La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario Preferidos

At the 2015 Procigar Festival, La Aurora showed off the latest entry in its Puro Vintage line, which had not seen a release since 2013. Dubbed the Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario, the release was produced to commemorate the company’s 111th year in business.

While the three previous releases in the line have historically been made up of just one vitola, this newest incarnation actually features three different sizes: Preferidos (5 x 54), Robusto Gordo (5 x 54) and Salómon (6 1/2 x 50/60).

All three cigars were available in master cases, with each vitola packaged separately in boxes of 18 cigars. Only 500 master cases were produced, with each package carrying an MSRP of $1,000, or around $18.50 per cigar.

Blend-wise, the La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario cigars are composed of an Ecuadorian HVA wrapper covering a Brazilian binder and filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic’s Ciabo Valley, Brazil and Nicaragua. As has been the case in previous releases in the Puro Vintage line, all of the tobacco used in the blend comes from one harvest, in this case from 2006.

While there were three different vitolas released in Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario line, only the Salomon size was sold separately and outside the master cases. In addition, unlike the three previous releases—which have all had a total count of either 12,000 or 8,000 cigars sold in boxes of eight—the newest incarnation has a total production of 27,000 cigars packaged in boxes of 18, with each cigar carrying a retail price of $18.62.

There have now been four different releases in La Aurora’s Puro Vintage line.

• La Aurora Puro Vintage 2003 (7 1/2 x 58) — 2008 —  1,500 Boxes of 8 (12,000 Total Cigars)
• La Aurora Puro Vintage 2004 (6 1/4 x 52) — 2011 — 1,000 Boxes of 8 Cigars (8,000 Total Cigars)
• La Aurora Puro Vintage 2005 (6 1/2 x 52) — 2013 — 1,000 Boxes of 8 Cigars (8,000 Total Cigars)
• La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario Salomon (6 1/2 x 50/60) — 2016 — 1,500 Boxes of 18 Cigars (27,000 Total Cigars)
• La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario Preferidos (5 x 54) — 2016 — 1,500 Boxes of 18 Cigars (27,000 Total Cigars)
• La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario Robusto (5 x 54) — 2016 — 1,500 Boxes of 18 Cigars (27,000 Total Cigars)

• Cigar Reviewed: La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario Preferidos
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: La Aurora Cigar Factory
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Havana
• Binder: Brazil
• Filler: Brazil, Dominican Republic (Ciabo Valley) and Nicaragua
• Length: 5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Vitola: Perfecto
• MSRP: $18.62 (Boxes of 18, $335.16)
• Release Date: May 11, 2015
• Number of Cigars Released: 1,500 Boxes of 18 Cigars (27,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Visually, the La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario Preferidos is quite distinctive, with a milk chocolate wrapper that is smooth to the touch and features a touch of oil. The vitola is basically a double torpedo with a clean cut foot, and there are some fairly obvious veins running up and down the length. Aroma from the wrapper is a combination of espresso beans, dense and dark cocoa, earth, manure and slight black pepper while the cold draw brings flavors of strong and distinct milk chocolate, leather, earth, sweet nuts and pepper.

The La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario starts off the first third with a dominant combination of aromatic cedar and peanuts, interspersed with flavors of leather, ground coffee beans, cinnamon, tobacco, dark chocolate, baker’s spices and slight orange citrus. There is a touch of spice on my tongue as well as some black pepper on the retrohale, and I am picking up some cherry fruit sweetness as well, which really bumps up the overall complexity. The draw is excellent after a dickman cut while the burn is decent enough to not need correcting, and the smoke production is well above average off of the foot. Strength-wise, the cigar starts off noticably lower than medium, and while it does make some inroads by the time the first third ends, it still falls well short.

The dominant flavors shift during the second third of the La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario Preferidos, with a ground coffee and cedar combination taking the top spot, followed by baker’s spices, almonds, toast, graham crackers, cinnamon and dark chocolate. The cherry sweetness is both stronger and more distinct as I pass the halfway point, and there is still some pepper on the retrohale as well. Construction-wise, the draw is still excellent and thankfully, the burn has evened up nicely, while the smoke production remains dense. The strength increases a bit, but remains below the medium point by the time the second third comes an end.

The final third of the Puro Vintage 2006 continues the trend of the previous thirds, with the combination of both cherry sweetness on the retrohale as well as cedar, ground coffee, hay, yeast, cinnamon, creamy leather and earth. Both the burn and draw are totally in sync, giving me no issues whatsoever, and the overall strength does finally reach the medium mark by the time I put the nub down with a little less than an inch left.

Final Notes

• Although members of the Tobacconists’ Association of America (TAA) were the first to be able to purchase and receive this release, it is not considered a TAA exclusive, since non-member stores could order them as well.
• In addition, one of the master cases was auctioned off at the 2015 Procigar Festival.
• While the overall strength ended up being just a touch lower than medium, I am still surprised at how much strength the blend has, considering the tobacco has been aged for 10 years.
• This is one of the best smelling cigars I have smoked in a while, with a combination of dark chocolate, ground coffee beans and cedar.
• Although the construction was quite good for the most part, the burn on all all three samples had to be touched up multiple times during the first third. Having said that, each of the cigars burned like a champ after that.
• La Aurora’s distributor, Miami Cigar & Co., advertises on halfwheel.
• The cigars smoked for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• The final smoking time for all three samples averaged just under two hours.
• If you would like to purchase any of the La Aurora Puro Vintage 2006 111 Aniversario Preferidos, site sponsor Atlantic Cigar has them in stock.

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.