Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown Churchill

In 2004, Perdomo Cigars introduced the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne, which also happened to be the first time that the company utilized a bourbon barrel-aged Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. The line has since grown to encompass nine different vitolas, including a 6 x 50 Magnum Tubo.

This July Perdomo announced a pair of brand new regular production blends under the same 10th Anniversary name, but utilizing two very different wrappers compared to the debut release, The Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown and the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Maduro are both two Nicaraguan puros were shipped in the exact same six vitolas and prices. While the Sun Grown is covered in a six-year-old Cuban-seed wrapper that received 10 months of bourbon barrel aging, the Maduro features a six-year-old Cuban-seed wrapper leaf that has been aged in bourbon barrels for 14 months.

“We blended these cigars with six-year aged Cuban-seed wrapper, binder, and filler tobaccos that we carefully hand-selected from our most prestigious farms located in the Estelí, Condega, and the famed Jalapa Valley in Nicaragua,” said Nick Perdomo Jr, president and ceo of Perdomo, in a press release. “We blended these cigars to not only be rich in flavor, but also to be very smooth on the palate with slight hints of sweetness. Our tasting panel with over 250 years of cigar making and premium tobacco experience was amazed at how great this blend tastes.”

The new lines are offered in six sizes, each packed in 25-count boxes:

• Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Maduro / Sun Grown Figurado (4 3/4 x 56) — $7.25 (Box of 25, $181.25)
• Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Maduro / Sun Grown Robusto (5 x 54) — $8.25 (Box of 25, $206.25)
• Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Maduro / Sun Grown Epicure (6 x 54) — $8.75 (Box of 25, $218.75)
• Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Maduro / Sun Grown Super Toro (6 x 60) — $9.75 (Box of 25, $243.75)
• Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Maduro / Sun Grown Churchill (7 x 54) — $9.25 (Box of 25, $231.25)
• Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Maduro / Sun Grown Torpedo (7 x 54) — $9.50 (Box of 25, $237.50)

• Cigar Reviewed: Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown Churchill
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera Perdomo S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Cuban-Seed Sun Grown)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 7 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Vitola: Churchill Extra
• MSRP: $9.25 (Box of 25, $231.25)
• Release Date: July 20, 2020
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Visually, the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown Churchill is an extremely attractive cigar with a reddish milk chocolate brown wrapper that is silky smooth to the touch that shows just a bit of oil. There are no major veins present that I can see. The cigar is very spongy when squeezed but the soft-box press is very well done. The aroma from the wrapper is a combination of dark chocolate, barnyard, hay, espresso beans, black pepper, oak and strong raisin sweetness, while the cold draw brings flavors of earth, creamy oak, leather, cocoa nibs, slight floral and the same raisin sweetness from the aroma.

The first third of the Perdomo starts off with a very creamy combination of oak and dark chocolate, while notes of freshly roasted coffee beans, earth, hay, cinnamon and slight sourdough bread bring up the rear. There is a significant amount of both black pepper and spice noticeable from the first puff, while a molasses sweetness shows its face early on the retrohale. Although there is a copious amount of smoke emanating from the foot, the draw is just a bit looser than I would like and the burn becomes problematic enough to need correcting almost immediately, although it gave me no more issues after that. Strength-wise, the 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown has no issues hitting a point fairly close to medium before the end of the first third and is still increasing.

Although the dominant flavors in the second third of the Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown continue to be the same combination of creamy oak and dark chocolate, there are some other changes with the profile, starting with the strength that continues to increase noticeably. In addition, there are secondary flavors of lemon peel, hay, cinnamon, generic nuts, leather and a slight floral flavor, while the sweet molasses sweetness, unfortunately, recedes from its high point in the first third. Both the black pepper on the retrohale and the spice on my tongue continues to affect the profile in a major way, chasing away the creaminess that was so enjoyable in the first third. Thankfully, the burn evens up nicely and gives me no issues in the second third, but the draw continues to be just a tad bit loose for my taste. In terms of strength, the Perdomo continues to increase, easily hitting a point just past the medium mark by the time the second third ends with no signs of slowing. 

Unfortunately, the final third of the 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown Churchill is giving me more of the same. The dominant flavors continue to be the same combination of oak and dark chocolate, followed by notes of generic coffee, cinnamon, bread, peanuts, vegetal, hay and slight citrus—but any real nuance in the profile is being overshadowed by the combination of spice that is still quite aggressive on my tongue and black pepper on the retrohale. In addition, the strength reaches a point just under the full mark and the molasses sweetness on the retrohale has seemingly fallen off of a cliff. All of that combine leads to problems for the Perdomo’s balance in the final third. Construction-wise, the burn is giving me no major issues and the smoke production continues to pour off of the foot, but the draw remains a bit loose until I put the nub down with a little less than an inch remaining.

Final Notes

• Interestingly, Nick Perdomo Jr. actually worked as an air traffic controller at the Miami International Airport during the same time he started his first cigar business named Nick’s Cigar Co.
• The six vitolas that both the 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown and Madruo lines launched with are offered in the exact same sizes in the company’s 10th Anniversary Champagne line in the same prices.
• No matter how little of the cap I took off, each of the three cigars had a noticeably loose draw, albeit not bad enough to impact the overall profile.
• This is a blend that becomes bitter very, very quickly if you puff too hard or too fast, so keep things a bit slower than normal when smoking it.

• The wrapper leaf used on this release is quite thin and as a result, two of the samples had some damage to the wrapper when I pulled the band off.
• Speaking of the band, at first glance, it looked to me like there were two different bands, but turns out there is just one large one.
• The cigars smoked for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• The final smoking time for all three samples averaged one hour and 58 minutes.
• Site sponsor Atlantic Cigar Co. has the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Box-Pressed Sun Grown in stock.