Ramón Allones Celestiales Finos (ER Asia Pacific 2009)

In 2009, Habanos S.A. released yet another Edición Regional, this time for the Asia Pacific region and its distributor, Pacific Cigar. Only 4,000 numbered boxes of 25 of the Celestiales Finos were released. This cigar, whose official name is Britanicas is the 12th Edición Regionals for Ramón Allones, which, while not the most of any brand, it is close to the top.

• Cigar Reviewed: Ramón Allones Celestiales Finos Edición Regional Asia Pacifico (2009)
• Country of Origin: Cuba
• Factory: Francisco Pérez German
• Wrapper: Cuba
• Binder: Cuba
• Filler: Cuba
• Size: 5 2/5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 46
• Vitola: Perfecto
• Est. Price: $15.00 (Boxes of 25, $375.00)
• Number of Cigars Released: 4,000 Boxes of 25 Cigars (100,000 Total Cigars)

The Ramón Allones Celestiales Finos has a nice Colorado brown wrapper and is almost seamless. I am in love with the vitola; it is the perfect size and shape, tapered on both ends. The cigar is a little spongy when squeezed and it smells like hay, pepper and some chocolate.

The first third started out with quite a bit of strength and spice, along with flavors of hay, wood—just generic wood, really—and leather, but the draw was horrible, and as such not easy to taste anything. The strength seemed to increase through the first third.

During the second third, the strength of the cigar increased. I became sick of the draw, so I cut the end as close to the cap as I could and that fixed it. The cigar turned slightly tannic and the flavors seemed to change to more of a salty cedar flavor that was not completely unpleasant but was a bit off-putting.

The last third was all about the strength. It actually increased to almost overwhelm anything else, but I could still taste hay, leather and grass. Interestingly, there were very few typical Ramón Allones flavors present at this moment in time.

Final Notes:

• As I said, this is an awesome size and vitola, even more so since they fly in the face of most the other ERs that now seem to be over 50 ring gauge.
• Ramón Allones seems to have a tendency to have the best looking Regional vitolas, for some reason, they just all seem to be gorgeous.
• The draw was absolutely horrible for the first third or so, but opened up after I cut it, albeit as close to the edge of the cap as I could.
• This is also one of the strongest Cubans I have smoke in a while. It is not an overpowering strength on the palate, but more of a nicotine strength that is quite noticeable. It is definitely a full cigar.
• Final smoking time was one hour and 20 minutes.

Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.