It’s not Warped. Or maybe it is.

For the last year, Kyle Gellis—best known as the founder of Warped—has been teasing cigars made under the Jason~Dumont. It actually started with a wine label, which led me to believe that this was a cigar being made for a winery.

As it turns out, that’s very much not the case.

Jason~Dumont is the combination of the middle names of Gellis and his father, Ronald. It is a wine label made at the Houyi Vineyard, and Warped made a cigar for one of the vineyard’s labels, Nine Suns.

As for the Jason~Dumont cigar, it’s not technically a Warped product. Rather, Jason~Dumont is the first line from Gellis’ new company, Proprietary Cigar Co. It will fully launch in 2021 as a regular line sold at retailers nationwide. That blend is a Nicaraguan puro made at Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A. in Estelí, Nicaragua, the same factory that has produced many Warped products over the years.

However, the regular Jason~Dumont debuted in a single size in September 2020 through DROP, Gellis’ online cigar club.

 

Last month, SmallBatchCigar.com received the first extension to Jason~Dumont, a maduro version called Jason~Dumont Noir. It’s a 6 x 48 toro that uses an Ecuadorian maduro wrapper over an Ecuadorian binder and Dominican piloto cubano and Nicaraguan fillers, most of which is said to be Nicaraguan corojo. Unlike the regular line, this is made at El Titand de Bronze in Miami.

It is limited to 500 bundles of 10 cigars and priced at $170.

  • Cigar Reviewed: Jason~Dumont Noir
  • Country of Origin: U.S.A.
  • Factory: El Titan de Bronze
  • Wrapper: Ecuador
  • Binder: Ecuador
  • Filler: Dominican Republic (Piloto Cubano) & Nicaragua
  • Length: 6 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 48
  • Vitola: Toro
  • MSRP: $17 (Bundle of 10, $170)
  • Release Date: Nov. 4, 2020
  • Number of Cigars Released: 500 Bundles of 10 Cigars (5,000 Total Cigars)
  • Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

With the word Noir in the name, I expected a dark wrapper, and while pretty, this isn’t a very dark leaf. I went back and checked the news story I had written and wasn’t surprised to see that the wrapper was listed as “Ecuadorian maduro,” though was a bit surprised to look back at the cigar and see something that didn’t look very maduro. Of course, maduro is neither a seed varietal nor a uniform definition. What this cigar does have is a lot of red hues and a good amount of oil. The aroma from the wrapper is medium-plus with barnyard, peanuts and something that reminds me of the smell of paste. Aromas from the foot are sweeter and stronger. It’s led by maple syrup on top of some cocoa and then something I can’t really identify. The cold draw is even sweeter with roasted pecans, cocoa, meatiness and a bit of brown rice. It’s medium-full and reminds me of a cigar that is probably older than what this cigar actually is.

The Jason~Dumont Noir begins with a pretty common mixture of nuts, woods and a bit of lemon. It’s medium-plus and very smooth, which is more than acceptable to me. The nuttiness remains as the first third develops, now leading butter, lemon and some white pepper. Somehow, the finish has both more of the butter flavor and is also harsher. There’s cedar and earthiness, as well as just an underlying edginess that I don’t feel when the smoke is in my mouth. Retrohaling produces straw, a caramel candy flavor and creaminess. The finish of the retrohale has the caramel, but it’s joined by black pepper and a lot of toastiness. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-full and strength is medium.

A very distinct Life cereal note emerges in the second third. It eventually overtakes the nuttiness, which is now joined by cinnamon and white pepper as secondary flavors. The finish has cedar, creaminess and some more of the Life cereal flavor. Retrohales are a bit like the early parts of the cigar: nuttiness over leather and citrus. Once the smoke leaves my nostrils, things change quite dramatically. It’s harsher with a mineral flavor, burnt popcorn, paprika and cinnamon. Flavor is full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus. Two cigars need touch-ups for uneven burns, while the third is fine.

It takes a bit longer for the transition into the final third of the Jason~Dumont Noir to emerge than the mathematical thirds would suggest. Once it does, the profile gets much creamier. Secondary notes include cedar, a spiced rum, and at times, the nuttiness. The finish is now led by the straw flavor, though there’s more of the creaminess, as well as some saltiness. Retrohales have earthiness, cedar, apple and a bit of white pepper. Fortunately, the roughness from the second third is gone. Flavor is medium-full—though probably medium-plus by the nub—body is medium-plus and strength is medium-plus.

Final Notes

  • I’m curious to see what comes of Proprietary Cigar Co. At the moment, it seems like a bit of unnecessary marketing, but perhaps it ends up being something noticeably different from Warped.
  • While I think the Proprietary part might be a bit unnecessary, I do appreciate the background provided for what Jason~Dumont is. It’s always nice to get some insight into why a cigar is called what it is. The Jason~Dumont wine website is also very well done.
  • Given the differences in blend varietals, I’m curious to see how different this ends up being from the regular Jason~Dumont line.
  • This looks like it could be the official cigar of South Carolina. The tree is a palm tree—and homage to the Gellis’ home in South Florida—though it reminds me a lot of the palmetto used for South Carolina’s flag.
  • The wine brand—which uses the same logo—foregoes the ~ in between Jason and Dumont. And yes, that’s a ~, not a dash.
  • As evidenced in the final third picture, this is a very nubbable cigar. That being said, the flavor gets much more pedestrian with a little more than an inch left.
  • Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
  • Final smoking time was one hour and 40 minutes on average.
  • SmallBatchCigar.com has the Jason~Dumont Noir in stock.
87 Overall Score

A bit of disclosure, I know that this is technically a different company. But, for all intents and purposes, I believe most people are going to look at this as a Warped product. For better and worse, my subjective thoughts on Warped at the moment are being judged on a curve—and it's not a good curve. The last few new items from Warped have been lackluster. The good news is, the Jason~Dumont Noir is not lackluster. It's a solid cigar that has some unique flavors, and seemingly has some room to improve with a bit of settling down of the second third. The bad news is, this may not really change my thoughts about Warped's current position. I haven't smoked that many Warpeds in the last year—inevitably fewer than 10 cigars—but what I have smoked has been a shell of what the brand looked like four or five years ago. The Jason~Dumont Noir is certainly a step in the right direction, but for some—myself included—this isn't the confidence restorer the brand needs.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.