Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 7 x 48
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $6.00

I am rummaging through my humidor looking for sticks that are aged nicely and I haven’t reviewed on my latest blog. I’ve probably reviewed this cigar for different online stores and on my old blog http://www.open.salon.com/blog/katmancross; where there are several hundred reviews.

This 601 is more than a year old. I have no idea what to expect. So here goes.

Eric Espinosa and Eddie Ortega became official partners in 2003 when they developed United Tobacco. That relationship produced some wonderful cigars like the 601 line, Mi Barrio, Cubao, and others. And always in conjunction with Don Pepin Garcia.

The 601 line made its showing in 2006. It came in four blends: Red, Blue, Green, and Black. My favorite has always been the red label because it reminds me of the Cuban Ramon Allones. And I’ve smoked the Cuban Ramon Allones.

Even after being tossed around from humidor to humidor for over a year, the construction is excellent. The stick is firm. A few veins. Invisible seams. A beautiful cap. With a nice oily sheen and a bit of tooth.

I sniff and detect spice, light cocoa and dark cocoa all at once, espresso, luscious cinnamon, cedar and leather.

I clip and light up.

The draw is dry from its age. The first puffs are loaded with cocoa and cinnamon. The spiciness is there but not the Garcia blast; again due to its age. The cigar has mellowed. And with that mellowing, the spiciness has been tamed.

The draw is perfect and the char line is dead nuts.

And then here comes the flavors. Creaminess trumps the cocoa. And the flavor; in the famous words of Moe of the Three Stooges: “Spread out!” The cigar becomes complex in the first inch. Since I have very few cigars that make it to a year, I am pleasantly surprised at the sophistication of this cigar.

This is a monster… still in the first third. The red pepper escalates and my tongue numbs out a bit. Yeah, baby. Now we’re talkin’.

This cigar is so complex that it is nothing like the cigar I remember and it is better than the Cuban Ramon Allones. Although, I must admit I’ve never had a year old RA.
For me, this is the most Cuban-like cigar of the line.

The cigar is so good it has me giddy.

Now the bad news….Espinosa and Ortega dissolved their partnership. They are no longer at the helm. And I heard that Garcia is no longer involved. You might have noticed a big dip in the prices of these cigars as of late. The cigar I am reviewing is from the original line.

I don’t know who is making them, but it ain’t the boys.

So for me, this is now an end of an era. Now that I think of it, I have a year old 601 La Bomba in the humidor. My last one. I think I will review that for my own edification.
The first third ends at the 20 minute mark.

Nothing has changed. Nothing has to change. The flavors are so good; it can stay like this the rest of the cigar. Although, the strength is currently at medium; I expect that to change during the last third.

I have a cigar group on Face Book. It’s called Cigar Freaks. Erik is a member and he has impressed me as such a down to earth man who doesn’t mind mingling with us mortals. He is a very kind and appreciative individual…a swell guy. He seems to be the kind of guy you want to hang with. So many cigar savants have that god-like quality and would never occur to them that the people who they feel are beneath them are the ones that are keeping him in business.

I’m just sucking on this Churchill and having a ball. All of the flavors are perfectly matched.

I hit the halfway mark and if this cigar was any smoother it would be glass. The spice is ramping up a bit which is fine with me. The stick is perfectly balanced. And a mighty long finish.

I’m a generous guy and have given away my share of cigars to friends over the years. And I gave away a lot of 601 Red Labels. I hope they enjoyed them like I am enjoying this one now.

The creaminess takes the front row seat. It is so luscious and buttery smooth that it is almost incomprehensible. The last third begins with a ramping up of flavor and strength.
As the cigar finishes, it is blasting out flavor. And the strength is now full bodied.

If I were a rich man….I would allow all my sticks to sit for a year in my humidor. It makes them quite a treat.

And now for something completely different:

A little rock n roll…1975.

I know a lot of you tire of my ex rock god stories. LOL. But they are fun for me to re-live.

Normally, Curved Air headlined those big arenas in England and Europe; but on occasion we supported a world class band; like Jethro Tull.


Let me say this: Ian Anderson is a tool. Like Frank Zappa, he never did drugs, did not approve of drugs, did not allow his band mates to use drugs and looked down his nose on anyone using drugs. And by drugs, I am talking about the Hippie drugs: weed and hashish. In Europe, weed was almost never seen because of the climate and the difficulty to smuggle. Meanwhile, hash had more bang for the buck in terms of smuggling and worth more.

Amsterdam was always our first stop of a 6 week tour on the Continent. We stocked up on hash and weed. And damn near smoked it all on the way back to the hotel. LOL.

Somewhere in Europe, we hooked up with Jethro Tull for 4 gigs together. We met the band and all was going well. We jammed with them for hours on end prior to sound checks. It was a lot of fun. Especially, since Tull was kind of jazzy because of Anderson’s flute and our violinist and our keys player. All classically trained. Things got wild. Anderson loved us because of our musicianship. I had a great time trading riffs with their bassist, Jeffrey Hammond. I showed him how to play like Stanley Clarke and he showed me Jethro Tull riffs.
And then it became a dark and stormy night.

Each night, the band, except for Anderson, would hunker down in our dressing room; prior to the concert, and smoke some dope with us. Our band leader, Darryl the violinist never did drugs but had an enlightened view of things. He drank like a fish and enjoyed us as we got our goof on.

On the third night, we could hear Anderson SCREAMING for his band mates. The guys made a quick exit through a second door just as Anderson entered our dressing room. He smelled and saw us smoking da’ herb mon. He was livid and infuriated.

He said, “I know my guys were in here smoking dope with you. Where did they go?” His face was beet red.

We just shook our heads and hunched our shoulders in response…with a stoner’s blank expression of “I don’t know, dude.”

Off he went.

He never found them smoking. They had clustered in somewhere else and completely denied smoking dope.

The next night, the boys were back in town; or rather, back in our dressing room having a good time. We laughed like idiots for the longest time and the Anderson walked in and caught them red handed.

He screamed like a banshee. Now here were some of the most famous rock n roll guys in the world, at the time, and they cowered under the idiocy of their band leader.
They all retreated to their own dressing room and then Anderson started in on us.

Before he got too far, all five of us gave him the finger and told him to fuck off. Spittle was coming from his mouth and this stopped his tirade dead in the water. He stared at us for a moment and turned heel and left.

He didn’t allow us a sound check that night. Bastardo!

And we were never allowed to tour with them again. Methinks a whole lot of bands never toured with Jethro Tull twice.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS