Wrapper: Connecticut Havana-seed Medio Tiempo
Binder: Dominican Republic (La Vega Especial)
Filler: Dominican Republic (Piloto Cubano Ligero), Nicaragua (Ligero)
Size: Pirámides (6 x 60)
Strength: Full
Body: Full
Price: ~$10.00 → $12.00 (varies by retailer)
Factory: General Cigar Dominicana
Blender: Daniel Nuñez
Release: 2001; ongoing production
Experience Rating: 97
I’ve never been a big jazz guy. I’ve always lived in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s classic rock world. But one of my all-time favorite albums, regardless of genre, is Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. It’s also the album that finally allowed me to hear modal theory instead of merely understanding it.
My favorite track on the album is Blue in Green. It’s a slow ballad, but listen closely and there’s continuous motion and energy beneath it, with a depth and complexity that can slip past you if you’re not paying attention. That’s exactly how I feel about the Partagas Black Label.
I love wandering into cigar stores in different towns and stumbling onto cigars I’ve never smoked, sometimes ones I didn’t even know existed. That’s how I found the Black Label. I was perusing the humidor at a small shop called Cigar Palace in Santa Cruz when my eyes landed on a box of them. I did a double-take. The wrappers were ink-dark, and the shape pulled me in. I picked one up, turned it in my hand, and knew immediately I was walking out with a couple.
Before I smoked one, I glanced through a few reviews to see how people were framing it. I wasn’t concerned about being influenced. Most cigar reviews consist of simple flavor-note bookkeeping and basic strength declarations. They’re useful to me as background, nothing more. But there was one trait of the cigar they all shared: The Partagas Black was strong.
Most of the reviews, and even the retail descriptions, led with strength. But a few puffs into the cigar, it was clear that the Black Label had far more to offer. It is a strong cigar, to be sure, but it’s also remarkably complex. The kicker is how smoothly it delivers everything. That’s what brought Blue in Green to mind about halfway through my first cigar.
The song establishes a central theme and then riffs on it through a series of variations. The Black Label follows the same pattern. It has a clear core, then expands, deepens, and recolors it as the cigar progresses.
Like Miles Davis assembling his ensemble (say that three times fast), let’s look at the leaf stats:
Wrapper: Connecticut Havana-seed Medio Tiempo
Binder: Dominican La Vega Especial
Filler: Dominican Piloto Cubano, Nicaraguan Ligero
When I saw that the wrapper used the medio tiempo priming, I was immediately intrigued. I’ve only encountered this priming once before, in the La Gloria Cubana Medio Tiempo, which uses it on an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. Medio tiempo appears when two additional leaves sprout above the highest priming, allowing them to absorb the most sunlight and nutrients. Their flavor becomes unusually concentrated, and only a small fraction of plants ever produce them.
As in Miles’ ensemble, the other leaves play essential roles. The La Vega Especial functions like the rhythm section of Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb, steady and foundational. The Piloto Cubano and ligero provide the blend’s equivalent of Coltrane’s and Evans’ solos.
The Black Label begins in a measured, almost understated way, laying down a dark foundation of cocoa, black pepper, and espresso. It reminds me of Bill Evans’ opening chords, supported by Paul Chambers’ sparse bass line and Jimmy Cobb’s feather-light brushwork. Then, like Miles establishing the emotional core of the song, fruity sweetness, light cayenne, and roasted nuts rise through the profile and form the theme around which the rest of the cigar develops.
Brighter, sharper notes begin to appear: green-apple candy, a flicker of black pepper, mineral, and a thin thread of black licorice. They add tension, the way Coltrane leans into the harmony without disturbing the calm surface.
Softer tones drift in around them: cedar, oak, vanilla cream, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate. These are the Bill Evans colors. Eventually, the profile circles back to roasted nuts, fruity sweetness, and cayenne, the cigar’s equivalent of Miles returning to the motif.
Beneath it all are leather undertones, flickers of baking spice, and the steady warmth of the nutty base. They serve as Paul Chambers’ bass line and Jimmy Cobb’s brushwork, the subtle pulse keeping everything in motion even when the surface feels still.
The cigar never intensifies into a single, flattened mass. Like Blue in Green, it develops through motion within the theme.
As the Black Label enters the final stretch, that theme becomes more defined. The fruity sweetness moves into a darker register, almost like molasses. The cayenne threads itself more tightly through the profile, while the roasted nuts hold everything in place. Like Blue in Green, the cigar resolves by returning to the theme and showing you everything that was there.
Strong? Yes. But that’s merely the volume. The cigar’s true character is in the composition.
Total smoke time: 1:35
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