Hoyo de Monterrey Regalos - LE 2007

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

cigar_ireland_regalos

Four Hoyo de Monterrey Regalos have been sitting on the bottom of my humidor a little over a year now. The first of the five was smoked late in 2007 and did not impress me as it was still too young. With the winter sun slightly breaking the January cold, I decided to put on my smoking jacket - formerly used as a skiing jacket - and try one of these babies in the garden.

hoyo_monterrey_regalos

The Regalos, the fourth limited edition vitola of the brand, is a corona extra with a ring gauge of 46. It is presented in an unvarnished slide lid box of 25 cigars in two layers. As all the limitadas of 2007 is made of tobacco aged for two years.

The first thing that strikes your attention is the wrapper. Dark brown, smooth to touch, with slight changes in the shade, feeling somehow softer and more moist than most Edicion Limitada cigar. It is quite tightly rolled and plenty of aromas, like chocolate and pepper, are present.

Lighting up this cigar brings no surprises. Good initial draw, medium bodied, intense wood and coffee flavour and lots of pepper. However, smoking through the first third, the draw becomes tight and the burn quite uneven. The cigar burns slowly and does not deliver decent amount of smoke.

On the second third, the draw opens up slightly but the burn is still slow and uneven. It seems that higher humidity between 68% and 70% (where I kept it), does not benefit it . The flavours of coffee, pepper and chocolate are still present and slightly more intense.

In the third part, the cigar draws and smokes very well. Creamy, peppery, woody, nutty, great draw and even burn, you are just left there wondering why it couldnt have been like that all the way through!

Even though it’s now more than one year old, this cigar should be given more time. Stored in no more than 67-68% humidity, this cigar has lots of potential. The average experience of the first half of the cigar will not put me off them. I will be looking forward to try these again sometime next year and hopefully they will score better.