Perdomo Reserve Champagne Noir

Today’s cigar has been sort of a white whale for me and it’s funny because this cigar is pretty widely available. I’m not really sure why but I just wasn’t able to secure one to send north of the border. The reason why I was excited to try it was because I really enjoyed the Perdomo 10th Anniversary Champagne cigar lineup, which was a very tasty Connecticut cigar. To a Maduro version of it sounded very appealing to me.

The Perdomo Reserve Champagne Noir comes packed with quality Nicaraguan tobacco and wrapped with a Cuban-seed maduro wrapper that’s been aged for at least 14 months followed by an extra 6 months in bourbon barrels. How could you say no to a combination like that??? This Nicaraguan puro sounds super appealing on paper and I hope it translates to awesome when I light it up as well.

One thing to mention about the blend here is that it contains pretty much the exact same filler and binder as the 10th Anniversary Champagne cigar. The difference is of course the dark maduro wrapper it comes with. So you can see why I was excited to give this blend a try!

As I’ve mentioned before, Perdomo has a pretty big reputation to maintain with me. I’ve always had good luck with both construction and flavors when it comes to their sticks so I expect all of their sticks to live up to that same expectation. Now to be honest, the 10th Anniversary Maduro line up wasn’t as much of a success for me as the Champagne was so I’m really hoping the Champagne Noir rounds out the Reserve lines up with a solid and tasty maduro!

Cigar: Perdomo Reserve Champagne Noir
Drink: The Macallan Select Oak Scotch
Vitola: Epicure (6 x 54)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $5.60
Burn Time: 2.5 hours

Construction:
• A smooth and silky wrapper adorns the Champagne Noir, with a soft touch and only a few minor veins
• The wrapper has the color of milk chocolate and is fairly consistent from end to end
• The single cap is cleanly applied and has an elegant touch to it
• The foot appears mostly well packed except for one small area that has a little bit of a gap in it
• The whole cigar has a consistent squeeze and spring to it
• Another great sign of Perdomo quality, the band slid off with almost no effort and absolutely no damage to the wrapper at all

Burn:
• The toasting was a little odd, even though it looked lit up, only the edges seemed to catch. But after one quick draw the whole foot was glowing nicely
• Burn has been razor sharp right from the start
• I can’t believe how slow this cigar is burning, it’s crazy
• As I burn through the halfway mark, I’ve had nothing but razor sharp and slow burning, fantastic quality here!
• Did I mention how slow this is burning? I’m going to easily pass 2 hours here!

Smoke & Ash:
• Tons of smoke right from the first draw, fills the air with a fluffy whiteness
• Even the resting smoke is pretty abundant with lots of cedar notes in the air
• The first ash stayed nice and strong with just a bit of flaking
• It lasted past 1 inch and tapped off cleanly into the ashtray
• The full volume of smoke continues right through the whole first half
• Ash is staying nice and clean and strong and easily passing the 1 inch mark every time

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper has a mostly barnyard/hay type of aroma to it
• The foot brings an interesting fruity tartness along side some baking spices, an interesting combination there
• The pre-light draw has a freshness to it, almost like inhaling mint, along with some sweet cedar and a touch of spices
• The initial draw has a slight pepper kick and some hefty cedar to back it up
• The pepper subsided a little and I’m getting some nice cedar and coffee flavors
• The coffee is making nice full flavored appearance in the middle here
• The retrohale has a nice pepper bite to it, but the finish is smooth cedar and coffee
• The coffee is developing into a nice roasted espresso flavor and adding to it some nice roasted almond flavors
• The flavor started off near medium but it’s easy to see it’s at the border of full now but seems to be holding nicely there
• The whole experience has a sort of creamy undertone to it as well
• The roasted espresso and almond flavors stuck through the the end without any harshness at all

Final Thoughts:
Well it’s easy to see that this cigar did not disappointment at all. There were some hints of the Connecticut version in here but the maduro wrapper definitely brought a different experience to the Perdomo Reserve Champagne Noir. The roasted espresso and almond flavors really brought it home nicely in the end and the burn and construction was top quality right through to the end. The pace at which this cigar burned was incredibly slow! Definitely got my money’s worth with the slow burn on these. This is another winner in Perdomo’s inventory for me, give them a try and let us know what you think!

Pairings:
I had first cracked this bottle the week before the wedding and it was and good, so I had been saving it for a special occasion. So this weekend we ended up buying a house so I thought that’s a damn good reason to finish off the last bit of this Macallan Select Oak. It’s so darn smooth that you definitely don’t need ice cubes to drink this one. A touch of smoke, a touch of peat and lots of caramel and fruity notes. Darn good if you like some good ol fashion Scotch! Great pairing for any full bodied cigar and even though the Champagne Noir wasn’t too full bodied, it still complimented the coffee and cedar notes well. A nice stout or strong coffee would have been great here as well.