Partagas Serie D No. 4 Reserva (Cuba)

This was a great friggin smoke.

An incredibly difficult cigar to find, even when it was released in 2005, there were only 5,000 boxes (100,000 cigars) total produced for the entire world market. Manufactured with tobacco leaves specially selected from the 2000 harvest and aged for three years prior to being rolled, the cigars came in a small box (20 cigars to a box) that looked like a humidor. The cigars have the normal (kick ass) red Serie D band, but just below is a black and silver band reading "Reserva."

• Country of Origin: Cuba
• Wrapper: Cuba
• Binder: Cuba
• Filler: Cuba
• Size: 4.8 Inches (Robusto)
• Ring Gauge: 50
• Est. Price: $50.00 or more (if you can find them)

I have to say, I LOVE the Robusto size...it is almost like the perfect sized cigar to me...not to short, not too long, and not too much RG...This was no exception, in fact, it was Perfectly constructed...The stick was fairly spongy when squeezed, and the wrapper is a nice golden brown color that smelled of tobacco and just a bit of cinnamon...

After punching it and taking a prelight draw, there were strong flavors of Oak and Spice.

It lit very easily, and I immediately tasted a large amount of Spice...Not pepper, but Spice (the difference to me in a cigar is that spice makes the mouth tingle, while pepper is more of a scent + taste, if that makes any sense)...Also present was the always easy to identify Cuban Sweetness, kind of a creamy, earthy sweet flavor...

In the second third of the cigar, the spice leveled off (but was still very present), and the the dominant flavor was a great combination of Sweetness and Oak, with a little bit of what tasted like roasted nuts...

The Final third was quite a bit more Reserved (get it? Reserved?) then the first two...the spice almost disappeared, the cigar mellowed out quite bit, and the Oak and sweetness were the main flavors, with also just a touch of chocolate...it was VERY nice to taste after all the spice, and it was extremely enjoyable to the end...

Final Notes:

• This is a cigar with alot of spice, but it never overwhelmed the other flavors that were present...in fact, it actually made them quite a bit more enjoyable, since I could taste the contrasts between them...What I would categorize as one of the smoothest and most complex smokes I have smoked till now...
• Interestingly, the ash did not stay on longer then about half an inch the entire stick...
• The Burn and Draw were perfect for the entire stick.
• Smoking time was exactly 1 hour and 36 minutes

The Bottom Line: This is a cigar that I will remember for a long time...The wonderful combination of Spice and Sweetness is what quite a few cigars try and accomplish, and usually fail at...I had a heck of a time tracking them down, but I managed to get 7 of them, and I will be waiting for the right time to smoke the rest of them...Basically, this stick was worth every penny I paid for it, and that is saying alot.

Final Score: 95

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