I realize I am creating a pattern…after walking a personal-best 18 miles two weeks ago, I fired up an Eladio Diaz 71 Aniversario to celebrate (while reviewing it at the same time). Now I’ve topped that personal-best by walking 20 miles, so I’m firing up (and reviewing) the Eladio Diaz 72 Aniversario…sadly, unless the 73 Aniversario gets released in the next couple weeks, I won’t be able to continue this pattern when I do my “birthday marathon walk.” Also ironic since I won’t be celebrating my birthday achievement with one of his birthday cigars. (also…I was going to publish this review the Monday after I did that 20 mile walk…but forgot…so it’s been about a week and a half now…and the Marathon walk is just two days away!!!)
This 72 Aniversario is also called the North and South Edition because it features tobaccos from the northern and southern parts of the Dominican Republic. This cigar is all Dominican tobacco, with a Corojo-seed wrapper from the southern region of San Juan de la Maguana, a Mexican-seed Negro San Andrés binder from the northern region of Navarette, and fillers from both north and south, including Negrito, Corojo 99, Criollo 98, Havana Vuelta Abajo, and Piloto Cubano. I got notes of cedar and earth from the wrapper, rich barnyard and hay from the foot.
Initial puffs from the Eladio Diaz 72 Aniversario gave up woody and earthy notes that reminded my of LFD’s old core lines, but with more smoothness and refinement. There was some vegetal flavor and a little bit of pepper spice, and an underlying hay note that was not at all bad. I poured some Booker’s 2025-01 Batch, a 125.7 proof bourbon with over 7 years of age on it. Being my first sip of the day, it was super-hot, but brought some needed sweetness to the party, too.
I really enjoy Eladio Diaz’s Aniversario line…every year is a new experience, whether you think it’s the “best thing ever” or not. To me, this one was better than the 71, but not as good as the 70…regardless, it’s worth the $25 list price…and it’s worth mentioning again that if Diaz was still working with a certain White Label company, these cigars would probably be $75.
