Padrón Family Reserve No. 96 Maduro

Padrón

• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacos Cubanica S.A.
• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Maduro)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 5 3/4 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 52
• Vitola: Robusto Extra
• MSRP: $29.50 (Box of 10, $295)
• Release Date: April 2023
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Original Score: 91

It’s rare when I go into the Padrón booth at the PCA Convention & Trade Show that I’m caught off-guard by the company’s new products. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen—the Padrón 50th Anniversary humidor from 2014 still stands out as one such occasion—but for the most part, the company sticks to the same plan as previous years, which leads to a feeling of familiarity and if anything, a sense of ease when walking into the booth and getting to work.

Such was the case in 2022, when the company added this cigar along with its natural wrapper counterpart. And some project called Legends, of course, but that’s another cigar for another time. The Padrón Family Reserve No. 96 marks what would have been the 96th birthday of company founder and patriarch José Orlando Padrón, adding a robusto extra to the line that debuted back in 2009 in celebration of the company’s 45th anniversary.

As I noted in my review, it didn’t take more than a few puffs and a retrohale or two to realize that this was likely going to be a good cigar. That supposition came to pass by way of an impressive progression of pepper and earth, both of which I tend to think of as hallmarks of Padrón’s maduro-wrapped cigars, but also a thick and flavorful creaminess in the first half. As is the case with the majority of cigars on this list, construction was very good, and in my case, merited being called near-flawless.

Summing up the rest of the panel’s thoughts, each said it held up the long tradition of highly-rated cigars from the company, though there was some disagreement about which half of the cigar did the better job in that regard. If anything, strength may have been just a tick much at times, though no one said it was a true detriment to the profile that kept the bar at the high-level Padrón has set. —Patrick Lagreid