E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019

By Tony Casas | March 2, 2020

No more family gatherings, and no more cold. Time to remove my slacker hat and get down with a review. This week I take a look at E.P. Carrillo’s Limited Edition Inch 2019 paired with a can of Fair States Part 1 S’mores pastry stout.

The Good Stuff:

By now, you should all be familiar with master blender Ernesto Perez-Carrillo and his works. Over the past few years Carrillo has produced quite a few different versions of the Inch, a cigar blended with a larger ring gauge in mind, 60+ to be exact.

Fast forward to 2019 and E.P. Carrillo showcased the first Limited Edition addition to the Inch portfolio which made its debut at the 2019 IPCPR show in Las Vegas.

Rolled at the Tabacalera La Alianza in Santiago, Dominican Republic the beefy cigar contains a blend of U.S. grown Connecticut Habano over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The cigar comes in a single 6 1/8 x 64 format which come packaged in boxes of 10. There are only 2,000 boxes produced and the Inch Limited Edition 2019 runs $15 per stick. We got ours over from our friends at Fox Cigar Bar who have them in stock now with free shipping, no minimum.

• Size: 6 1/8 x 64
• Wrapper: Connecticut Habano
• Binder: Nicaraguan
• Filler: Nicaraguan
• Body: Medium
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $15
• Pairing: Fair State Part:1 (Imperial Stout 13% ABV)

Prelight:

The E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 starts out with a very deep, rich, reddish brown wrapper which is extremely consistent in color. The wrapper’s texture carries a good amount of gritty tooth along with a whole ton of oils coating the cigar’s body. There are a few larger veins running through the cigar’s massive body along with a good amount of natural webbing in the tobacco leaf. The cigar is capped off with a round, double wrapped cap before being dressed with a silver and red version of the Inch band, and a dark blue, silver, and red foot band with the E.P. Carrillo crest along with the words “Limited Edition 2019” embossed across the front.

The wrapper on the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 gives off only a faint aroma of cedar while the foot of the cigar is a different story boasting bold scents of earth, musk, and natural tobacco. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces a ton of deep oak, earth, and musk flavors.

First Third:

The E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 starts out with a nice little pepper punch that last only the first few puffs before fading away allowing the cigar to showcase some bold dark chocolate flavors over oak, cinnamon, musk, black cherry, and mossy/earth. The draw is a bit loose at first which I expected with such a large ring gauge, but after the first four or five draws, when the huge ass foot is completely lit and burning freely then the cigar really comes alive pumping out a whole mess of smoke after each little puff. The burn line is smooth except for one massive area where it looks like the filler wasn’t packed properly resulting in the wrapper burning faster than it should. Two notes here, this didn’t happen on any of the other cigars from the same box I smoked, and once I got past that point the burn was on point. But I thought it was worth mentioning since I can see the result in the following picture.

Second Third:

Into the seance third of the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 and the flavors have began to mellow out a bit. As they balance out and come together the dark chocolate is still leading the charge backed by pecan, cinnamon and musk with light notes of earthiness and oak. I’m really enjoying the flavor profile here and the retrohale seems to really bring that oak to the forefront of the experience. The burn line is now running much more smoothly without any help from my torch as I close out the second third with only a minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

Wow, both the body and strength have really ramped up in the final third of the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019. The dark chocolate and oak are in the front backed by bold notes of cinnamon and musk along with minor notes of pecan and earthiness. I’m impressed with how often this cigar has changed up. It took me two hours to smoke it down to the nub and I experience no harshness nor extended heat. It did leave me with a little more of a nicotine kick than I expected though.

One thing to note, and maybe its just me, but with a cigar with such a wide ring gauge I found it easier to accidentally inhale the cigar. This may just be my dumb throat but I figured it was worth noting.

Overview:

Just about anything Ernesto Perez-Carrillo touches is gold, and the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 is no exception. All honesty here, I am not a fan of large ring gauged cigars, and I am still not. But there are certain exceptions to that rule and most of the Inch series seem to test that. The flavors were great, and bold since this cigar was blended with the larger ring gauge in mind. Not to mention I really enjoyed the flavor profile. Outside of the first half inch the cigar burned like a dream and outside of the occasional inhalation mistake the draw was perfect. This is very limited, and if you like larger ring gauged cigars, or are interesting in trying them out its a perfect place to start, until they are gone.

Pairing:

Fair State Part:1 is the first part of the pastry stout series. This version is a 13% ABV S’mores inspired as its brewed with marshmallows, graham crackers, cacao nubs, vanilla and honey. The beer starts with a very heavy molasses sweetness with bold notes of honey and cocoa backed by cinnamon, malt, and hints of vanilla with a very heavy and sticky mouthfeel before finishing with more cocoa and honey. It’s interesting just how bold the honey is in this beer. The similarities with the E.P. Carrillo Inch Limited Edition 2019 are evident as the cocoa, cinnamon and sweetness paired up perfectly with the cigar.