Tom's Cigar Reviews

Rocky Patel Winter Collection

The other day I found an interesting package in the mailbox. Once I saw the return address, I knew what was up. The good people at Duque Cigars decided to send me some cigars. The first one I reached for was the Rocky Patel Winter Collection. Rocky touts this as a full bodied cigar, so I thought it would go nicely with a little Glenfiddich 18 year scotch and water.

About the scotch… This stuff is aged for 18 years in Oloroso sherry and bourbon casks. The flavor is fruity and smooth. A few sips in between draws really helps reset the pallet and bring out the taste of a cigar.

Since I am not a connoisseur of scotch, lets get back to the cigar… Thanks to Barry, the blend is below. Check out what he though of this cigar over at acigarsmoker.com.

Rocky Patel Winter Collection:

Wrapper: Maduro – Pennsylvania

Binder: Ecuador

Filler: Nicaragua

Price: Around $5.00

Pre-smoke/Construction:

This cigar was pretty packed, and only had a couple soft spots when pinching. The dark maduro wrapper looked somewhat rugged, and had a nice oily shine. When sniffing the wrapper and foot, I was reminded of a barnyard. The draw was somewhat stiff, but not bad at all. The burn line required a lot of touchup’s, but got better in the last third. The ash held on for an inch, and stayed strong until tapping it off in the ashtray.

The first third had a pretty smooth, earthy taste. The earthy taste blended well with peppery notes. Although the profile was simple, it was enjoyable.

As I rounded the second third, nice notes of chocolate entered the picture. The pepper and earthy flavors remained throughout this third. As things came to a close, the chocolate increased in intensity.

For the last third, the earthy flavors faded and were hard to pick out. The chocolate notes increased even more, and overtook the flavor profile. Strong nutty flavors would appear and quickly go away. A peppery taste remained on the lips, which was enjoyable.

Conclusion:

This was a good full bodied cigar. It was a slow burner, and left me craving water. All in all, I enjoyed this cigar much more then the Summer Blend. Since production is limited, I would suggest you give this cigar a chance if you run across them.

Submit Article :-
Blogmarks + Digg + Del.icio.us + Feedmarker + Furl + Google Bookmarks + Reddit + Scuttle + Technorati

Posted in: Cigar Reviews, Drinks

Tags: acigarsmoker, cigars, collection, duque, glenfiddich, patel, review, rocky, winter

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cigar Reviews, Drinks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

13 Responses to “Rocky Patel Winter Collection”

Barry - acigarsmoker.com February 9th, 2009 at 12:05 pm

Thanks for the link love.. I got to talk to Rocky for a while on Saturday as he was in NYC at an event. He told me the cigar had a wrapper from Pennsylvania.

Tom February 9th, 2009 at 9:29 pm

Barry – I just corrected the info. Thanks for setting me straight. I have a feeling we will be reviewing a lot of the same cigars for a little while

aaron February 10th, 2009 at 11:12 pm

great review tom,seems like a good cigar. im a pretty big fan of rocky’s stuff. ill prolly pick up a few and give em a try.

Stew February 11th, 2009 at 9:24 am

Tom,

I have been looking for this cigar and can’t seem to find a couple to review. It looks like it’s a nice smoke from reading your review. Question: It regards to power and strenght, is it along the lines of RP Summer blend?

Tom February 11th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

STEW! Glad you stopped by. I was lucky a sponsor sent one to me, otherwise the review wouldn’t have happened. I guess they are really limitied in production.
The summer blend really didn’t impress me. I’d say this smoke is much fuller then the summer blend in terms of strength and body. I think you’d like it.

Tom February 11th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

Aaron – I think they are definatly worth a try. I’m a big RP whore though

Barry - acigarsmoker.com February 14th, 2009 at 6:34 pm

The Winter blend is limited to 4000 boxes.

Looking at the pictures on your review Tom the head of the cigar, kept getting lighter and lighter… I wonder now if the cigars were “dyed”.

Tom February 14th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

Barry- You are one observant mofo! I did not notice that. Makes me wonder if they were dyed…

Sunday Links « A Cigar Smokers Journal February 15th, 2009 at 11:01 am

[...] past week I reviewed the Rocky Patel Winter Blend, and Tom followed suit over at his website, Tom’s Cigars. Based upon our reviews Jerry from The Stogie Review went out and bought a box of these limited [...]

Travis February 15th, 2009 at 2:14 pm

Holly! Barry is right,the cap does get progressively lighter. I would not have noticed that if not for the comment. Besides that it sounds like it’s a pretty good cigar and based off of your’s and Barry’s reviews I think I will try to find some.

Rocky Patel Winter Collection (2009) | The Stogie Review February 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 am

[...] from acigarsmoker.com -> Rated it a 89 and suggested some age Tom from Tom’s Cigar Reviews -> Enjoyed it more than the Summer blend Lisa from Her Humidor -> Suggests having a cold beverage [...]