Foundation Cigar Company Güegüense The Wise Man Maduro

By Tony Casas | October 8, 2017

As the weather keeps on cooling down I can’t help but spend more and more time outside. This weekend I have a Foundation Cigar Company Wise Man Maduro and a bottle of They Bruery’s Poterie keeping me company.

The Good Stuff:

The “El Güegüense” or “The Wise Man” was the first release we saw from Nick Melillo after his departure from Drew Estate. The Wise Man, along with Foundation Cigar Company took the cigar industry by storm and has been featured in most of the top 10 lists across the country since they have made their debut. Now in 2017, the company comes full circle with a Maduro  extension to the Wise Man line.

“This cigar is a tribute to Nicaragua, its culture, people, land and the bridge between the old world traditions and the new.” Says Melillo “We’ve enjoyed a lot of success with El Güegüense, and it is an honor for people to recognize a project that personally means so much to me.” says Melillo. “I was looking to create a line extension with a whole different level of complexity and the San Andrès wrapper brings just that.”

The Wise Man Maduro features a Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan Corojo 99 Jalapa binder, and Nicaraguan fillers. The cigar will be packaged in boxes of 25 and offered in five familiar sizes: The Corona Gorda (5 1/8 x 46), the Robusto (5 1/2 x 50), the Toro Huaco (6 x 56), The Torpedo (6 1/4 x 52), and the Churchill (7 x 48) which will run between $9.90 and $12 a stick. I purchased a handful of these over from our good friends at Smoke Inn.

Size: 5 1/8 x 46
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Corojo 99 Jalapa
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Fulll
Price: $9.90
Pairing: The Bruery Poterie (Scotch Ale 16.8% ABV)

Prelight:

The Wise Man starts out with a beautiful consistent, deep, dark brown wrapper. There are a few areas around the natural webbing in the tobacco leaf that appear a shade darker. The wrapper’s texture is extremely toothy and gritty with only a slight amount of oils and almost no noticeable veins. The cigar as a whole is packed pretty tightly with no soft spots while the wrapper itself feels very dense and stable. The wrapper is laid seamlessly over itself leading up to the cigar’s round triple-wrapped cap. The cigar is polished off with a red version of the Wise Man wrapper with the cigar’s crest on the front, “The Wise Man”, “El Güegüense”, and “Esteli, Nicaragua” printed on it.

The wrapper on the Wise Man Maduro gives off nothing much outside of a few spice notes, and natural tobacco while the foot of the cigar is much more potent releasing a ton of spice, earthiness, sweetness, and natural tobacco. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces a tart mixture of berry, cocoa, and natural tobacco flavors.

First Third:

The Wise Man Maduro starts out with very little pepper which faded after the first puff or two. The leading flavor is dark chocolate backed by some great tartness, caramel, berry, leather, spice, and sweetness. The draw is perfect as I get a mouthful of thick white smoke with each and every puff. The burn line is dead even and razor thin leaving behind a very tightly compacted trail of white and dark gray ash which held on for an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Wise Man Maduro and so far this has been the epitome of a solid, traditional style Maduro cigar. The main flavor is still dark chocolate with lots of tartness, caramel, butter, leather, spice, and musk with a good amount of sweetness yet the only real dominant flavor is the chocolate. The retrohale is fantastic and adds an extra layer of spice and pepper to mix. The burn line is still dead even and burning perfectly while I close out the second third with only a very small nicotine kick.

Finish:

Much of the same to report in the final third of the Wise Man and that’s not a bad thing at all. The cigar is still leading with dark chocolate and vanilla backed by caremel, tartness, leather, and musk with a decent amount of sweetness sprinkled in. The cigar took me two hours to take down to the nub and I took it down as far as I could before my fingers started to burn. I experienced no harshness, nor extended heat from the cigar but there was a big resurgence of black pepper at the very end that I could have done without.

Overview:

The Wise Man Maduro is a the perfect example of a classic Maduro done right. Smooth, balanced, not too complex, and just solid all around. Foundation Cigar Company has been kicking out some great cigars and I don’t see them stopping anytime soon. While this cigar would easily find its way into my regular rotation I can’t say I would enjoy it more than I enjoyed the original version which will always hold it’s place in my regular rotation. But this is a box worthy cigar for sure, especially if you’re a Maduro fan.

Pairing:

The Bruery Poterie is a Scotch Ale aged in Bourbon Barrels which comes in at a rocking 16.8% ABV. The word “Poterie” means “Pottery” in French and represents the traditional gift given on an 8th anniversary which is fitting considering this beer was created to celebrate The Bruery’s 8th anniversary last year. The beer leads with salted caramel, apple, chewy sweetness, malt, and cocoa with a very heavy and sticky mouthfeel before finishing with more caramel, cocoa, vanilla, and tartness with a ton of booze. The barrel really comes out as the beer warms. This beer is not for the faint of hearted. That being said, the Wise Man kept this beer at bay and it never once overpowered the cigar which I could see it doing with most cigars out there.