Wrapper: San Andrés Maduro / Mexico
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Size: Corona Gorda (6 x 50), box-pressed
Strength: Medium → Medium-Plus (last inch flirts with Full)
Body: Medium-Plus → Full (by the progression)
Price: $11.15 single / $52.70 5-pack / $198.10 box (MSRP)
Factory: Las Villas Cigar Factory, Estelí, Nicaragua
Blender: Guillermo Peña
Release: Regular Production
Smoking Time: 1:50
Experience Rating: 99
If you look this cigar up, you’ll see it named “Seleccion.” But “Seleccion Red” is its formal name on the Las Villas website.
When I reviewed the Miami Humidor Bundle Maduro, I wanted to see what Guillermo Peña could do under constraint. My thinking was that a blender’s skill might be best measured by what he can pull off when he’s boxed in by things like price targets and tobacco grade.
Peña proved his skill with that $2.00 cigar, and I gave it a great rating.
The Seleccion Red is the first time I’ve looked at the other end of the spectrum, where he has the freedom to fully express his intent. And what he’s accomplished with that freedom is nothing short of amazing.
Synopsis
Strength opens on the light side of medium, climbs steadily through the first half, and reaches its highest point in the last inch before easing back at the nub. Body is the anchor. It starts around medium-plus, reaches full by the progression, and stays there through the end. Activity builds through the first half into a sustained plateau across the home stretch, then tapers over the final inches as the profile compresses and concentrates.
The cigar feels solid in hand, and the foot shows a tight, even bunch. It has a nice, tight oval box press and is very symmetrical.
I remove the paper casing. The wrapper is the deep chocolate brown of oscuro, smooth with a gorgeous oily sheen. It’s toothy, but the nodules are tiny, so while the surface is rough, it’s not like sandpaper.
Sweet floral and fruit notes waft off the wrapper, followed by that deep, sweet Mexican San Andrés tobacco. The foot carries more of the fruit and floral, plus a distinct sweet-bread quality, and not a hint of barnyard.
The cold draw gives me raisins and a nori-like quality, followed by a nice sugary sweetness. The draw is a little snug, but nowhere near plugged.
Ignition is a strong, confident start of slightly burnt toast, coffee, cashew, and charred cedar, though the strength is surprisingly light. Cream comes almost immediately and gives the smoke a lovely thick texture, while sweet tobacco rounds out the finish.
It’s such a lovely start.
As the cigar settles in, the body is rich and creamy and already at medium-plus. A touch of nicotine arrives and pushes the strength up a little, to a solid medium. More flavors start showing up: buttered popcorn, green tea, hazelnut, chestnut, and a hint of plum.
The core also confirms itself as cream, coffee, cashew, and charred cedar.
Cashew in the core. That’s a new one for me.
The ash is tight, courtesy of that snug draw, but the burn line is even and looks like a stack of thin wafers. I dare myself to see how long an ash I can build.
It’s a stupid thing to do because it always ends in disaster.
The nuttiness here is amazing. It’s like picking different nuts out of a bowl of mixed nuts. There’s the cashew, of course, but others take their turns too: peanut, hazelnut, almond, Brazil nut, macadamia.
I’ve rarely seen nutty complexity like this, where the individual flavors are this pronounced.
About an inch in, spice finally arrives. It’s weak and ambient, and fades quickly on the finish. A little more nicotine sneaks in, and I feel like I’m floating in a euphoric haze. And I mean sneaky. It built subtly in the background, slowly lulling me into relaxation.
Fruity, citrusy elements begin to appear, with stone fruit, orange zest, and lemon, and the profile starts doing a switcheroo with the nuts and citrus from puff to puff.
Real nice complexity.
This is a grown-up smoke. It doesn’t dazzle, but it’s not at all boring. It holds my attention and draws me in purely by its nature. It’s similar to the experience I have smoking a Don Carlos or a Padrón ’64. It has that kind of bearing.
There’s nothing sloppy about the profile. Despite its complexity, it’s well-mannered and composed, so well turned-out. From the first puff there’s been an innate confidence about it, but it’s also dignified, as if it has nothing to prove.
It reminds me of one of those old-school butlers, clad in a tuxedo, holding a silver tray with a white linen tea towel draped over his forearm. He just quietly goes about his business, with intent and attention to detail.
The ash falls off at two inches.
As I expected, it ends in disaster, dropping mid-puff and disintegrating all over my fucking keyboard and the front of my sweater. I knew this would happen. My sweater smells like the bottom of a dirty ashtray. Luckily there are no burn holes, but I’m going to have to throw the sweater in the wash today.
It’s like the jump scene in The Matrix, when the crew members were taking bets on whether Neo would make the jump. I should’ve taken a cue from that.
Everyone falls.
At the halfway point, there’s more of that citrus-and-nut switching, but bread elements have now joined the mix. The spice is finally starting to assert itself. It’s a little more intense, though its behavior hasn’t changed. It shows up, declares its presence, then quickly sits back down.
Baking spices arrive too, but they don’t join the switching party. They sit off to the side, content to observe rather than participate.
I’m now in maximum enjoyment mode.
Further into the second half, the San Andrés starts showing itself with this gorgeous deep, dark, rich tobacco. The switching ceases, and a wonderful buttered toast steps forward. The toast is well done, with some charred pieces, like it was toasted over a fire.
Then coffee steps forward from within the core, and I suddenly find myself sitting at a sidewalk café in Kings Cross, Sydney, sipping a flat white and munching on toast while discussing American politics with some Aussies. I don’t know why, but so many of my conversations with folks there turned to politics. I never prompted the discussions.
Anyway, while I’m still sitting there, someone brings over a plate of cheese, because a distinct cheesy umami suddenly appears.
The visuals this cigar is triggering are simply amazing. The remarkable thing is that its flavor inventory isn’t vast. It’s what the cigar does with what it has that makes it magical.
In the last couple of inches, the profile turns deliciously dark as the classic dark-chocolate elements of the San Andrés begin to come out. But strength is holding steady at just over medium-plus.
It’s like eating a piece of 70% cacao chocolate, all that bittersweet goodness.
I recently went through a shift in my tastebuds. I used to hate dark chocolate and black coffee. Now I prefer black coffee and espresso over coffee with cream or a latte, and I adore dark chocolate.
I have a feeling it has something to do with my affinity for cigars.
Into the last inch, I’m beginning to swoon from the nicotine as the strength starts flirting with full. There’s a lot of compression in the profile now, but it’s still incredibly coherent. Compression is usually reductive, yet a quick scan shows everything is still present.
The spice has moved to my lips and turned persistent. That dark chocolate is now pervasive throughout, and with the coffee, it’s a mocha treat!
At the nub, it’s still so delicious. Amazingly, though the strength flirted with full, it has dropped a little, and I love that. Surprisingly, the secondary flavors haven’t abandoned ship. They’re just being masked by the coffee and chocolate. But you’ll hear no complaints from me. It’s still a mocha treat.
I’ve got the nub speared on the pointy end of my PerfecDraw because I don’t want to let it burn out.
It’s that good.
Yes, there’s heat, but the profile is still open despite the predominance of coffee and dark chocolate. Nuts and a sugary sweetness appear and join the mocha. I’ll say it again: amazing!
Complex and flavorful to the end!
The more I smoke Guillermo Peña’s cigars, the more he impresses me.
It takes real skill to make a cigar that stays coherent, active, and complete all the way to the end. The coffee and chocolate took over near the finish, but they merely obscured the other flavors rather than eliminating them. That’s impressive, and it makes me wonder what he had to do to pull off that kind of behavior.
Few cigars I’ve smoked hold this much coherence at the nub. They usually compress and concentrate until the profile becomes too strong to keep smoking. This one did its final compression with an inch to go, then stood its ground the rest of the way. It let me smoke it until my lips started to burn.
The Seleccion is a winner!
The Seleccion Red comes straight from the source at Miami Humidor, the retail arm of Peña’s own Las Villas Cigar Factory, and at GP Cigars. I’m not an affiliate, but this is the first place I look when searching for cigars to buy. Their prices are great, but they’ve got some of the best customer service around! Mikey’ll take care of you!
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