Wrapper: Nicaraguan Colorado Habano (Jalapa)
Binder: Honduran, Nicaraguan (Jalapa)
Filler: Nicaraguan (Jalapa and Condega)
Size: 6 x 52 “Perfecto”
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $9.00

Epicurean Cigars started their first limited production cigar in 2012. Owner, Steven Ysidron, left Savinelli to start his own business.

2013 found him becoming part of the House of Emilio. Gary Griffith distributes his cigars now. Emilio also supplies a good portion of the boutique cigars that Cigar Federation sells.

Ysidron started his cigar career working in the Fuente factory, along with his father.

Epicurean only produces 700 boxes of the Gonzo Vintage 2007 per year. The tobacco leaves are aged a full four years before being rolled.

Epicurean Cigars makes four blends: Azul, AG, Gonzo, and Gonzo Santeria. The Santeria is the most expensive blend skirting the $11.00-$12.00 per stick range.

This will be the first AG 2007 I’ve smoked.

The cigar comes in 5 sizes: Petite Corona: 5.5 x 48, Toro: 6 x 52, Trajabador: 5 x 56, Lancero: 6.5 x 38, and Perfecto: 6.5 x 52. Prices range from $8.50-$9.25.

Cigar Federation offers a 3 stick sampler of the AG 2007, Gonzo Vintage 2007, and the Azul for $28.00.

I have reviewed several of the cigars that are distributed by Emilio Cigars. If you take a look at “The Katman’s Best 87 Boutique Brands/Blends in the $6-$9 Range,” Ten of the last 13 cigars on the list come from House of Emilio. Except for the Ortega Serie D Black which is not available yet but I have reviewed it HERE. (Which by the way is a cigar that surpasses anything Eddie has blended and will probably take the title of strongest cigar on the planet).

The cigar is wrapped in cedar up to the cigar band. Which is just a simple black and brown background with gold lettering. The pointy foot is just barely covered by the round tube of cedar and looks to be playing Peeky Boo.

This stick is much more rustic than the Gonzo Vintage 2007. Seams are pretty tight. Lots of veins. The wrapper is a nice dark chocolate color with lots of oil and very toothy. The cigar is extremely hard giving worry to its draw when lit.

Because the cap comes to such a long point, I must clip off a good half inch at each end and the cigar magically transform from 6” long to 5” long. I find aromas of dark cocoa, spice, leather, barnyard, cedar, and some floral notes.

Time to light up.

My worry from the hardness of the stick goes by the wayside as it has a small impact but nothing to go running screaming into the night over. I massage the stick in my hand gently and it opens the draw even more.

Spiciness is the first flavor. I got a heads up from good buddy, James S. that I should expect some chili powder spiciness in lieu of the ordinary black or red pepper.

And he is right. There is no question about it. The spiciness is a combo of cayenne pepper and Mexican chili.

While I am not paying attention to the cigar and typing, the char line makes a run for the border (No pun intended) and I must torch up half an inch of wrapper to keep it from becoming a large canoe. Not a good sign. I’ve had some great luck lately with dead nuts char lines and perfect construction of cigars I’ve reviewed. So prior to that, I was having this canoe problem way too often in the boutique blends. After a while, I began to wonder if it was me. It wasn’t. It was the cigar.

Catching the runaway train and touching it up seems to have resolved the issue.

Flavors: Dark cocoa, citrus, earthiness, chili pepper, black and red peppers, and a newly introduced creaminess, and fruit.

The fruit becomes black cherry. I have to ask someone in the know sometime why black cherry is so common in good cigars.
The strength is already classic medium and urging to go even higher early in the cigar.

The AG 2007 has a lot of similarities to the Gonzo 2007. Yet, this cigar seems it will be my favorite of the two. The deep, rich earthiness and the chili is a perfect combo and give the AG the edge. Plus, the AG becomes stronger much quicker.

Growing up in Long Beach, So Cal, we had a live in housekeeper from Mexico. My mother was very ill and Julia took care of us.

I was a nerd and hung with the smart kids in junior high which made me a pariah. But not during summer break. We had a big pool and Julia loved to cook for me and my summer time friends. She would whip up a meal of enchiladas, chile rellenos, tacos and guacamole like nobody’s business. My non-friends would call me in the morning to ask what Julia was cooking for that afternoon. Of course, once school started in September, those friends ignored me when anyone was looking but were friendly when no one was looking. So I finally got a rep as a good guy because those clowns wanted to be invited back.

The second third begins with only minor changes. Creaminess, chili, and cocoa move to the front. And the stick moves to medium/full bodied. So it is stronger than the Gonzo. Another reason that I prefer this stick.

The cigar takes on a new flavor of smokiness. Almost a burning hickory note.

At the halfway point, a delicious sweetness takes over and the black cherry settles in.
This is most definitely a flavor bomb.

I’m getting ready to place another order at the Cigar Federation Store and with each of their cigars I review, it becomes harder to decide what I will purchase again.

This cigar has been in my humidor for almost a month.

As the cigar becomes much stronger, the earthiness is the sun that the other flavor planets revolve around. The citrus becomes lime. Of course…the perfect accompaniment to any Mexican entrée.

The cigar is totally exquisite now. Perfectly balanced with an uber long finish.

And as I near the last third, the char line becomes perfectly dead nuts.

The last third sees no remarkable changes. Clearly, the second half is where the cigar decided to shine. And now it carries on that balance of flavor, character, and nuance.

The chili begins to wane leaving red pepper in its place.

The strength hits full bodied now. And the nicotine hose is letting loose with everything its got.

I still have the Epicurean Azul to review and can’t wait to try it for the first time. I chose the CF Store 3 pack sampler for $28. Glad I did and not buy three 5 packs. The price point on these cigars ain’t cheap. But the quality makes them worth it.

The flavor profile is as smooth as glass. And this is how the cigar finishes. Except for the early canoe, I have zero criticisms for this blend.

I would advise that if you think about trying this brand, go for the sampler because palates are different and you might like the Gonzo more than this stick, etc.

And now for something completely different:

1965 ~ Tel Aviv, Israel

I was 15. My grandfather took me to Israel and Europe for the summer. I had never left the country before this and getting those outdated typhus and cholera injections every Friday for 5 weeks was awful. I spent the whole weekend in bed.
First stop: Tel Aviv.

Man, it was HOT! Arizona hot. Palm Springs hot. And to make it even worse: Humid!
We were right on the Mediterranean Sea.

Kirk Douglas, Angie Dickinson, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, and Topol were all in town for the filming of the historical drama, “Cast a Giant Shadow.”

This is the summary of the movie: “An American Army officer is recruited by the yet to exist Israel to help them form an army. He is disturbed by this sudden appeal to his Jewish roots. Each of Israel’s Arab neighbors has vowed to invade the poorly prepared country as soon as partition is granted. He is made commander of the Israeli forces just before the war begins.”

I have photos of all this but in some box in the basement.

We saw Yul Brynner speak at our hotel on the patio. We saw John Wayne and Sinatra at a bar.

And the best part…We were visiting the pre-opening of the Museum of the Holocaust. It was weeks away but allowing tourists to get a free look. It was an enormous setting with several buildings.

110° outside and no shade. The buildings did not have running air conditioning yet. I was on a synagogue tour of about 50-60 people. Five of us were teens. So we hung out with each other and did everything together.

None of us were used to the heat. There were vendors selling cold drinks. Coke and Pepsi had not yet landed in Israel yet and the only sodas available were the local stuff. There was this lemon lime stuff that tasted a little like 7-Up. So that’s what the vendors called it.

We were sweating like pigs. We were beginning to suffer from heat exhaustion. Stupidly, we told our parents or, in my case, my grandfather that we would stay longer and find our own way back to the hotel.

Now what are the odds of this? None of us had any money on us. Not an Israeli penny.

There were plenty of water fountains and none of them had been hooked up yet. Same in the bathrooms.

We were standing together stressing out when one of the group pointed a finger and said, “Look. There is Kirk Douglas.”
Well, shit. It was. He stood with a group of people. One of our group said we should approach him and ask to borrow a few Israeli Pounds so we could buy some sodas.

We all froze and then I made my move. I walked up to the group and interrupted them.

“Mr. Douglas…” I told him our sad story and how we were fellow Americans. I even promised him that we would pay him back. He laughed.

Without blinking an eye, he handed me a wad of dough and told us to go have a good time. We each bought two bottles of “7-Up” and slung them down like thirsty camels.

We had enough money to get something to eat from a vendor and then figured we had to get out of there. We took a bus back to the hotel.

We told our story to the group and no one believed us.

It was a fun month touring Israel. I got mugged once by Arab kids. We rode a boat on the Sea of Galilee, We saw buildings that were thousands of years old, and had two life threatening experiences.

The first was being rocked out of our beds at the King David hotel by explosives in the lobby. And at the Gaza Strip, some Palestinian terrorists tried to sneak across the border. We stood next to our tour bus as the Israeli Defense Forces opened fire into brushy weeds and turned them red with blood.

It was also the first time I had a girlfriend. Her name was Frieda and was Polish/American. Her parents spent time at Auschwitz and survived and then moved to America where they became rich by owning a swanky apartment building in Beverly Hills.
(Frieda and I standing atop the Eiffel Tower):

I had my first make out session. And I copped my first feel. And it was caught on a dozen movie cameras as it took place in the back of the tour bus.

Young people should see the world, or at least a part of it. But even with high tensions in Israel and Europe in the 1960’s, it was nothing like today where carrying an American passport could mean your death if caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That’s a shame.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, Epicurean AG Armando Gutierrez Vintage 2007 Cigar Review, epicurean cigars