When Steve Saka and company (also known as Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust) first released Sobremesa, my favorite size was the Cervantes Fino, a 6.25 x 46 ring gauge cigar that perfectly captured that blend…believe me, I tried every other size and none of them were as perfect. So when the market didn’t respond by making that the most popular size, I found it to be shocking…and appalling, for that matter. DTT discontinued the size…what a freaking shame. Then they announced that the size would return in the Sobremesa Solita Red…another offshoot of the core line. This particular release does have some blend pieces in common with the original…Ecuadorian Habano wrapper (although this one looks darker), Mexican binder, 4 Nicaraguan fillers and a Pennsylvania filler leaf. Oh, and the price skyrocketed from about $11 to closer to $20…what? That’s Davidoff-level inflation rates!
The wrapper leaf had a bit of oiliness to it as well as a couple large-ish veins. Overall, nothing really wrong with it. The aroma from the wrapper was mostly of cedar, with a touch of earth and hay underlying that. The foot had a much sweeter aroma, with some chocolate and coffee along with the expected earthiness of Nicaraguan fillers. The prelight draw was good and had mostly grassy and woody notes.
The Sobremesa Solita Red opened up with notes of cedar, earth, and hay, while leaving a lingering red pepper on the finish. When I took a few more puffs, I found the pepper spice building up fairly quickly, which is definitely not something I remember from the old Cervantes Fino. And while the Cervantes Fino was a medium-bodied tour de force…a masterpiece of full and complex flavor, in the early going, this almost seemed to be stronger for the sake of being stronger…and it seemed to lose some complexity in the process.
Thankfully, as I moved into the second third, the initial “stronger” profile dampened a bit with a corresponding decrease in pepper spice, which allowed more of the flavors of cocoa powder, earth, and cedar to come to the fore. My initial dislike for the cigar died away, too, and I did find it to be more complex and enjoyable than in the early going. At the end of the day, though, I can’t help but miss the original Cervantes Fino, which was just about perfection. I wasn’t as enamored of this one and the limited production part of it caused the prices to be astronomical even with inflation and tariffs put into the mix. If it were closer to the price of the original, I’d probably be in for a box…as it is, I might pick up one or two when I see them, but won’t be actively searching for them.
