Well, this review is much delayed.  I had the chance to smoke one of these new PL Picadores back in early February.  This was sort of both a celebratory and a remembrance smoke – celebratory in that it was after graduation from my “coach officer” course, and remembrance in that it was also just after the one-year anniversary of my Dad’s passing.  So, time to enjoy a new release cigar then.

These are beautiful cigars.  A nice format (Hermosos No. 4 – a slightly thinner and longer robusto-range format), pleasing 25-stick dress-box packaging, and a great brand/blend for aging.  PL are known for their caramel-and-spiced-tobacco tinged profile that just excels at the 5-year-plus mark.  These also have an interesting looking red-white-and-gold band, a noticable but tasteful difference in the band design from the standard and long-lasting dark-gold-with-white-text band that PL has sported for years.

Reviewed Cigar:  Por Larranaga Picadores

Box Date:  Jun 2014

Factory / Manufacture Code:  PUO

Packaging:  25-count dress box

Price per cigar:  $20.56 CAD each (LCDH Toronto)

Length:  5″, or 127 mm

Ring Gauge: 48

Format:  Hermosos No. 4 / Corona extra

Weight:  Did not weigh this particular stick

Construction/Appearance & Pre-Light:  This cigar was constructed very nicely.  Darker leather-toned wrapper, mild crinkling from the bunching underneath, a nice mild oily sheen to the wrapper, and a very pleasantly bunched foot.  The colour differences of the various filler tobaccos were quite noticable at the foot as well, looking like a cigar’s variant of the yin-and-yang symbol.

Fairly flat headed cigar; nice well-defined triple cap.  Construction feel was quite nice.  A pleasant firmness, no overly hard or soft spots.  Everything seemed just right in the construction of this stick.

After a cut and at cold, very nice.  Mild caramel tinges at cold, some leather, and a sweet almost clove spiciness.

Opening Impressions:  Quite nice, but definitely closed in.  Decent amounts of smoke.  Slightly rooty/woody tinge on the tongue (almost like anise).  Rich toasted tobacco, sweet spices (nutmeg, cloves).

First Third:  Into the first third, I got hits of burnt brown sugar, fading in an out to a caramel tinge.  Very faint.  Definitely getting youthful / slightly sour tones already.  Trying to smoke this as slowly and patiently as possible.

Second Third:  Into the second third, a lot of the same.  Not much happening here.

Final Third:  Into the final third, getting hints of coffee and leather.  Some smokey cedar wood coming into play.  Lots of the caramel tinge fading in and out, but surrounded by a tangy youthful tone.

Finishing Comments / Overall Impression:  This cigar, this blend, will be great down the line if this cigar is any representation of what’s to come.  At this young of a stage, it shows that PL profile there, even if it’s only waiting in the wings.  I was actually expecting a bit worse for these, but I’m pleasantly surprised to see how tame these are currently (even though the blend is definitely restrained right now).  I’m planning to smoke a few more samples in Havana next week if I can, and take it from there.

To me, with a 4-6 year wait time to allow these to fully mature and sit well, I’d love to see these become as amazing as PLPC’s do with that level of age on them.  I’m very excited for these in the future – probably just going to pick up a couple of boxes and see how things progress.

Final Score:  88

Total Smoking Time:  1 hour and 35 minutes

Date & Time Smoked:  February 5th, 2015; lit up at 9:35 pm, done at 11:10 pm

Paired Beverage:  Havana Club Anejo 7 Anos and Coke

Last Meal:  Club sandwich and fries, 1:00 pm

Smoking Conditions:  Fairly chilly in a buddy’s garage, 0 Celsius inside the garage, 54% RH (not great temps or conditions for smoking, but a bit better in than out, at -16 Celsius outside)

Thanks for reading my review.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers all.