E.P. Carrillo Short Run 2010 Delirios (Prerelease)

Back in August, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, Jr. released his first cigar under his new company E.P. Carrillo, the E.P. Carrillo Edición Inaugural 2009, a released limited to 125,000.

E.P. Carrillo will be releasing another line, that will be more widely available and cheaper as well, later this year, but in between the two is the E.P. Carrillo Short Run, a cigar that will be released this month with what seems to be relatively little press, other than a Facebook page announcement and some samples sent out to various people.

Now, putting aside the unfortunate overly literal name, each of the three vitolas in the E.P. Carrillo Short Run line will have a run of only 1,500 boxes of 24, although more are expected to be released in 2011. The three vitolas will be priced between $6.25 and $8.50 and are:

• E.P. Carrillo Short Run 2010 Dominantes (6 1/4 × 60)
• E.P. Carrillo Short Run 2010 Delirios (5 7/8 × 52)
• E.P. Carrillo Short Run 2010 Populares (4 7/8 × 50)

When I called Ernesto Perez-Carrillo III to discuss the cigar and get some facts for this review, he mentioned that they wanted to produce a cigar with more strength, pepper and spice to attract a different segment of the cigar smoking public, a totally different smoke from the Inaugural in almost every way.

• Cigar Reviewed: E.P. Carrillo Short Run 2010 Delirios
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Tabacalera La Alianza S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
• Binder: Nicaraguan (Criollo)
• Filler: Dominican Republic & Nicaragua
• Size: 5 7/8 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Cañonazo
• Est. Price: $7.50
• Release Date: June 2010
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,500 Boxes of 24 Cigars (108,000 total cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 2

The E.P. Carrillo Short Run is a gorgeous cigar, with a medium brown wrapper that is silky smooth to the touch and smells faintly of graham crackers and pepper. It is obviously well-constructed with very few veins showing and a great cap. It has a slight box-press to it, and is very firm when squeezed, but not hard.

The first third has quite a bit of spice up front, which sticks around for the entire third, but never overwhelming. Flavors of earth and leather dominate, but there is a sweetness as well that is just in the background that I was hoping would come a bit more to the surface.

Thankfully, the second third does indeed take a sweeter turn, the cigar turns a bit more mild, with the sweetness from the first third roaring to the forefront, along with a wood note (cedar) and just a bit of chocolate. The spice was still there as well, but it was as if the sweetness had taken over, with the spice in the background, completely opposite from the first third.

The final third is where the E.P. Carrillo Short Run showed it’s true colors. While the cedar and chocolate flavors remained—and just a bit of leather—the strength ramped way up, with more spice noticeable then even at the start of the cigar. It had a very long finish, and while it is not one of the strongest cigars I have had, I could feel a noticeable nicotine kick at the end.

Final Thoughts:

• While the draw was great, the burn did wander just a bit, and I had to relight it a few times.
• The final third was where the strength felt the strongest, but you can tell while smoking it that the whole cigar was building up towards that ending.
• The final smoking time was hone hour and 40 minutes.

Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. 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, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.