Today I continued my “birthday marathon walk” training by walking a distance longer than I ever had in my life…18 miles. I have another training walk of 20 miles scheduled for a couple weeks from now and in four weeks I’ll be doing the 26.2 miles I have planned for my 55th birthday. In celebration of my new “personal best” length of walk, I decided it would be a good day to review the Eladio Diaz 71st Aniversario, last year’s entry into the now-regular releases Eladio makes for his birthday. He has been doing these birthday cigars since he was the master blender for Davidoff, although at first they were only given to those he chose to gift them to. Then many of them became part of the Vault or other limited release series from Davidoff…but now he releases them as part of his own line of blends with a very reasonable $25/each price.
The 71st uses Dominican fillers, a Mexican binder, and an Ecuadorian Corojo ‘99 wrapper leaf. It arrived at retail in a single Toro size measuring 6” long by 54 ring gauge. If you can’t find Eladio Diaz cigars at your local store…maybe it’s time to demand that your local store step up their quality!…and until they do, you can find them on Small Batch Cigars.
The Eladio Diaz 71st Aniversario presents very richly with elegant bands and a wrapper leaf that is smooth and supple, with oils under the fingertips and an aroma that mixes barnyard, bell pepper, and cedar cigar aging racks. The foot had a rich earthiness to it. Like them or not, it’s impossible to deny that Eladio Diaz’s blends have massive complexity to them. This one started off with earth, bright pepper spice, Spanish cedar, and hints of very dark chocolate. The retrohale was peppery and nutty, while the smoke was thick and oily, making it very easy to blow smoke rings.
To make sure that I had a drink at the same elevated level as this cigar blend, I poured from my favorite bottle at the moment, Booker’s Jimmy’s Batch. It is still viscous and rich, with a high-proof punch to go along with the blend of sweet and spicy that it brings. It was a good day and this was a good way to celebrate it!
