La Flor Dominicana Litto Gomez Diez 2009

Keeping with the habit, here I am late on another review. I had a hell of a weekend and just needed a bit of time to catch up before bringing you the review of La Flor Dominicana’s Litto Gomez Diez 2009.

The Good Stuff: The Litto Gomez line is poperly named after their creator (Litto Gomez Diez), and were released in 2004 to celebrate La Flor Dominicana’s 10th anniversary. Going against much speculation the Litto Gomez is one of the very few 100% dominican blended cigars due to finding a usable binder, filler, and wrapper is very difficult in the Dominican region. Litto Gomez joins the ranks of few cigars that have been able to pull this feat off correctly such as, Arturo Fuente Opus X and La Aurora 100 anos. This particular stick was sent over to me by our friends at Cigars Direct. The vitola that I will be reviewing today will be the Cubano, one of the 5 vitolas made for this blend.

Size: 5 x 50  –  Wrapper: Dominican  –  Binder/Filler: Dominican  –  Body: Full

Prelight: The Litto Gomez sports a thick, and semi hard wrapper. The wrapper itself is a consistent tan, with almost an orange hue to it topped off with a beautiful rounded triple cap. There is only one major vein running 90% of the length of the body of the cigar.  As far as soft spots go the Litto Gomez is free of softness, and any other major construction flaws.  The Litto Gomez is banded by a beautiful maroon and gold embossed band with the words “Litto Gomez Diez” and his initials along with  “Dominican Puro – 2009”. It’s a gorgeous band. The wrapper gives off a nice, sweet, birch wood scent with hints of pepper and cocoa. The foot of the cigar gives off an almost straight up cocoa aroma with a bit of nuts mixed in.  The Litto Gomez clipped just nicely with my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw through some surprising flavors my way. A cinnamon – bread, very doughy and wheaty, with cocoa and raw tobacco aftertastes.

First Smoke: The Litto Gomez starts off with a massive blast of pepper before mellowing out to a smooth, creamy, woodsy taste with a ton of sweet tobacco aftertaste along with just enough pepper to tickle my lips, tongue, and back of the throat.  The draw is a bit tight, but once I get it going it produces quite a lasting amount of thick brownish, blue smoke. The Litto Gomez give off an incredible amount of stationary smoke, luckily in this case its very pleasant smelling with notes of sweet tobacco and even an almost perfume-like afterthought. The burline is a bit thicker than I anticipated, and there are about two little waves that seem to have a mind of their own. The ash produced by the Litto Gomez is a bit flaky, but a brilliant white with noticeable dark grey spots. The ash only lasted a little over an inch before giving way on my patio.

Halfway There: Huge turn of events going into the second third of the Litto Gomez. The draw opened up, the flavors became much more intense, the burn corrected itself, and the burnline became razor sharp. I can’t remember the last time I smoked a cigar with such low maintenance. The most pleasant change-up was the draw. The Litto Gomez is now producing this massive, lingering, thick cloud of angry looking smoke. The flavor became a much more pronounced, and robust woodsy flavor with spicy undertones. The retrohale really helped pull the spice notes out without burning a hole through my nasal passage. Surprisingly I am already starting to get a heck of a nicotine kick off this cigar. Don’t let the smoothness fool you, this is a strong smoke.

Finish: Ahh yes, the infamous Nicotine kick I haven’t experienced lately. Although I enjoy stronger cigars, this one was a little overbearing and left me slightly light headed. Along with the nicotine kick came a bit of harshness. Nothing too bad, but it is apparent . The flavors remained consistent with the second third with wood being the dominant flavor, backed by spice, and tobacco. I even got a bit of a chalkiness into the final inch. The burn stayed impressive, correcting itself and burning clean, thin, and even all the way through.

Overview: Boy was this a dry smoke. Make sure you have something to drink when taking on the Litto Gomez. In my opinion, this stick built me up, but left me hanging, wanting something more. I think a lot of this was due to how dry, and harsh the cigar ended. The flavors were great, burn was great, but overall experience was par at best. I would totally recommend picking up a few of these if you stumble across them, but hesitate saying they are box-worthy.

Pairing: The Litto Gomez was paired with some St. Clair Vineyards  Port. This port is an award winning, dark red with in your face flavors of plum, black current, and pepper. The port finishes off warm with hints of nutmeg, cinnamon, raspberry, and black cherry. It was an excellent pairing and I think Daniel will be proud of me, choosing wine over beer on this one. If I was to pair this with a beer, I think I would choose something really hoppy, such as an IPA, or a Trippel. The strong woodsy flavor needs a complimenting strong component to knock it back down to earth.