Hemingway Work of Art Maduro, 4.8 x 46/60

Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican

Storage: 65RH at 64 – 68 F.

Construction: Beautiful heavily tapered perfecxto with a fine-toothed, oily dark walnut brown wrapper. Minor veining. Solidly rolled with no soft spots. Clipped clean.

Prelight: Dark, sweet tobacco taste and aroma with a medium draw.

Burn: Lit evenly, straight burn, solid off-white ash.

Smoking Notes: The initial tastes are a wonderful blend of cream and cocoa that I can only describe as a smokable cup of hot chocolate. There are superb dark molasses and nut flavors on the finish. The smoke is silky, very rich and almost chewy thick. At the 1/4 point the Hemingway filler begins to make itself known and the flavors shift subtly to sweet wood, burnt coffee, dark chocolate and a hint of cardamom, clove and cedar. About halfway, the cigar begins to kick out some superb peppery notes on the molasses and nut finish. For the rest of the smoke the core flavors build along with the peppery notes while maintaining the molasses, sweet spice and nutty finish. As with all truly great cigars, this never became tarry or bitter as I nubbed it. A truly great 75 minute smoke.

This cigar doesn't have punchy flavors that knock you over the head, but rather subtle flavors that make you marvel in the depth and complexity of as you puff away. It never ceases to amaze me the variety and depth of flavors that master tobacconists are able to bring out.

Hemingway maduros are very special cigars that come out a couple times a year. From authorized retailers they’re maybe a buck more than the cammie wrapper and well worth the price – figure about 7 – 8 a piece for Sigs and WOAMs. I picked up about a half dozen of the Signature and Work of Art maddies. While many go over the top for WOAMs, the other sizes (Sig, Masterpiece, UTS) all have pretty much the same profile. Grab them if you can.