Wrapper: Nicaraguan Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 5.5 x 54 “Toro Especial”
Body: Medium
Price: $6.99 MSRP

Today we take a look at the new Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro.

BACKGROUND:
From Anthony’s Cigar Emporium:
“The Perdomo Small Batch Series takes “small batch” to the next level. Hand-crafted from a rare collection of 10 year aged tobaccos, the Perdomo Small Batch Series is carefully blended with smaller leaves that have the perfect balance of flavor, strength, and aroma. Perdomo has created this stunning line of small premium hand-crafted cigars by combining the finest bourbon barrel aged wrappers with these rare and exquisite 10 year aged filler tobaccos. Offered in an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, a Nicaraguan Sun Grown wrapper, or a Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper, each blend in the Perdomo Small Batch Series delivers rich, complex flavors with a smooth elegant finish.

“The third release, scheduled for May 2015, will be in an oily Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper, offering a smooth smoke with a natural sweet complexity, hints of dark cocoa and coffee, with a rich, robust finish. The Perdomo Small Batch is limited to 3,000 boxes per size, per wrapper and is available at a select group of retailers worldwide.”

DESCRIPTION:
This is a stout fire hydrant of a cigar. A dark oily brown with tight seams, numerous small veins, packed solid, and invisible triple cap.
The double cigar bands starts with the standard Perdomo band and below, it merely says Small Batch 2005.

SIZES AND PRICING:
Half Corona: 4 x 46 $4.99
Rothschild: 4.5 x 50 $5.99
Belicoso: 5 x 54 $6.49
Toro Especial: 5.5 x 54 $6.99

AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
I smell spice, chocolate, barnyard and sweetness from the shaft.
From the clipped cap and foot, I smell even stronger chocolate and spice. And a gentle creaminess. Earthy tobacco is very apparent.
The cold draw tastes like a chocolate milk shake, nose burning spice, espresso, cream, and earthiness.

FIRST THIRD:
The draw is a bit airy but giant plumes of smoke rise above my giant head and the cat runs for it.
The first flavors hit at the same time; Huge pepper bomb (My eyes water, my nose burns, and tears fall from my eyes..A good country song title), creaminess, and chocolate.
Then a blast of espresso hits the escape valve and comes out to play.
The strength hits a medium+ body in the first two minutes.

What else can I taste? C’mon Kohn. Wake up. Nuts. Nougat. Sweet condensed milk.

Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawdy…this is going to be a fun review. This is what I’m talking about. When a cigar shows its potential. Unlike the Larceny EPM I reviewed yesterday. I actually had the EPM longer than the Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro. And my palate is awash in beautiful potential from the get go.

It’s so smoky that it is nearly blinding me as I chomp and type. No wonder I stink of cigars before my morning shower.

It’s been terribly humid here in Milwaukee for a bit and I turned the A/C off at bedtime. Around 1:30, I woke up perspiring like a politician finally caught in his misdeeds.
I went downstairs to flip it back on and the stench from cigars and cigarettes was sickening. I thought to myself that it couldn’t smell like this during the day. All the windows are open and I’ve left the house and come back and never smelled what I did in the wee hours this morning. That’s right. I put on the A/C with the windows open. We are lucky and have an exceedingly low utility bill. Good ol’ Wisconsin.

Back to the Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro.

The coffee is really pushing its limits now and usurps the chocolate element.

The cable TV 60’s music channel is playing “Tears of a Clown” by Smokey Robinson. Damn. Motown was so hot back then..The Temptations, The Four Tops, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, The Chilites, Jr. Walker, and Mary Wells. Just an old man remembering the good stuff.

Once again back to the Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro.

Here they are: Creaminess, coffee, chocolate, nougat, spice (Alas, it is nearly been wiped off the map), green tea, leather, earthiness, sweetness, toffee, and sweet cedar.
Very impressive. Man, I love the first cigar of the day. Can’t get that back.
The sun has come out on this beautiful day and if it holds, I can get some nice photos although the mammoth Perdomo cigar band reflects a lot of light but we shall see.

SECOND THIRD:
The first third was glorious.
A kitchen sink list of flavors, the start of complexity, and the beginnings of a long, chewy finish.
Black licorice shows up on the tail end of the flavor profile.
Ahh..the sun is perfect and I get my money shot:

I do believe this is one of the first reviews of the maduro. Only due to I smoked one a couple days ago and told myself I had to review it. I will start up the second half of Cuban Week in a day or two. My bad.

Construction has been on point. A dead nuts char line. No wrapper issues. The cap is doing just fine.
The strength has ratcheted back a couple notches and becomes classic medium body. Probably fooled by the enormous amount of pepper. Now, the pepper is nearly gone.

The sweet factors are really dominating the flavor profile: Sweet cream, toffee, nougat, sweet tea, and a chocolate milk shake. Makes for strange bedfellows.

Wilson Pickett singing “In the Midnight Hour.” Glory. Thank you baby Jesus. Sometimes the cable TV music channel is just OK. Other days, it is full of the best that the 1960’s could offer.

What a difference between yesterday’s Larceny EPM and today’s Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro. Not even close.

And the Perdomo is almost $3 cheaper. No contest. If you haven’t tried this cigar yet, snag some. I can’t remember where I got this 5 pack. I need to write this shit down because this old man’s memory ain’t so hot anymore.

The Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro hits the sweet spot and is joined by rich complexity and a wonderful balance.

Flavors shift as quickly as I can smack my lips. A sip of water causes a waterfall of flavors.

Sly Stone is doing “Dance to the Music.” I once saw him in the studio in the 70’s and I was shocked at what I saw. He had a synth keyboard and a pile of cocaine 6” high on top of it. Sly had allowed his little finger on his right hand to grow to at least 2” past the tip of his finger and used it to pick up the coke and snort it.

The Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro has become a bit static now. The flavors are so big and bold, they have no place to go. It is almost like over kill.

The coffee returns as a main component. The sweetness still prevails. The burn is slow and delightful. Ever have a small cigar and you couldn’t wait for it to finish because it didn’t wow you? Or like the Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro a good chunky sized stick, and while it smokes slow, it seems to go by way too fast?
Smoke time has been 45 minutes.

HALFWAY POINT:
Black licorice makes its move. So does the sweet tea. Nice exotic combo.

The mood is crushed as cable TV radio plays “The Monster Mash.” Oh lord. But makes a great comeback and plays The Byrds’ “So You Want to Be a Rock n Roll Star.”
The Byrds breakup was one of the great tragedies in modern day music. Back then they were considered the American Beatles. I concur.
I played in a band that did all their hits. What a reaction we got from the audience. Just alarmingly terrific. The big problem of music in the 60’s was that every song was limited to around 2.5-2.75 minutes if they wanted airplay.

My Eddie Munster “Whatever Happened to Eddie” video and song was exactly 2 minutes. And the video had 33 scene cuts. That’s a new scene every 3.6 seconds.
I think we were ahead of our time with the fast edit mentality that didn’t come for another 20 years.
Strength maintains at medium body.

You thought I forgot about the cigar didn’t you? My detractors hate me for all these useless anecdotes.
I only insert them when the cigar is a real joy stick.

The Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro is going into the “The Katman’s List of 135 Great Cigars in the $5.00-$6.50 Range.”
Look at the oil on the wrapper. Just oozing goodness:

The Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro is on cruise control. Just fine with me.

LAST THIRD:
The sweet spot is so engorged with flavor that it is leaking and dripping on to the floor.
We have sweet spot 2.0 now.

Flavors go from subtle and nuanced to the bold and beautiful.

One last time: Cream, chocolate, coffee, nuts, nougat, toffee, sweet tea, earthy, leather, blackberry jam (Jam up and jelly tight), black licorice, leather, spice, and sweet cedar.

Too much glue on both cigar bands. Had to clip the secondary band just so the photos look nicer.

Nothing I can do for the main band. Had the same issue with the first cigar I smoked.

Perdomo swung and hit one out of the park with the Small Batch 2005 Maduro. I’m sort of surprised that Perdomo doesn’t put out more blends like this one. Such a big company that you’d think they could crank out several cigars per year.
Smooth, smooth, smooth.
Yeah, it’s a flavor bomb.
What a fun review. Nothing starts my day out with a big smile like a great cigar to review.
Smoke time has been 90 minutes.

PRICE POINT:
The price is so low for this much quality is because of the access Perdomo has with all their farms and not releasing only 400 boxes. That is so gimmicky that I want to puke. It puts a great demand on those cigars that you don’t stand a chance of snagging some if you don’t have the cash at the time of the release. They are gone in less than a month.

Perdomo put out over a million cigars with this blend. So plenty for everyone.
Perdomo could have been a big green greed machine but they were smart.
This just goes to show that a new cigar for 2015 doesn’t have to cost $15.00.
I definitely will be purchasing more at the start of July.

SUMMATION:
I believe I’ve said it all. Great construction. Complex. Nice balance. Long finish.
And a major list of flavors.
Due to the huge number of cigars released, you will find this cigar just about everywhere soon.
I remember where I got mine: Anthony’s Cigar Emporium. You can only buy singles or boxes. If you buy a box of 30 for $168.00, it brings the single price down to $5.60. I may just do this around social security time next month.

And now for something completely different:
Another rock n roll story….

I passed the audition and was now a member of the band. I had never heard of Curved Air. They were/are huge all over Europe, South America, and Japan. But they bombed in the U.S. No idea why. Over the band’s lifetime, 18 albums were produced and all did well in those markets. I still get royalties every 6 months from London.

The band had to complete a record deal with Decca. So the path of least resistance was a live album. Again, I had no idea who they were. No idea how huge they were.

All of the original members joined up for one last hurrah…and me. They had problems with bassists like Spinal Tap had problems with drummers. I was always afraid I’d instantaneously combust.

The band hadn’t played together in two years but remembered the songs like they played them yesterday. So only two weeks were reserved in a rehearsal hall in Covent Garden. And those rehearsals were lax, very lax. Lots of tea and biscuit breaks.

I wasn’t learning the songs. This was a progressive band in which all the members had classical degrees. They were brilliant musicians and their music proved that out. Lots of chord changes, complex time signatures, and very complicated themes.

The keys player, Francis Monkman, was very patient with me and helped me tremendously in learning the tunes. We rehearsed two dozen songs so we could change the 90 minute line up if we chose. Plus, the encores. Amazingly, the band averaged 5 encores per concert.

At the end of the two weeks, they were ready, but I wasn’t. I made copious notes on my chart paper. In their songs, the bass was out front a lot. And the riffs had to be exact.

Our first gig was at the Royal Albert Hall. Sort of the Carnegie Hall of England.

Only I didn’t know that. I thought we were going to play some decent sized club. Again, I had no idea who they were.

I had moved into the suburbs of London to Edgeware. A very nice, modern apartment. One day, my young neighbor came to visit and we sat in my living room where I had a couple CA posters from gigs.
He was in the British Army. He asked what I did. I pointed at the posters and said I was with them.
“What do you mean? You’re a roadie?”
“No, I’m with them. I play bass in the band.”

His face dropped and promised me that he would tell no one where I lived. I laughed hard and told him not to worry. No groupies were piled up on my doorstep. But I couldn’t get him to act naturally around me from that point forward. That was my first realization of the enormity and popularity of Curved Air.
The night of my first gig, the band’s road manager picked us all up and we drove to the gig. As we got closer to the hall, I kept asking, “Where are we going? What’s going on? Where are we going?” No one replied. I was ignored like an errant mosquito.

We were inside the hall and the roadies had finished setting up all the equipment. The stage was humongous. I looked out to the seats and saw thousands of them, including a huge balcony.

I had a panic attack. Thinking it would be a club, I had brought my charts and a music stand that I could set up next to me. I couldn’t set a music stand on this stage. Holy shit!!

We were the headliners and a couple other bands played before us. Then we were up.

“For the first time in two years….CURVED AIR!!!!”

We drove immediately into the first song. The lights and the giant PA system and all those people. The gig was sold out. I was dying inside. I barely knew the songs and now I had to do it without cheat sheets.

But…it went off without a hitch. I hit a few clams but they weren’t noticed.

At the end of the gig, I was soaked in sweat. I left the dressing room and went back out to the stage, sat down on its edge, with my feet dangling…and just watched as people exited. They were all staring at me wondering what the hell I was doing.
I was drinking it in.

Five gigs later, we began recording for the live album. It was recorded from two gigs. Not only did I not make any mistakes, but I soared with the eagles. My playing was so good that the managing director told everyone that I was the star of the album. Heads twisted convulsively as the band members looked at him like he was crazy. Egos

That comment started the slow, torturous end to my rock star career.
More to come…..

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Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, Perdomo Small Batch 2005 Maduro Cigar Review