Alfred Dunhill, Ltd. - "The Signed Range" toro [Nicaragua]

I've enjoyed Dunhill tobacco for a while, in fact when I first got my meerschaum pipe in college, I exclusively smoked Dunhill's "Early Morning Pipe" or "Nightcap" pipe tobacco variants. I don't recall if I've ever had a Dunhill cigar, though, but I have seen them often in the store. A little about the company: Alfred Dunhill, Ltd. is actually a family of companies, stretching back to the 1800s, with interests in leather working, tobacco, machinery, and clothing. The tobacco arm started in 1907 when Alfred Dunhill first opened a pipe tobacco blending shop on Duke Street in London. They're known around the world, mostly for their pipe tobacco, but also operate a manufactory in Nicaragua, where today's cigar is made.

What drew me to this was that it's a special release - it's called the "Signed Range", and comes in a three pack. I purchased the pack of 5.5x52 torpedos (torpedo being the term used to describe the pointed or tapered end of a cigar. Cigars tapered at both ends are sometimes called "double torpedos.") The mixture of this particular smoke is a Nicaraguan wrapper, Dominican and Nicaraguan long-fillers, and a Cameroonian binder, and according to the promotional description, a team of 80 workers were hand-chosen to create this blend. I'm imaging (fancifully) that this means they assembled some masterful team, Oceans Eleven-style.

In truth, I smoked one of these in the spring and found it lacking. So this post is from a few weeks ago, and I gave the cigar ample time in the humidor to "bounce back."

Part of the fun here is that the cigars come with the signatures of the roller and quality inspector - Omar Sovalbano and Aurora Herrera, respectively. That's a neat personal touch which you don't see too often. I also like the box; it's always fun to get cigars packaged this way.

It was tightly-rolled so took a few tries to get it fully lit. Although it's certainly moister than the last time I had it, it's still pretty tightly wrapped.

It's definitely heavy, as previously expected, with not a lot of smoke. Perhaps if I had a Drawpoker, I would have reamed it out. Burning unevenly, it produces a dark and mottled ash. The body of the cigar has a strong woody / ashen flavor to it, and throughout I'm also detecting some slight herbal tastes, much like anisette (although not actually anisette) to complement the deep leathery tobacco notes. It burned about 2/3 of the way down, at which point the flavors became a bit harsh and the draw was harder than it should have been. In terms of texture and of gravity, it reminds me a lot of some of the Davidoffs I have had. It was a little easier smoking this time, perhaps due to environmental factors, but however long it sat in the humidor since I tried it last seemed not to have drastically changed the experience.