Nomad Connecticut Fuerte Robusto (Prerelease)
In early 2012, Fred Rewey launched Nomad Cigar Company with a single line featuring five sizes, one of which was a limited edition. With a couple of other limited editions and a new Nicaraguan line launched in 2013, Rewey continued expanding Nomad’s offerings with the announcement of a new regular production cigar called the Nomad Connecticut Fuerte. We posted the news story back in January.
Add Nomad Cigar Co. to the list of companies trying to reinvent Connecticut. While the trend has become less prevalent as it was two years ago, Rewey said he decided to go the direction of “Connecticut with something a bit extra.” Enter Nomad Connecticut Fuerte.
“It is crazy how hard it is to blend a Connecticut cigar,” said Rewey. “Almost two years into it and got nowhere that was anything special. Finally, we decided to go a slightly different direction with it and am really happy with the blend.”
Four sizes are planned—corona, robusto, robusto gordo and toro—for a March release with pricing set between $7.90-8.50. The cigar uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, a habano binder from Ecuador with Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.
- Cigar Reviewed: Nomad Connecticut Fuerte Robusto
- Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
- Factory: Tabacalera L & V
- Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut
- Binder: Ecuadorian Habano
- Filler: Dominican Republic & Nicaragua
- Size: 5 Inches
- Ring Gauge: 50
- Vitola: Robusto
- MSRP: $7.90 (Boxes of 20, $158.00)
- Date Released: March 1, 2014
- Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
- Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 3
Upon removing the cigar from the cellophane I’m immediately greeted by an extremely pleasing tactile experience. The medium-light brown wrapper is silky smooth and slightly oily. There is a slight give when squeezing the cigar, though no soft spots of note. The aroma off the wrapper is a general barnyard and hay note with a sweet tobacco note on top. The cold draw is an intriguingly creamy cinnamon and pepper note that already has me looking forward to lighting it up.
The first third starts off with more of the cinnamon from before, with some light pepper and a nuttiness that rounds out the overall creamy and slightly sweet profile. While the draw is a little more loose than I would prefer, it’s still well within the acceptable range. The burn is a little ragged, but it seems to be evening out without needing a touch up. Some spice notes have developed in addition to the pepper, nuttiness and cinnamon up front with some slight hints of vanilla in the background. I would put the strength of the cigar at this point at a mild-medium.
The second third sees the spice growing stronger and more at the forefront, though the rest of the profile remains unchanged with the pepper, nuttiness and cinnamon notes. With the burn having long since evened out on its own and the ash holding on easily to around the inch mark, it’s easy to see that this is a well constructed cigar. The strength hasn’t seen much increase at this point, still remaining in the mild-medium range. Smoke production is nice, with plenty of smoke coming off the foot allowing me to continue to enjoy the aroma of the cigar in between draws.
Moving into the final third there isn’t much to report that I haven’t already. The burn continues to be nice and even with the ash holding on well enough to keep the last bit of the cigar smoking cool. Without any bitterness or harshness, the notes of spice, pepper, cinnamon and an overall nuttiness are able to shine through to the end. At the end I don’t notice any increase in the strength, putting the cigar in the mild-medium category.
Final Notes:
- The first Dominican line Nomad released had four regular production sizes available at launch, just like the Connecticut Fuerte line, however the sizes are not the same.
- Of the three samples I smoked, two had a little bit looser draw while the third was a little on the tighter end. My personal preference runs towards a slightly tighter draw, though all three fell well within the acceptable range.
- While I only thought the cigar was a mild-medium strength, the body was more on the full end of the spectrum with a solid flavor profile.
- On our 2013 Consensus, Nomad not only was in the top 10 brands of the year, but saw the Nomad Esteli Lot 1386 and the Nomad S-307 both place in the top 25.
- The cigars for this review were sent to halfwheel.
- Final smoking averaged just over two hours.
As I quoted in the beginning of this review, Rewey had stated that “It is crazy how hard it is to blend a Connecticut cigar”. While that might be true, the Connecticut Fuerte sees it all fall into place. Solid construction and a good flavor profile combine to make a very desirable line that I’m going to assume will be well received. The only minor issue I had were some slight burn issues in the beginning that corrected themselves. While the cigar might not develop or change much, it would be hard to argue that having a consistent and good profile is a bad thing. I can easily suggest seeking these out when they’re released in March, I know I’ll be looking forward to smoking all four sizes to find out which ones I’ll be adding to my collection.
Brian Burt
I have been smoking cigars since 2005 and reviewing them as a hobby since 2010. Initially, I started out small with a 50-count humidor and only smoking one or two cigars a month. Not knowing anybody else that smoked cigars, it was only an occasional hobby that I took part in. In March of 2010, I joined Nublive and Cigar Asylum, connecting me with many people who also shared an interest in cigars. Reading what they had to say about brands I had never heard of, I quickly immersed myself in the boutique brands of the industry and it was then that cigars transformed from a hobby into a passion.
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