Emilio audiophile

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Patrick Lagreid and I were grabbing a quick meal at Boulevardier in Dallas’ Bishop Arts District. During that meal, we spent a decent time talking about a press release that had arrived in our inboxes earlier that day regarding the Emilio brand and Black Label Trading Co.

That press release announced that Emilio, which is owned by the Zucca family, would be produced at Fábrica Oveja Negra—the factory owned by the Brown family, which also owns Black Label—and that Black Label Trading Co. would be in charge of the branding of Emilio.

Now, nearly four years later, the end result is quite similar to what I think we imaged would happen. For all intents and purposes, Emilio appears to be a sub-brand within the larger Black Label portfolio, which is now known as Oveja Negra Brands. Within that portfolio there are Black Label and Black Works Studio—both owned by the Browns—and Emilio, owned by the Zuccas. While there are different owners, I doubt consumers or retailers would be able to discern that unless they already knew that fact. All three brands have their cigars made at Fábrica Oveja Negra, all three have a very similar style in terms of branding, and all three are distributed by Oveja Negra Brands.

While Emilio and Black Label might share a common design style, it would not be accurate to say that it has an identical identity to Black Label. The modern Emilio brand has rebranded a variety of older Emilio brands like Suave and Grimalkin as well as introduced a variety of entirely new brands.

One of the brand’s latest lines is called audiophile, with yes, a lowercase a. It’s a single-size limited edition release offered in a 5 x 52 robusto size. It uses an Ecuadorian maduro wrapper over an Ecuadorian habano binder and fillers from Nicaragua. While it’s a limited edition, Oveja Negra Brands has not disclosed production numbers.

• Cigar Reviewed: Emilio audiophile
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Fábrica Oveja Negra
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Maduro)
• Binder: Ecuador (Habano)
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Robusto
• MSRP: $10.50 (Box of 20, $210)
• Release Date: Sept. 5, 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: Undisclosed
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

While not the near-black color that occasionally looks maroon, this is a very dark shade of brown that with the right light will occasionally look purple. Texture-wise, I find the audiophile’s wrapper to be very supple, and I can feel a good amount of oil on the wrapper. While the caps are coming loose on two cigars, there are no other visual signs that could qualify as any issues while rolling. The aroma from the wrapper is full, with scents of roasted nuts, cedar, walnuts and a smell that reminds me of a box of raisins. The foot is much sweeter with brown sugar over plums, generic tobacco flavors and the faint smell of acidity. Cold draws have a slightly loose draw. Flavor-wise, it tastes like earthiness, pita bread, white pepper, garlic powder and a touch of bitterness. It’s medium-plus in intensity, which is a bit surprising given how strong the aromas are.

I was hoping that the draw would tighten up once the cigar was lit—something that oftentimes happens—but instead it gets looser. The first puff delivers soft wood flavors followed by a sharp white pepper and toastiness. For 10-15 seconds, the flavors build in intensity, though they seem to stop the acceleration to remain at medium-full. Fortunately, the draw improves after the first few minutes and I can’t say I thought about it again after that. Terroir is the name of the game for the first third. There are generic earthy flavors, but the terroir flavors easily overpower those flavors. Other secondary notes include dry bread, woody flavors such as oak, a mild vegetal flavor that tastes a bit like lettuce, and a mild-medium black pepper. The finish provides great contrast thanks to a milk-like creamy base and wood flavors. That said, the terroir flavors don’t entirely disappear. Retrohales bring woody flavors to the top of the profile—sometimes as detailed as the sensation of fresh lumber—while both creaminess and a sweet vanilla flavor add more detail. Black pepper increases on both my tongue and in my throat after the smoke leaves my nose. There are also added grainy flavors and, at the very end, a tart lemon. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium-full, though the nicotine is somewhat hidden. While smoke production is typically great, there are times during each cigar where I find the need to make a touch-up.

There are still plenty of terroir flavors during the middle parts of the Emilio audiophile, though they’ve added an edginess to them. The larger change is that an array of wood flavors—oak, freshly cut lumber, sawdust—are now challenging the earthy flavors for the top spot. During each puff, I still taste black pepper, but I don’t know how much of that is because of the smoke that’s hitting my taste buds versus how much of it is lingering from the first third. After the halfway mark, the profile—seemingly on a dime—decides to get creamier. On some puffs, the thick creaminess overtakes both the earthy and woody flavors, though that’s not always the case. During the puffs when the creaminess leads, I can find nuttiness, some lemon creaminess, a bitter leather and a slightly different black pepper flavor. The finish still has lots of terroir and black pepper, though I also get some nuttiness and cedar. Even during the puffs where the flavor turns creamier, the finish does not follow suit. That said, there are some puffs where the finish tastes like pita bread that had been soaked in olive oil. Retrohales have pecans, saltiness, oak, creaminess and white pepper. The latter doesn’t really last all that long as once the finish hits, the pepper reverts back to black pepper before a more mineral-laden terroir flavor emerges. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-full. Construction improves on two cigars, though one cigar has turned into a bit of a mess on this front. That cigar’s burn rate has slowed down a lot and multiple touch-ups are needed to help with smoke production.

The terroir flavors shift to one that tastes much grittier thanks to an uptick in the mineral elements of the earthiness. Unfortunately, more so than before, the earthiness seems to overwhelm most of the other flavors I can pick up. I try my best to ignore the mineral flavors and can find some nuanced flavors like what the inside of a baguette tastes like and also some creaminess, but it’s a bit of a fishing expedition to find much beyond earthiness. The finish continues to have black pepper, now with an added toasty component. Underneath is some creaminess, a cake batter sweetness and some red pepper in the throat. On two cigars I taste pepper on my lips for the first time during the cigars. Retrohales show some sweet fruity flavors for a few seconds, but then the toastiness builds to overwhelm the fruitiness and whatever else might be present. The retrohale’s finish has toastiness and white bread edging out some black pepper. There’s also some leather and barnyard flavors. Because the retrohales have virtually none of the mineral-laden earthiness, I end up retrohaling more in the final third than I did in the earlier parts of the cigar. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is full enough to the point that I can begin to feel it from all three cigars. Construction is great on one cigar, another cigar needs a touch-up and the aforementioned slow-burning cigar needs help to avoid the smoke from completely dying.

Final Notes

• During the first cigar I smoked, I wasn’t paying all that much attention to the strength except for a handful of puffs during each third to gauge it for my notes. But by the end of that cigar, I was feeling the effects of the nicotine. Going forward, I was much more on alert during the next two cigars and noticed the increased strength levels in the earlier parts. Overall, I’d peg the strength level as full.
• Because so many of the people who own cigar companies are musicians—amateur, semi-professional and professional—musical themes show up in a lot of cigar brands. The two that stand out to me the most are Aging Room and AVO.
• While it’s a bit tough to see on the band, the logo for this release is a diagram of the parts of a turntable.
• I’m a bit confused as to why I wasn’t able to taste pepper on my lips for the first two thirds of two cigars but suddenly found it during the final third. For what it’s worth, I never tasted it on the third cigar I smoked.
• If you aren’t actively paying attention to it, keeping the combustion levels up could be an issue. While I was generally able to avoid using my lighter, that was only done through more proactive monitoring of the combustion.
• Amongst the halfwheel staff, I think I am the closest to an audiophile, though Patrick Lagreid works as a voice talent, so he has professional audio experience. That said, I do not think of myself as an audiophile, rather, I’m someone who occasionally dips my toe into that crazy world. There was a point in my life when I thought that I probably would become one, but over time I became much more interested in finding joy from listening than chasing the proverbial rabbit to upgrade my equipment constantly. While my various set-ups would pale in comparison to most people commenting on audiophile forums, I do have more audio gear than the average person.
• While I’m not going to list every piece of gear I own, my current setup at my desk is: Tidal->S.M.S.L SU-9 DAC->Massdrop x Alex Cavalli Tube Hybrid Amp->LCDi4.
• I had the Audeze iSine 20s and was really enjoying them. After two years of contemplating the i4s, I gifted the iSine 20s to a family member that loved them during a brief listening session and treated myself to the i4s. It wasn’t a financially-wise decision, but the i4s can really deliver some special sounds.
• That said, due to convenience, I probably spend more time listening to content played through Sony WF-1000MX4s and AirPods than anything else and that sort of sums up my limits with the audiophile lifestyle. While I can acknowledge that with some records I think I can hear a difference when played through a vinyl set-up, I can’t put the records, turntable, pre-amp, amp, speakers and all the various vinyl maintenance gear in my pockets, but I can put both sets of earphones in one pocket and my iPhone in the other.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• For two cigars, the final smoking time was more or less and an hour and 45 minutes each. One cigar was closer to two and a half hours.