Review: El Rey del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque (ER U.K. 2009)
For those of you that don’t know…
In 2009, El Rey del Mundo released the Choix de L’Epoque, (a French name, translating “The Choice of the Age”, which honestly seems a bit pretentious to me in retrospect) the UK Regional Edition exclusively Distributed by Hunters & Frankau. There were 2,000 dress boxes of 25 produced, and is the smallest of the 20 Regional Edition cigars released in 2009, and priced at about $15 each.
Here is a photo of it next to an Opus X Pussycat, for comparison purposes:
- Cigar Reviewed: El Rey del Mundo Choix de L´Epoque Edición Reino Unido 2009
- Country of Origin: Cuba
- Factory: Briones Montoto
- Wrapper: Cuba
- Binder: Cuba
- Filler: Cuba
- Size: 4 1/3 Inches
- Ring Gauge: 52
- Vitola: Petit Edmundo
- Est. Price: $15.00 (Boxes of 25, $375.00)
- Date Released: 2009
- Number of Cigars Released: 2,000 Boxes of 25 Cigars (50,000 Total Cigars)
The cigar itself is a 4 1/3 x 52 Petit Robusto, a size I have come to like quite a bit despite my disdain for most large ring gauge cigars, with a lightish to medium brown wrapper that smells of sweetish hay. It is obviously well rolled, with a great triple cap and very few veins showing.
The El Rey del Mundo Choix de L´Epoque Edición Reino Unido 2009 started off fairly mild, and the dominant flavors were hay, cedar and a bit of honey, but almost no spice or pepper at all until the end, and then just the faintest trace. A very smooth cigar overall, and the sweetness in the cigar also increased from the beginning to the end, but was never more then a bit player in the total package.
The draw was a bit loose for the entire smoke, but nothing too horrible. However, the burn was annoyingly erratic, great one moment, crap the next. The Final Smoking Time was 1 Hour and 5 Minutes…
The Bottom Line: This was yet another one of those fairly uninteresting, one dimensional, inoffensive cigars released under the premise of a new and exciting Edición Regional size/blend/vitola that does not live up to its promise. Although far from a bad cigar, there was nothing overtly bad about it; the overall blandness of the smoke did nothing to excite me in the least. Just a nice, easy, mild boring smoke, perfect for breakfast, if that is your thing. You could smoke a whole box of these, and wake up the next day trying to remember what you burned the night before…
Final Score: 81
The reviews here seem a bit harsh in my opinion. I had mine on a freezing cold morning a couple of months back. For something classed as "light" I got quite a lot of taste. Light spice and pepper which progressed to vanilla and cream. Draw was good, but burn was uneven and needed adjusting at times. It went out a couple of times too but like I said it was very cold: 0 degrees C or even colder.
I actually enjoyed this one more than a 14 year old ERDM Lonsdale I had just under a month ago which had a very tight draw.
Great review
My money is on aging these, like most ERDM, they will hopefully get better with age
But a little boring now IMHO but worth getting a box for the cheap price
Bart
Rough week for you it seems, hope next week your luck improves. Thanks for the review
I also like this size. Although I will say the Monte Petite Edmundo seems to have the best results for this format. Cheers.
what do you think the aging potential for these cigars are?
like the size, a shame it was so bland. Nice review.
Nice review! i have had a few of these and i got the same result. just an ok smoke. Although there is a source out there that has these for about $175 a box. Not a bad price at all if you ask me.