and gave us a very detailed explanation of what was going on and the progress they have made agriculturally. (I will put up more from the fields when I get the time).
We made it back to the factory for more smokes and lunch then it was onto the rolling tables. We were to roll 5 cigars. Mine looked like crap, but they weren’t the worst. Of course Trey and I did not have much help because Magdelano – the roller we have come to know from his trips to Dallas—figured we were ok and left us alone. But he did bring in some nice corojo wrapper for us to use ( and the smokes were very tasty – yes I smoked a Don Paco while I was there, the remaining 4 I am going to age.)
We had dinner with Jose one last time and expressed our heartfelt gratitude for all of the sharing La Aurora has done with their knowledge and the kindness of shepherding us around. They have some terrific smokes coming out this year…but we can’t talk about them yet.
We went back to the hotel and caught up with Rick who brought some smokes from Daniel to see if we could say what they were. 2 were Partagas Spanish Rosados, but they did not have the traditional reddish hue…they were chocolate brown. (From Daniel’s private humidor.) It took us a bit but we did guess them. They are delicious but I think the extra time really brought out the flavors. Mine was a Bolivar. I thought it might be but I had believed all the Bolivars were made in Honduras. Trey got it right because he had met a Bolivar rep a week before. I did guess the wrapper being Nicaraguan Ligero. As for the Partagas Black, Daniel was surprised that this was brought up and he told Rick it was not a double wrapper but double binder. Either way it ads to the taste.
We drove down to Santo Domingo for a day of rest and pool time…saw the colonial city and relaxed before flying back to cold Dallas. All in all it was a blast thought all of us realize how little we still know. We are just going to keep trying to learn.
