Today we will be looking at a very old Dunhill made cigar. Some of you may know that Dunhill not only made cigars for themselves but also had exclusive cigars made under other brands lineups. Originally Dunhill had 3 exclusive brands, Don Cándido, Don Alfredo and Flor Del Punto which were all Dunhill brand cigars. All of these Dunhill brands were discontinued in 1982 and consolidated into one brand simply called Dunhill. As early has the pre 1960’s all the way up to the 1990’s Dunhill also made exclusive cigars within other company’s lineups. Brands like El Rey Del Mundo, H.Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey, La Corona, Montecristo, Partagás, Por Larrañaga, Ramón Allones, and Romeo y Julieta all had a few cigars made by Dunhill named the selection series.

Now the fact of the matter is I only named a handful of popular selection cigars made by Dunhill but that fact is they made a ton of cigars for a number of different companies. A lot of these aren’t even discovered or documented and new ones pop up all the time, such is the case with today’ cigar review. The Flor de A. Allones Dunhill Selección Suprema No.50 made in 1961. I have searched and searched and I simply cannot find much info on this specific cigar however, I was able to find some photos of the box, here are some photos of the original box…

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As you can see this cigar came in a box with 3 different vitolas (121mm x 38rg, 159mm x 50rg and 140mm x 38), we will be reviewing the one shown in the middle, the Selección Suprema No.50.


Let’s get to it…

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  • Cigar Reviewed: Flor de A. Allones Dunhill Selección Suprema No.50 (1961)
  • Country of Origin: Cuba
  • Factory: Real Fabrica de Tabacos Partagás
  • Wrapper: Cuba
  • Binder: Cuba
  • Filler: Cuba
  • Size: 6 1/4 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 42
  • Vitola: Coronas Grandes
  • MSRP: $55 (See Below)
  • Date Produced: 1961
  • Number Of Cigars Produced: N/A
  • Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 1

(Editor’s Note: In 2005, Christie’s sold 14 (fourteen) Selección Suprema No.50s for £440 ($755), equivalent to just under $55 a piece. There was no specific date, but they were listed as “Pre-Embargo”. — el niño diablo.)

Despite how old this cigar is it’s still in pretty good shape. There are no tears to the wrapper and it’s packed very nicely. It has a light chocolate claro wrapper with quite a few veins and lumps and other imperfections here and there. The wrapper is smooth though and has a couple of green spots we have come to see in many Cuban cigars.

The pre-light aroma is very faint and smells of tobacco and hay. The pre-light draw is very old tasting, right away it reminds me of the way my Grandmothers basement in her house used to smell when I was a child. Its not exactly a bad smell but very musty and has an almost mushroom type note to it. I also get a few basic wood notes…

Starting off in the First Third I can taste that old musty flavor right away, it’s almost overpowering. It settles down after a few puffs and I am hit with quite a bit of pepper and a little spice. There is a distinct wood note on the finish followed by some pepper.

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Coming into the Second Third the cigars flavors improve quite a bit. There is a nice creamy woodiness coming into play and there is still a good amount of pepper however the spice has died down giving me just pepper in flavor and not as much sensation. The burn and the draw are perfect and I don’t require a touch up yet although the ash falls off very quickly.

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Finishing up in the Final Third I am still getting a solid wood profile with pepper and now a dark black coffee taste. It’ very dark almost to the point of bitter and I am not quite sure if I am enjoying it or not. Half way through the final third I start to get what honestly taste like mustard…like mustard seed. It’s a very distinct flavor and all I can think of is mustard. Surprisingly I don’t dislike it…however it’s a very strange taste for a cigar and it creates a weird mish mash of flavors.

Flor de A. Allones Dunhill Selección Suprema No.50 6.png

Final Notes:

  • This cigar is very tricky to evaluate because it had some good flavors but it also had some really poor flavors. I didn’t really find much balance in this cigar. It was just a few flavors just kind of thrown together. The Musty note I detected throughout the cigar was a let down but it had a nice wood, cream and pepper aspect to it that I liked. Obviously I have no idea how this cigar tasted in its day but if I had to guess I would say this cigar is passed its prime, quite likely a long time ago. The Mustard at the end just totally confused the hell out of me and while it wasn’t necessarily a bad taste I just didn’t feel like it belonged in a cigar flavor profile.
  • This cigar had far more pepper and spice than i thought it would. It was actually a pleasant surprise as i enjoy a peppery stick.
  • The Ash of this cigar was VERY unique, so unique that I had to take a photo of it. It had a very brown color to it. It had a flaky black and white ash but underneath the ash was a weird brown shade of color and when I experienced that mustard flavor I couldn’t help but look at the ash and think…MUSTARD! Lol it was bizarre.

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  • The performance of the cigar was very impressive. It had a solid burn and a perfect draw. I didn’t have to touch the burn up once…
  • Final smoking time was 1 hour 39 minutes

 

The Bottom Line: This certainly wasn’t a horrible cigar that I couldn’t wait to put down, but it was much less than I expected. It didn’t really show me that much of an aged quality, there was bitterness towards the end that screamed youth or just a cigar that’s past its prime or has been kept in a fluctuation of temperatures and humidity throughout its 50 plus years. I suppose when you hear the name Dunhill you expect greatness, but we have to realize that every cigar has that potential of being just too old for its blend, and I think this is the case here. There wasn’t any balance or finesse with this cigar that you would expect from a Dunhill made stick. Having said that, I have had MUCH worse vintage cigars that’s for sure…

 

 

Final Score: 75

Steve Valle

Steve Valle wrote for Smoking Stogie, a precursor to halfwheel, from 2010-2011.