Review: Zino Château (Prerelease)
Last month, I was reading online and saw this blog post detailing a prerelease of a new blend in the Zino line of cigars, dubbed the Zino Château…
The press release says it better then I ever could, so here is a portion of it for your perusal:
The new blend features an Ecuadorian-grown, Connecticut-seed wrapper and has a Dominican Olor binder and Dominican-grown filler tobaccos, including Criollo, Piloto Cubano and San Vicente.
Thus far, only one size – a Robusto of five inches and 50 ring gauge – is available, in boxes of 10 for $85.00, plus the applicable taxes, while they last. Herklots was not sure when (or even if) the Zino Château would be released nationally, but noted that he wanted his store customers “to be the first to experience this cigar.”
The Château joins the familiar Zino Classic (2006), Zino Platinum Crown (2003) and Zino Platinum Scepter (2003) in the Dominican-made Zino line-up.
- Cigar Reviewed: Zino Château
- Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
- Factory: TABADOM
- Wrapper: Connecticut Ecuador
- Binder: Dominican Olor
- Filler: Criollo, Piloto Cubano & San Vincente (Dominican Republic)
- Size: 5 Inches
- Ring Gauge: 50
- Vitola: Robusto
- Est. Price: $8.50 (Boxes of 10, $85.00)
- Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 1
The cigar is a nice looking stick, with a light brown wrapper and a slight box press…The wrapper smells great, with a combination of Manure, pepper and dark chocolate…It is well packed, and gives a bit when squeezed…It has a nice cap on the end, but does seem a bit light for it’s size and vitola…the predraw is sweet cedar and espresso…
The Zino Château starts out with a surprising amount of spice (for a Davidoff), and slightly noticeable notes of cedar, leather and earth…unfortunately, it also has an almost overwhelming bitterness that turns ALL of the aforementioned flavors rancid, it is so strong…this continues until the last third (and trust me, if I was not reviewing the cigars, I would have pitched them long before that), where the bitterness lets up (a little), and I can taste just a bit of sweetness that is totally wasted after the first two thirds turned my palette to ashes…
The Draw was extremely loose on two out of the three samples I smoked (the burn was fine on), and the finish on all of them was quite dry…They also all ended quite harshly (despite the sweetness at the end), and after the first two that I smoked, I REALLY did not want to smoke the 3rd one, but was hoping against hope there would be a change..alas, it was not to be…
The Bottom Line: While I have loved a few and have been disappointed by a few (Dominican) Davidoffs in the past, to say this is a “Shitty” cigar would be slandering shit…While I could taste some flavors while smoking all three samples (albeit fairly boring flavors), anything that it COULD have been positive was totally annihilated by the (sometimes overwhelming, sometimes in the background) bitterness and harshness…Honestly, I can’t believe that this was even released as a blend, it is so bad…I have a few more, and will be stashing them to see if they get any better, but I certainly won’t be holding my breath…
Final Score: 48
(I was going to give one of these away, but decided that would be torture to whoever received it, so count yourselves lucky.)
If this is a pre-release version, perhaps they are ment to of been aged until the regular release? That's the only reason I could think they would put that s*** onto the market. That, and maybe to torture some fat cats who don't know better.
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Be sure to stay away from this one.
LOL!
Thanks Brooks.
Sounds like shit...thanks for the heads up. If I win this cigar....please just ship directly to AJ or Brian :^)
Wow...sounds unpleasant. Surprised someone at Davidoff signed off on releasing them.
Earlier this year before the Puro d’Oro came out I smoked a Notables and I too found it very bitter. However after smoking another one a couple weeks ago some of that bitterness seemed to go away.
That, along now with your review here, leads me to believe that maybe they are rushing to get these newer lines out on the market, even though they seem to need some additional rest.
I have no proof of this, more like random thoughts.
Awesome review! I've seen a lot of high scoring sticks on various sites and have wondered...reallly, are there that many 90+ sticks on the market?? This is refreshing to see.
As for the Davidoff comment from pTr...spot on. Flavorless if we exclude bitterness and harsh as flavor profiles.
Tell us how you really feel...lol
Thanks for the review, I will make sure to stay as far away from these as possible.
ouch...
3rd time wasn't a charm, huh
Glad to see the lower end of the grading scale has some meaning. Slandering shit? Had me LOL!
i believe it, this sounds like most nc davidoffs i've smoked.
I have had worse Zino cigars than this. Honestly.
I've been waiting for this post all morning and I am extremely pleased that you left the verdict in tact. Man a 48?! That's one of the lowest I have seen. Hats off for the honesty!
Brooks, (didn't see an author so I am assuming its Brooks)
Sounds to me like an Olor overload. Having smoked some the Davidoff pure grade tobacco I can tell you that Olor is some awful stuff and if used in too great a quantity I believe it would produce the harshness and bitterness you describe. Sad to see them release something that is seemingly unsmokeable. Thanks for falling on this grenade for all of us.