Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican San Vicente Seco ~ Aged in Wine Casks for 6 months
Size: 6.75 x 50 Diademas Figurado
Strength: Mild/Medium
Price: $57.00
Released: July 2024
Quantity Released: 4,000 boxes of 10 cigars released in the U.S.

My cigars received 3 months of naked humidor time.

BACKGROUND:
From Davidoff Cigars:
“In 1946, Zino Davidoff designed a line of cigars inspired by the world of wine. The blend would be selected depending on the soil and the climate in which the tobacco grew, and just as red wine blends three different main grapes, these cigars would feature three different fillers. The line we know as Davidoff Grand Cru today has its origins in this wine-cigar analogy. Davidoff’s Grand Cru Diademas Finas Limited Edition Collection cigar is the brand’s first Grand Cru figurado format and features a filler tobacco that was aged in a Premier Grand Cru Classé red wine cask.”

THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
$57 for a single cigar. HW gave rated it 92. That’s 200 from me.

The cigar doesn’t look stunning or does it inspire me to fawn over it. An ordinary looking $17 Diadema. So where is the other $40? Let’s see…

Aromas are surpizingly faint considering the hoopla that the tobacco was aged in wine barrels for 6 months. Sure, it was the filler and not the wrapper that was cask aged, but I still expect something. Distant aromas are sweet with hints of vanilla, caramel, floral, barnyard, and oak. After huffing the stick more than I care to admit, the wine influence is slightly upended and available. A younger nose would have picked this up earlier.

The cap’s construction is very cool. I carefully clip it. You don’t want to mess up an expensive cigar. (Apologies to my Euro and Commonwealth readers because they pay $50 for an Alec Bradley). The draw is dead on arrival. I forge ahead hoping that the cigar, once lit, will open.

The cold draw is lemony, nougat sweetness, creamy, hay, peanut butter, white pepper, oak, and cinnamon.

I love it when a cigar’s flavor profile finds common ground for all who smoke and critique it. Consistency goes a long way. Especially since smokers think reviewers are a joke because of the flavor wheel adjectives often used to describe a cigar. Rank and file says I like it or I don’t. Me too. I only taste the incidentals when I write about a cigar.

Initial impressions are that it tastes like lemon-laced hay and white pepper.
The draw is clean. No need for my PerfecDraw.

Back in the day, a wealthy friend was murdered during a home invasion. Apparently, his housekeeper set things up because his cocaine use was flagrant. That, and she was a participant in several ménage à trois with Alan and his wife. An Elvis spiritual was played after the pastor’s recital at the end of the funeral proceedings. He sat quietly on the stage. Next up was the live version of Rod Stewart’s “Hot Legs.” Seven minutes. The man nearly defrocked himself as he leaped into the air and exited. The folks attending just sat there uncomfortable and stunned. At the graveside, we attendees wore shades and bowed our heads as the detectives took photos of everyone. You could smell the cocaine guilt in the air. The culprits were arrested the next day. I remember this about Alan and his manner of making a phone call: Me: “Hello?” ‘Hi Phil.’ “Hi Alan.” ‘This is Alan.’

The heat binds the tobacco together. It fattens up nicely. Thank goodness that construction is excellent. But the burn ain’t so hot. I could not afford to spend $171 on three cigars. Writing it off on my taxes would raise a red flag for the IRS. It is essential to smoke at least 3 cigars for a review. Unless you are an altakaker on a fixed income.

An inch in and the cigar tastes expensive.

Flavor wheel elements: Lemony creaminess, white pepper, cinnamon, peanut butter, French bread, oak, and milk chocolate. Nice.

Most sophisticated smokers steer clear of mild/medium blends because they don’t taste like anything. My favorite blend in this category is the Casdagli Daughters of the Wind. Strong body. Mild behavior.

Generally, a Davidoff blend is better off with at least a year of humidor time. Not just a few months. But it’s silly for a reviewer to wait that long and then the cigar is no longer available. What’s the point? The only time this seems to work is when the cigar is a well-known unicorn. The other issue is reviewers being impatient and reviewing a cigar four hours after they receive it. The critique becomes just a wild guess from the perspective of being cigar-poor. So even with 3 months of naked humi time, I’m still guessing but with the viewpoint of someone who has smoked cigars for six decades.

Can I taste the premium Grand Cru Classé wine-soaked oak barrels? Faintly. Not so much the wine, but a very pleasant fruity sweetness…and that’s enough. There are plenty of chemical-soaked flavored cigars that can imitate the flavor of wine. Better is organic than a modern science experiment.

Peanut goodness soars as the cigar reaches the halfway point. Creaminess is kept at bay. The citrus note is constant. Bakery spices appear. Which leads to graham crackers also emerging. Transitionally, the first half was only reasonable in its approach. This is where sufficient aging should heal the issue. There isn’t serious depth of field, which is an alarm bell. I feel like I’m tasting blender’s intent instead of the finished product. Will the blend excel with extended humi time? I believe so.

Strength is a solid medium. A nice morning cigar. But then that defeats the purpose of smoking a cigar that prices out at more than half a C note. You want to herf with this cigar so you can show it off to your buddies…not smoke it in seclusion like this old man.

Flavor wilding begins. A combo of red grapes and black cherries show up to please the crowd. Fruitiness takes hold of the blend’s temperament. Creaminess is brought to the forefront. Citrus becomes candied lemon peel. A complete turnaround.

The second half is the golden ticket. Yeah, I get it. This was a carefully designed blend. Davidoff got it right.

Flavors coalesce. The wine aging is clearly apparent…much more so than the first half.
I gotta be honest…I get scared as shit reviewing an expensive cigar. Especially, if I only have one shot. This was not an especially good time for me. The last thing I want to do is trash a good cigar or overcompensate and rate the cigar highly because I think I should.

Flavors are canonized. I expected noble richness from the blend. I expected to be wowed. Three months of naked humidor rest is insufficient. The good news is that I’m confident the cigar will shine brightly with prolonged time in your humidor. The tempo will increase nicely.

About a year in, my recording studio had become very successful. And as such, weirdos were attracted to the dough, drugs, charisma, and rock n’ roll lifestyle. The studio was broken into almost weekly. We had an alarm system, and it worked well. I’d get a call from Long Beach PD in the middle of the night to come down to the studio, open it up, turn off the alarm, and let the cops search it. The studio took up the entire ground floor of a four-story building. Above were apartments. A few seedy characters called it home. A trio of guys thought they could pull one over on us. Every time, this was how stupid they were, they’d try to use the duct system as an entry point. Each time, trip wires in those ducts went off and triggered the alarm. You’d think they would have learned. They never got caught. But everyone in that apartment building knew it was these three guys. The renters ratted them out to us because they couldn’t stand these scumbags.

We saw them now and again on the street. We saw them because I also had the building next to the studio and turned it into a rehearsal studio. It was originally a dental office. Our business offices were in the rehearsal hall building. We constantly traveled between the buildings day and night. No one tried to break into the rehearsal building because everyone knew we had only $250 in sound equipment. Running a rehearsal studio is a huge pain in the neck. Too much effort and little return. But these kinds of places were far and few between and we felt we were doing a service for the local musicians. A punk band rented the studio and, unbeknownst to us, did so to throw a party. Hundreds of people showed up getting drunker and drunker and using meth…a great combination of moderation. The band totally trashed the P.A. Their spiked Mohawk guests trashed the lounge and hall…vomit and piss everywhere. When the cops threw them out, the band demanded we reimburse them the hourly rental fee. The K-9 wanted to eat them.

On the umpteenth day we were broken into, I had had enough. The liquor store next to us was owned by a solid guy. And he called me when the would-be thieves were in there buying cheap wine and acting the fools. I grabbed my S&W .38 revolver and ran over there. I burst in like a crazy man. I didn’t even wait for my people to follow. I waved the gun around at these guys, screaming at them: “Next time I see you, I’m going to blow your fucking heads off!!” The cocky morons showed fear in their eyes, so I continued: “You motherfuckers!! I should kill you right now!!” They took off running. We were never broken into again. I heard from the cops that the stooges got caught robbing a 7-11 convenience store. One of them got shot. I don’t miss the business of rock n roll.
2025 Photo of ex-Sound Sorcery Recording Studio and Rehearsal Studio:

We’re all snobs. Reviewers are merely translators.

My recording studio ownership hurt some of the relationships I had with old friends who were players. Whenever I needed a guitarist, I had a number of old buddies I called on. The problem was that they didn’t know how to control their playing style for the studio. Playing live and playing in a recording session are two completely different animals. You must be able to play the exact same thing take after take. Of course, solos are the place for a musician to shine. None of these guys could play with exactitude. I went the extra mile pushing the limits of time allowed by a customer. But after 30 takes, it was going nowhere. Afterwards, my friends had come-to-Jesus moments of their style of playing.

There are plenty of guys with huge amounts of discretionary cash who will scoop this cigar up in multiple boxes for no other reason than they can. Reviewers have absolutely no influence on purchasing power. For the regular Joe, this is a pass. The Grand Cru is not an exceptional cigar worth $57. But then the purchase of a couple is tempting. My advice is to put them away for at least 9 months. Do not proceed with a Let’s See smoke early in the cigar’s home aging process. Stash them and forget about them for a year.

You can purchase Davidoff Grand Cru Diademas Finas Limited Edition 2024 from sponsor Small Batch Cigar. Take 10% off with promo code KATMAN.

RATING: 93

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Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

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