1502 Black Gold Lancero (Prerelease)

The 1502 Black Gold is the strongest of the company’s three lines. Currently offered in four vitolas, the company will be adding a 5 1/2 x 42 corona and a 7 x 40 lancero later this month. 

The Global Premium Cigars website has this to say about the 1502 Black Gold blend:

If you like strong cigars, you’ll definitely love this one. This particular cigar is made to satisfy the discerning smoker who enjoys bold and strong flavors. It has a double binder and long filler from Nicaragua. With its natural Maduro sun-grown tobacco wrapper, nurtured with all the natural elements where it gets its flavor, especially its strength and character.

With the addition of the lancero and the corona, the 1502 Black Gold line will have six different vitolas, all of which are box-pressed.

• 1502 Black Gold Toro (6 x 50)
• 1502 Black Gold Torpedo (6 x 50)
• 1502 Black Gold Perfecto (6 1/8 x 50)
• 1502 Black Gold Conquistador (6 x 56)
• 1502 Black Gold Corona (5 1/2 x 42)*
• 1502 Black Gold Lancero (7 x 40)*

• Cigar Reviewed: 1502 Black Gold Lancero
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Plasencia Cigars S.A.
• Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
• Binder: Nicaragua (Double Binder)
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Size: 7 Inches
•  Ring Gauge: 40
• Vitola: Lancero
• MSRP: $7.90 Boxes of 25, $197.50)
• Release Date: April 25, 2014
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3 

The 1502 Black Gold is extremely striking to look at with a jet black and sharp box-press. The cigar is light when held, spongy when squeezed and shows no sign of oil whatsoever. Aroma from the wrapper brings strong flavors of sweet earth, leather and anise while the cold draw brings almost straight espresso beans.

Starting out the first third of the 1502 Black Gold puts out copious dense white smoke off the foot and flavors of leather, gritty earth, creamy oak and espresso beans straight from the cold draw. There is a wonderful sharp black pepper on the retrohale that stays pretty consistent through the first third and a slight sweet licorice that gets stronger as the first third draws to a close. Construction-wise, the burn is razor sharp, and the draw is excellent with just the right amount of resistance for a lancero. As the first third ends, I can already feel the strength ramping up, and it hits a solid medium pretty easily.

The sweetness really ramps up a notch during the second third of the 1502 Black Gold Lancero, morphing from a licorice note to more of a smoky molasses flavor that is set off nicely by the black pepper that remains fairly constant on the retrohale. Other flavors include a strong earthy note, bitter espresso beans, leather and creamy oak, along with just a touch of powdery cocoa every once in a while that never sticks around long. Both the burn and draw are phenomenal, with a burn line that is as straight as can get. Smoke production has picked up noticeably, as has the strength, and it ends the second third halfway between medium and full.

The final third of the 1502 Black Gold lancero sees a noticeable increase in strength as well as a significant decrease in the sweetness that is present in the profile. While the sweetness does not die off completely, it does become almost a non-factor, and the other main notes of leather, earth, espresso, cocoa and creamy oak move back to the forefront. The construction is really impressing me with an amazing draw and a consistent razor sharp burn line until the end of the smoke. Strength-wise, the Black Gold Lancero continues to increase, and ends the cigar right past the full mark. Smoke production stays pretty constant compared the second third, and I am able to smoke the nub down to less than an inch left with no problems whatsoever.

Final Notes

• Although fairly rare, the box-pressed lancero vitola is not new, as Tatuaje released one in the original Tattoo back in 2011, the Rocky Patel Decade, Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve and the Gurkha TPB-1 all came before that as well.
• Having said the above, I find it fascinating that such a small company decided to release not one, not two, but three box-pressed lanceros in three different blends, with another on the way.
• The perfecto vitola in all three lines are only sold at the two specially branded 1502 Lounges: one in Michigan and one in Pennsylvania.
• The first thing I think of when I hear Black Gold is oil. The second thing I think of is the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. 
• Both the 1502 Emerald and the 1502 Ruby placed in our 2013 Consensus Awards.
• Both the burn and draw were phenomenal on all samples I smoked, and all of the other blends I smoked in the lancero format as well. You could literally not ask for better.
• The wrapper is a jet black, almost distractingly dark.
• The cigars smoked for this review were sent to halfwheel by 1502 Cigars.
• On a purely personal note, I met 1502 owner Enrique Sánchez for the first time while I was in Nicaragua recently, and his good humor, humility and genuineness really impressed me.
• In the United States, 1502 is distributed by House of Emilio.
• All of the 1502 lanceros feature a slight covered foot, somewhere between clean cut and totally covered. Sandez describes this as the cigar lock.



• This video gives more explanation about the cigar lock, a feature on all 1502 cigars.
• The final smoking time for all three samples averaged one hour and 25 minutes.

While the flavor profile was fairly straightforward, both the distinctness of the flavors themselves and the consistently excellent construction on all of my samples really made these cigars a joy to smoke. At times toasty and meaty, the profile had some nice sweetness throughout as well, although it was defiantly strongest in the first two thirds. Having said that, after smoking all three blends, I prefer the 1502 Ruby Lancero a tad more, although I would be happy to smoke any of them at any time. A well-blended, extremely well-constructed cigar that lancero lovers should definitely try for themselves.

88

Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.