Review: Partagas 165th Aniversario 109 (Prerelease)

For those of you that don’t know…

One of the most anticipated new cigar releases around the time of the 2011 Annual Habanos Festival was the Partagas 165th, which were rolled to celebrate the 165th Anniversary of the Fernando Perez German in Cuba. The 165th band on each cigar was made especially for the Humidor… Only 165 Humdiors were produced (numbered from 000 – 165), and each humidor contains 50 cigars:

• 25 Sublimes (6 1/2 x 54) — Top
• 25 109 (7 1/4 x 50) — Bottom

The hand made humidors and bands look like this:

(images courtesy of cgarsltd)

Interestingly, the 109 vitola seems to be making a strong comeback, not only in Cuba, but in non Cuban releases as well. The vitola was in the 155th anniversary humidor released in 2000, the Edmundo DantesConde 109 in 2007 and 2008 as well as the recent Tatuaje Federal 90th Rosado and Reserva.

 

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But enough of that, let’s get down to business, shall we?

• Cigar Reviewed: Partagas 165 Aniversario Humidor 109
• Country of Origin: Cuba
• Factory: Fernando Perez German
• Wrapper: Cuba
• Binder: Cuba
• Filler: Cuba
• Size: 7 1/4 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 50
• Vitola: 109
• Est. Price: Varies Wildly, around $60-$100
• Date Released: 2011
• Number of Cigars Released: 165 Humidors of 25 Cigars (4,125 Total Cigars)*
• Number of Cigars Smoked for Review: 2

The Cigar itself seems perfectly rolled, with a nice milk chocolate brown wrapper that has a few seams, but nothing overtly annoying…There is some oil present on the wrapper, and it smells strongly of Hay, barnyard, Chocolate, and leather…just a great scent…It is fairly hard when squeezed, but not too hard…The Predraw tastes of sweet wood, hay and chocolate…

 

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The First Third starts with quite a bit of spice on the tongue that sticks around for about 10 puffs, then dies down to the perfect ratio…the flavors come hot and heavy: pungent barnyard, sweet hay, espresso and just a tiny bit of tangy fruit that I could not place…There is also a small amount of bitterness in the background, just enough to notice…

The Second Third has much of the same flavors, but they did mellow out a bit, with the spice dying down even more as well…The Leather note was dominant, and the bitterness from the First Third seemed to be getting a tad stronger as well throughout the entire third…

The Last Third mellowed even more (although the flavors were still there)…The profile turned just a bit more sweet, but the bitterness was also stronger (albeit, not a bunch stronger, but still noticeable)…I also noticed a bit of a nutty note that was not present before…The cigar turned quite mild at the end, but I was easily able to finish it…

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Final Notes:

• For this review, I smoked one of each of the vitolas in the official release (Sublime and 109 Vitolas)…These were Prerelease samples of the 165th, given out before the official release of the humidors, thus the reason they do not have bands.
• While I enjoyed both vitolas, I thought the 109 size was just a tad better…More flavors in the first third, and just a bit more “Rich” in the profile…
• The First Third of the Partagas 165th was without a doubt the best in terms of flavor…The profile just seemed to sort of taper off after that, with the bitterness becoming more noticeable towards the end…
• There was quite a bit of Thick, white smoke that came off of both samples…in the 109, the smoke smelled floral in the first half (roughly) while it smelled strongly of spicy wood in the second half…
• The Burn and Draw were flawless throughout the smoke…just a joy to smoke…
• The Final Smoking Time was 1 Hour and 45 Minutes…

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The Bottom Line: While this is a very good cigar, with quite few of the classic Partagas flavors, it is also a very young cigar, with some of the typical issues that young Cubans exhibit…There was some bitterness present (especially in the final third), but it was not so bad as to overwhelm the flavors, and that is not unusual with young Cubans…The Flavors were extremely intense in the First third (and great flavors!), but mellowed out as the cigar progressed…It was a very good smoke overall, but I think it does have a lot of potential once properly aged…I don’t know if it will eventually be as good as some of the classics (like the Partagas 155th, for example), but I am looking forward to finding out…

 

 

Final Score: 85

(with the potential to be 90-92)