Matilde Renacer Corona

By Tony Casas | October 13, 2014

The Matilde Renacer has been in my sights for a while now, and I finally had time in my crazy schedule to sit down and give this cigar the attention it deserves.

The Good Stuff:

Jose Seijas is no stranger to the cigar world. Jose played the role of Vice President and General Manager of the Tabacalera de Garcia factory in La Romana, Dominican Republic for over 30 years under Altadis U.S.A.. He then retired from the company in 2012 and spent a few years working at La Flor Dominican with Little Gomez producing a selection of their cigars at his factory in La Romana before Jose announced his brand, Matilde cigars during the 2013 IPCPR show. It’s natural for a branded headed by someone of his stature to make waves, and Matilde has. From this, the Renacer was born. The Renacer features a Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, a Dominican binder, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. The Renacer is created in a unique way featuring only a single cut to the wrapper leaf, leaving much of the tobaccos veiny characteristics in tact. The Renacer is available now and comes in 4 sizes: the Corona (5.5 x 44), The Toro Bravo (6.5 x 54), The Robusto (5.25 x 54), and the Grande (6 x 60). All four sizes come packaged in boxes of 20 and range from $7.50 to $9.00 a cigar.

Size: 5.5 x 44
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic and Nicaraguan
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium
Price: $7.50
Pairing: Sound Brewery Dubbel Entendre (8.8% ABV Belgian Dubbel)

Prelight:

The Matilde Renacer starts out with this beautiful, shiny, oily wrapper. The light just glistens off of the thick oils found throughout the body of the cigar. The wrapper is silky smooth with a ton of leaf webbing, and smaller sized veins running the length of the cigar’s slender body. The wrapper itself is a consistent medium brown with nice orange tints. The wrapper tobacco is laid perfectly hiding the seams in the tobacco leaf. The Renacer is capped off with a perfectly round, seamless triple cap. The Renacer carries a brown, white and gold band featuring Matilde’s logo in metallic gold in front, and the words “Matilde” printed on each side.

Matilde’s Renacer is incredibly pungent in aroma. I can smell the cigar as it rests in my ashtray. The wrapper gives off a very strong barnyard/grassy aroma while the foot of the cigar is more neutral with some soft spice, tobacco, and cedar scents. The cap cup very clean, and like butter using my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw was very grassy and oaty with soft hints of cedar and spice.

First Smoke:

The first few puffs on Matilde’s Renacer showcase some very soft pepper which quickly faded to let the cedar, dirt, grassy and earthy flavors in which all danced with the more natural tobacco flavors showcased in the cigar. The draw is a bit tight, but not too bad while the burnline is absolutely flawless sporting a razor sharp burnline and a probably one of the prettiest ashes I have ever seen. Bright white in color, super compact, and dead even. It looks like a stream of cement coming off my cigar. The ash held on for an inch before falling with a “clunk” into my ashtray.

Halfway There:

The draw has really opened up into the second third of the Matilde Renacer, and with it, the flavors as well. The cigar is now pumping out some strong cedar and spice notes wrapped around some interesting floral and grass flavors and a bit of honey and molasses. The retrohale is incredibly smooth coating my nasal passage with some interesting coffee notes that before that, weren’t evident in the smoking experience. The burnline is still dead even and the ash is beautiful. I am feeling absolutely no nicotine as I close out the second third.

Finish:

The final third in the Matilde Renacer is where the cigar really showcases what its all about. The spice and cedar have elevated to a whole new level while lots of sweetness, molasses has swept in finishing with some creamy coffee and soft floral flavors. The strength of the cigar has increased significantly as well and is now in the medium/full realm. The Renacer took me and hour and a half to take down and I experience absolutely no harshness at all. I was impressed with how well this cigar developed and in the end, had a hard time putting it down. It left me with absolutely no nicotine kick at all.

Overview:

This is a little cigar with a whole lot of personality. The flavor profile is pretty different, but a breath a fresh air showcasing some great floral and sweetness combined with some nice spice, and natural flavors which all developed at the right moments to keep my on my toes. Matilde’s Renacer is one of the better Dominican-rich cigars that I have smoked in a long time. The cigar delivers a super-premium experience and a value-premium price. This is a box worthy purchase for sure. I smoked a 3 of the four sizes (Robusto, Toro, and Corona) and lean towards the corona out of the three. It delivered a more heavy bodied experience than the other 2.

Pairing:

I took a bit of a gamble on this pairing, but it turned out great. This beer isn’t one I’ve actually had before. I mean, c’mon, I drink plenty of the style but I have yet to see any Sound Brewery beer in these parts. Lucky for me, I have friends and high placed and Jeff (yes, the Jeff who’s been kicking out guest reviews left and right) sent this bottle my way. After smoking my first Renacer I knew I wanted to pair it with a Belgian style Abbey. When I opened my beer closet this one stood out to me so I took a risk and paired it up. Sound Brewery is based out of Washington, and the Dubbel Entendre Belgian Style Dubbel comes in at 8.8% ABV. Right off the bat, the Dubbel Entendre leads with a whole mess of sweetness, honey, and banana with a very light mouthfeel as it finishes rather crisp with lots of fruit and caramel notes with just a hint of spice. I loved the way all the fruit and sweetness meshed in with the more organic flavors in the Renacer creating a wonderful new level to the experience while the spice and caramel married in with the already existent flavors in the cigar. This cigar would go great with some afternoon coffee, any Belgian ale, or a nice sweet bourbon.