Today we will be taking a look at another cigar in our Edición Regional series, the Juan López Selección No.3 2010 Benelux. This is one of two Edición Regional releases by Juan López in 2010 the other being the Selección No.4 Pirámides for the Asia Pacific Region. Often times each year companies have many regionals that are proposed but don’t actually end up getting released. For instance there was talk and reports of a Juan López for the Andorra region to be released but there have been no signs of it. I don’t find this to be an issue because as it is there are plenty of regionals to wade through each year and honestly we don’t need more.

The History of Juan López is very interesting as they started out as an incredibly popular company yet now they only represent around 1 percent of Cuban cigar exports in Cuba. In the 1870s Juan López Diaz opened and started a cigar factory in Havana and his brand La Flor De Juan López was created in 1876. At the time Juan López choose to use only leaves from the Vuelta Abajo region and by the 20th century his cigar company had gained a lot of respect and had an incredible reputation for using only the finest tobaccos. Unfortunately in the early 1900’s Juan López died and his cigar company was bought by Cosme Del Peso Y cia who had great success with the cigar brand until the Cuban Revolution. It was in fact one of the top selling cigar companies during the time Fidel Castro came into power. Following the Cuban revolution and with Fidel Castro’s orders all the Cuban cigar companies were taken over by the government. For reasons unknown the company that Juan López first started had fallen into a decline and by the late 1980’s simply wasn’t that popular anymore.

Today Juan López is a popular brand among cigar aficionados; the Juan López No.2 is a fabulous cigar and is very popular among the robusto lovers out there. The one thing they need to do in my opinion is expand their vitolas. At the moment they only have 3 vitolas in their line. I would love to see a Juan López Lancero or Pirimide.

Enough of that lets get to the review shall we?

• Cigar Reviewed: Juan López Selección No.3 (Edición Regional Benelux 2010)
• Country of Origin: Cuba
• Factory: Miguel Fernández Roig
• Wrapper: Cuba
• Binder: Cuba
• Filler: Cuba
• Size: 4 1/3 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Petit Edmundo
• Price Paid: $12
• Date Released: 2010
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,600 Boxes of 25 Cigars (40,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 2
  

I love the size of this cigar; it’s a nice Petit Edmundo size. It’s perfect for the winter months in the north east. It has a nice Colorado wrapper with few veins and a very smooth feel to it. It has a nice dense pack and has an extremely flat head to it. The prelight aroma is cedar, hay and a slight touch of pepper. There is hardly any aroma or flavor on the prelight draw, just a touch of hay maybe.

Starting off in the first third the cigar is very woody with a good amount of pepper on the finish. There is an abundance of a tannic note that is off putting. The finish becomes peppery and bitter. Hopefully it just needs to develop a little more.

Coming into the second third the awful acidic character has diminished a bit. There is still a solid woody profile but now I am getting little hints of cream here and there both on the draw and the finish. Unfortunately, as the second third comes to a close a papery character takes hold; a dry, burnt papery flavor that is not enjoyable at all. There are definitely some flavors here and there that I can tell are present like wood, coffee and a little bit of cream but the other unpleasant aspects of it are just overpowering everything enjoyable. The draw is perfect and the burn doesn’t give me any issues, however.

Finishing up in the final third the cigar settles down a bit. The bitterness and papery notes linger but are not as full force as they were. Profile is still dominated by wood, some coffee and an interesting perfume like floral note. It doesn’t last long but long enough to take note of it. All in all the cigar doesn’t change a whole lot from the last third. I nub it for the photo’s sake honestly.

Final Notes:

• This is something I come across with way too much with Juan López regionals. They all start off very tannic, which is a youthful property and will dissipate to some degree as the cigar ages. I find this to be the case a lot with Juan López and Punch regionals. I absolutely don’t run into this with Rámon Allones or Bolivars ever. I am not sure if this is a result of the soil in which the tobacco is grown in or perhaps it’s in the water they use to water the plants but something acidic is transferring into the cigar that’s giving it that taste.
• I enjoy the Petit Edmundo size, It offers a decent amount of smoke time and the thick ring gauge produces a very cool smoke which I like. Each year a few Petit Edmundo sizes are released in the Regional Series and I try to find them when I can.
• Final Smoking time was 1 hour 5 minutes.

The Bottom Line: This cigar just isn’t ready to be smoked yet. I think it needs to be put down for at least 5 years before we can even begin to see what it’s got in store as far as flavor and complexity. It had SOME flavor but the acidity in it prevented me from enjoying them. Again with the exception of reviewing a cigar I simply don’t chase after many regionals except for Ramón Allones, Bolívar and a few others. I simply haven’t had a young Juan López ER that I have enjoyed to the point where I ran out a got 2 more boxes. I also don’t find the full production Juan López cigars like the No.2 or No.3 to be this horrible right out of the gate so I am not sure what they are doing to the regionals but hopefully it changes. This cigar just doesn’t do it for me because even with out the tannic aspect it would still be a fairly boring, overpriced cigar.

Final Score: 67