Cigar Nutrition
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Shade-Grown Corojo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Made In: Nicaragua
Size: 6×46 Le Grande (Lonsdale)
Price: $87.99 for a 10 pack from the boys at Tex Cigar
Cigar Background: New from Dion Giolito, the Illusione Epernay is a new, lighter blend patterned from the original ECCJ release. Named after the heart of France’s Champagne region, Epernay is an all-Nicaraguan cigar comprising tobacco from two specific farms and finished with a shade-grown Corojo ’99 wrapper leaf. “Certain cigars and Champagne go together fabulously,” said Giolito. “I think that this cigar is the perfect complement to great Champagnes, so I named it after a region in France that made this grape famous.” According to Giolito, the blend is more suited to a “European palate,” which, to him, entails using a lighter shade of wrapper, and replacing some of the spicy character of his other brands with a sweeter, more floral tobacco.
First Impressions: Let me first start by apologizing to you guys, it’s been a while since my last review. Over the past week cigars have just not have not been tasting right and I don’t think it’s fair to do reviews where my taste buds are out of whack however they are back on track and here we go. This is a nice looking cigar that is very well made. I like the look and feel of the size. I wish more companies would start making cigars with 46 ring gage; it fits nicely between my fingers and feels good in the mouth. The cigar cut nicely and the cold draw produced natural tobacco sweetness. Time to fire up this cigar and see what we get.
Flavors: This cigar starts off with some nice spice and then quickly turns into a woody smoke. There is a fruity sweetness in the backdrop but I can’t put my finger on what the fruit is, in fact I had to break my cardinal rule. My cardinal rule is never to look at other people’s cigar reviews while I smoke the cigar but it was killing me not knowing. So after some searching I found a review that says they got apple cinnamon. Sure enough its apple, however I do not get any cinnamon out of mine. As the cigar progressed the spice went away and the cigar became a nice toasty combination of wood, floral notes, and gram cracker. Overall the cigar is complex and keeps you interested. The body is a solid medium which is a change of pace for Illusione.
Smoking Characteristics: The draw was great on this cigar but the burn suffered. I had to touch up the burn more than what I like during the cigar and the ash fell off way too prematurely. I didn’t get the nice cone shaped cherry on this cigar and I believe that was the reason the ash was falling off so soon.
Final Thoughts: Overall I really enjoyed this cigar. It is a nice medium bodied cigar that is very cubanesqe. I was a little disappointed by the burn and the ash of this cigar but the complex flavors made me get over it real quick. I think the price is very fair for these cigars and will probably buy more however they are extremely hard to come by in my neck of the woods.
Worth a try: Yes, Cuban lovers may also enjoy this cigar
Buy it again: Yes but I wouldn’t go for an entire box
Nubablity: Medium to High
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Excellent review! I’ll need to fire this puppy up and share my opinion as well! Thanks!!
Just to let you know I havent picked up the cinnamon on the epernay since that first one i reviewed for leafandgrape.com.
The first draw after the cigar was lit almost made me not want to finish but then it calmed down and was awesome