Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Torpedo Review

[stormin]

Smoked my first RP Vintage 1990 today.

Had high hopes for this one. I bought 3 last week and couldn't wait to smoke one.

Appearance was excellent. Really nice looking dark oily wrapper. The cigar had a nice spongy feel to it and all things considered the construction appeared to be really good. Pre-light aroma was excellent. The pre-light draw was a bit tight but not too much so.
The cigar lit OK. Once lit it was apparent the draw was too tight. To make matters worse the cigar had serious burn issues. So I was puffing away like a mad man trying to get a decent draw and the more I puffed the worse it burned. Burn was terribly uneven and never straightened out at all. It also looked like it had some tunnelling. Quite frankly, I can live with the burn problems if everything else is good. I believe the draw problem was the major culprit here. Because of it I was puffing like crazy which caused the cigar to burn too hot, which in turn affected the flavour and may have contributed to the lousy burn. With all the puffing and fussing it really didn't set up much of an atmosphere to notice any great flavours. All I can say is that it didn't taste bad. But then again it didn't taste great either. Last summer I smoked a vintage Partagas Lusitania gifted to me. This cigar had similar issues but also had an unbelievable flavour. Not so the RP.

Draw and burn issues ruined this one for me. I no longer have any interest in the other 2 and with so many good smokes to burn and so little time, these 2 will be set aside until the experience is forgotten.

Seriously disappointed. 2 out of 5. Factor in the disapointment due to all the hype and its 1 out of 5.

[par]

I don't care for the 90's either. I like the 92's though.

[qwerty1500]

Never tried the 90s ... love the 92s and sungrowns. Spongy? Tight draw? Burn and flavor problems? Too wet?

[stormin]

I don't think it was wet. I just bought it last week. I bought a few Brazilias @ the same time. They felt rock hard and burned perfect. Both came out of the same walk in humidor.