The KC/DW Review Series

[King Catfish]

Today I decided to review the Gurkha Louis XIII, sent from the generous DeeDubya. This was the first “flavored” cigar I have tried.

I presume this is a cigar more suited to the evening and accompanied by a glass of Cognac, but one only lives once; I had it after a pasta lunch with a glass of Coke. The cigar sports a Connecticut wrapper over Dominican binder and filler tobacco.

It is a Churchill-sized cigar that comes in a glass tube sealed with a plastic cork covered with a bronze-colored wax. Immediately upon pulling the little tape strip that cut the wax, I was greeted with a sweet, candy-like smell which of course must be from the cognac. I pulled the cork and smelled the cigar, which did not smell as strongly as that first whiff implied it would. It did smell lovely and brandy-sweet, and this aroma, although not strong or cloying, seemed to fill the room a bit. The cigar wore a red band identical to that of the Master Select Series.



The Connecticut wrapper was a medium to light brown and fine with very minimal veins. Construction was good, firm with no lumps or irregularities. The cigar felt solid in the hand but not heavy. There was a small crack in the wrapper near the cap and a couple of tiny cracks at the foot, as if the cigar had suffered a bit in transit. The latter disappeared (burned away) after the first few puffs, and the crack near the cap never presented any problems or grew in any way until I took the band off in the last third.

The first third started very mild, with the sweet Cognac taste present but more subdued than was the aroma. There was perhaps a bit of woodiness at the start. Smoke volume started respectably and stayed solid. The aftertaste seemed to me to imitate pretty well the taste one’s mouth would be experiencing a minute or so after a sip of brandy or cognac. Thus far, I was beginning to feel as if this cigar was much too mild for me; however, if it were stronger, it might overpower the cognac taste, so I understood why it would be this mild. The mostly white ash fell off after about an inch and a half, revealing a cone-shaped coal. The burn was even with a very minor bit of tunneling that resolved itself without any assistance. The burn remained perfectly even throughout the rest of the cigar.

In the second third, the woody flavor was starting to assert itself a bit, and a nuttiness was rising; these complimented the cognac taste rather than competed with it. The aftertaste was starting to increase in prominence (Becoming almost creamy? Hard to describe), and the cigar as a whole was showing itself to be very civilized on the tongue and throat.

In the first third I was starting to feel as if the cigar was going to turn out a bit one-dimensional, but the second third gave the lie to that. Interestingly, as the drawn smoke’s flavor was becoming more complex, so was the aftertaste: cognac/sweet brandy only at first, then an unexpected creaminess. In the middle of the second third it really started to come out of its shell.

In the final third the crack in the wrapper expanded after I took off the band, which was unfortunate but inevitable, I think. Also, the cognac sweetness had faded into the distance by the time the last third was well underway. The final third completed the evolution from a candy-sweet, one-dimensional but pleasant stick to its final stop… which tasted exactly like a Master Select that had been locked up with an open bottle of cognac for a long time… which, I think, was the intent of the makers, and thus a smashing success in that respect. I have always expected flavored cigars to be overpowering and obnoxious (just an assumption; I have never had one before), but this cigar is well done, and avoids overpowering the palate.

18.95 (x5) = 94.75, losing half a point for the weak start, a full point for construction issues, and a quarter point for fading of flavor at the end for a final score of 93. This cigar is too expensive for a regular smoke, but I would be willing to procure myself some for special occasions. It certainly was a unique smoking experience. Many thanks to DeeDubya.