83 Rated on Cigar Live - Partagas Spanish Rosado San Agustin

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[SIZE=4]Partagas Spanish Rosado San Agustin[/SIZE]



CigarLive Rating: 83


Tasting Notes:

John: 84
Delicate floral, hints of cinnamon, and dark cherry fruit tones combine with pleasant wood tones to make up this enjoyable mild-medium to medium cigar. For those of you who might like just a hint of fruit and spice, I would recommend you try this cigar. Click here to read more....

Russ: 81
Woody and nut flavors with some mild spice. Flavors of cocoa and dark roasted coffee beans on retro-hale. Somewhat boring due to the single dimension of flavors. Click here to read more....

Bill: 86
I got some continued unique flavors from this cigar al through the entire smoke. It started with some definite cocoa, spicy and clovelike flavors. I also felt like it had some cinnamon hints to it as well. Click here to read more....

Chris: 80
A short, dry finish full of leather and woodiness. Click here to read more....



Click here for more information about the Partagas Spanish Rosado.


Cigar Live Rating Scale
1. 95-100 - Perfection
2. 90- 94 - Exceptional/Superb
3. 85-89 - Excellent
4. 80-84 - Impressive
5. 70-79 - Mediocre to Good
6. below 70 - Dog Rocket

[JohnRider]

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Partagas Spanish Rosado San Agustin

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June 16, 2008

Partagas Spanish Rosado San Agustin (5.5 x 52)
Wrapper: Rosado from San Augustin Valley of Honduras

Delicate floral, hints of cinnamon, and dark cherry fruit tones combine with pleasant wood tones to make up this enjoyable mild-medium to medium cigar. For those of you who might like just a hint of fruit and spice, I would recommend you try this cigar.


Appearance and Construction
The wrapper is a mottled dark brown color with just a hint of red hue. The wrapper is somewhat rough with two small to medium veins prominent. The wrapper has an oily appearance. The cap of the cigar is a double cap design and it seemed to perform its function quite well. I did not have any problems with the head of the cigar wanting to split or unravel on me.

The cigar is very firmly packed with perhaps just a slightly softer spot near the foot. The cut head of the cigar reveals about several small stems which are not large enough to cause any issues.

The cigar band is fairly wide with ivory, maroon and gold. Blue and Gold Medieval looking coats of arms appear on the ivory and maroon background. The words Partagas 1845 and Cifuentes y Cia appear in maroon letters on an ivory background.



Nose
The wrapper aroma is light, but does have a hint of sweetness and perhaps a hint of fruit or floral aroma. Pre-light draw resistance is just a little bit tight. The pre-light flavor is very mild with hints of cedar wood and light sweet fruit such as cherries, pears or grapes.


Burn and Aroma
The cigar produces a fine amount of smoke, but the draw was just a little bit tighter than I would like. The draw improved after the halfway mark with a little bit of massaging and encouragement. The mascara line is narrow and fairly consistent.

I did not experience any wrapper tears or splits. The wrapper appears to be quite strong and easily tolerates some gentle massaging without any risk of splitting.

The burn line typically starts off a bit meandering, but will usually even out quite nicely by the halfway mark without any relights or touchups being required. This cigar tolerates being set down for a couple of minutes without going out on you. The ash is a mixture of medium gray to nearly black. I appreciated that this cigar ash is fairly dense and not too flaky.


Flavor and Strength
The Partagas Spanish Rosado is a relaxing and enjoyable smoke. It features cedar wood tones mixed with some sweeter, richer fruit-like flavors. The fruit flavor registered for me as a subtle blend of pears, dark red cherries, and grapes. These softer fruit tones seemed to build to a climax after the halfway point and hints of cinnamon appear as the cedar wood tones fade. I did not notice any nicotine effects.


Finish
I found the cigar to have a medium finish. The flavors of the finish were woody with a background of dark cherries, pears, or grapes. As you progress through the cigar, a cinnamon finish begins to appear.

Recommendations
I thought the blending of cedar wood tones and mild fruity tones was excellent, but I found the flavors to be a bit monotonous for my taste. I seem to resonate with cigars that have a little more pronounced spicy character to them. For those of you who might like just a hint of fruit and spice, I would recommend you try this cigar.

I had considerable burn issues with a couple of the sticks sampled. The cigars which had three or four weeks of time in the humidor seemed to be much better.


Pairing Recommendations
For whatever reason, the Bulleit Bourbon came to mind while pondering the flavors of this cigar. The subtle fruity twang and light vanilla tones of the Bulleit mixed with the subtle dark cherry flavor of the cigar were an instant success. The bourbon seemed to encourage the subtle fruit flavors of the cigar and blends well with the subtle cinnamon spice of the cigar. Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey is a “mingled” bourbon owned by (who else?) the monster conglomerate of the spirits world, Diageo. It is aged for at least six years and is a warm but fairly soft 90 proof.

An alternate pairing suggestion which compliments the floral, fruit and spice character of this cigar would be a ruby port. The ruby port I paired this cigar with is by Osborne. This is a bold, sweet and delicious after dinner libation. I describe it as "candy in a glass". This pairing tended to overpower the flavor of the cigar somewhat.


John’s Ratings Summary

Appearance and Construction 85
Nose 82
Burn/Aroma 84
Flavor/Strength 85
Finish 86
Overall 84


New scale for Cigar Live Expert Panel:
• 95-100 - Perfection
• 90- 94 - Exceptional/Superb
• 85-89 - Excellent
• 80-84 - Impressive
• 70-79 - Mediocre to Good
• below 70 - Dog Rocket Impressive

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Appearance and Construction
This cigar has a dark reddish-brown colored wrapper and looks somewhat rustic. There are some darker colored blotches on the wrapper and some quite a few bumps that are telescoping through the wrapper from below. There are some medium sized veins running the length of the cigar. The cap on a couple of the cigars sampled were applied in a somewhat sloppy manner, while others appeared to have been applied with a considerate amount of skill. Out of the four cigars smoked, one was completely plugged, another almost completely plugged (once the large stems were removed it drew much better, and the last two had a very deliberate draw. All the cigars felt very firm from head to foot and most were pretty hard toward the head of the cigar. All of these seemed to packed too tightly and this really contributed to the smoking pleasure, or lack there of, in these cigars.

Nose
Sweet earthy, grassy smell at the foot of the cigar. The pre-light draw exhibited some nutmeg flavors and some mild spice.

Burn and Aroma
The burn of these cigars varied greatly based on the draw of the cigars. The last two burned fairly well, with the last one have an extremely slow burn. In fact, the burn was so slow, it took about 30 minutes to get through the first inch. Smoking this one any faster caused some really bitter flavors to overpower the palate. The burn line was very defined and for the most part was really straight. The ash appeared somewhat flakey, but it held on until I tapped it off at one inch intervals. All of the cigars produced a fairly small amount of smoke, and while resting only a whisper of smoke was produced.

Flavor and Strength
The first few draws on this cigar produced some flavors of black tea and leather. The cigar continues with flavors of wood and nuts with a mild spice that lands on the back of your throat. Retro-haling this cigars presents some mild cocoa and dark roasted coffee bean flavors. As mentioned above, these cigars were not very forgiving when it came to smoking them too fast -- they would quickly develop some really bitter flavors. Several times I had to blow out through the cigar to purge these bitter tastes. This one forced me to really take my time, but it was not a relaxing smoke, since I constantly had to worry about smoking it too fast. This usually is not a problem for me! Overall, the flavors of this cigar were nice, but I quickly became bored with it due to the one dimension. I would rate this as a medium strength cigar, but due to the tight draw, the nicotine seemed to build toward the end and it became quite strong.

Finish
The finish of this cigar was long with some woody and earthy flavors and that touch of spice.


Additional Comments
I have had some bad experiences in the past with cigars produced by General Cigar Company – cigars with extremely tight draw and large branch-like stems. However, I chose this particular cigar for the review and went into this process with an open mind. Unfortunately, these cigars exhibited the same constructions issues I have experienced with other General Cigars. I find this very disappointing as they produce some very good tasting cigars.


Appearance and Construction 79
Nose 85
Burn/Aroma 80
Flavor/Strength 81
Finish 81

Overall 81 (edited from 81.2)

[mrgatorman]

Partagas Spanish Rosado San Agustin

Cigar Specifications

From the legendary brand that originated in Cuba comes the Partagas Spanish Rosado. The Spanish Rosado name is derived from the wrapper that is grown exclusively for General Cigar in the San Agustin Valley in Honduras. "Spanish" refers to the country of Spain’s influence in Honduran history, while "Rosado" refers to the reddish hue found in each wrapper.

Appearance and Construction

Looking at this cigar, I find it to be a very attractive looking smoke. It’s a very visually enticing cigar with a dark chocolate wrapper with a reddish hue to it. As I visually inspect these cigars, I notice that there are virtually no flaws to the wrappers. As I test its construction and firmness, I realize that I could play the drums with this boy. It has an incredibly firm feel to it. And though it is very attractive to look at, I worried about its draw. But it so far looked to be what I hope to enjoy as a high quality smoke.

Pre-light

Pre-light confirmed my suspicions of a tight draw. It was beyond my acceptable range, but it offered some interesting flavors. At first I couldn’t pinpoint it as I don’t get this profile in too many cigars I’ve smoked, but I picked up a clove like hint as well as a definite cocoa flavor. As I lit the cigar, it took a little more effort to light it than I have had. Although the relative humidity was approx 67%, I was concerned that this was not going to be an effortless smoke and it wasn’t. But the flavor profile still captured my interest with its uniqueness.

Burn and Aroma

It took a few tries to fully light these, but the burn wasn’t too bad. On a couple of the cigars, the burn was essentially perfect although the draw was consistently tight. As far as I’m concerned, the burn wasn’t a deterrent to the enjoyment of this cigar. Now I will say this, although I never had to relight these, it almost seemed like it was out. There was so little smoke coming out of these, both when I puffed and when it was in between puffs. Vertually no smoke. The smoke that I did see was a greyish smoke with a nice smooth aroma. It seemed like a purposeful scent, like it was trying to take you somewhere mentally.

Flavor and Strength

I got some continued unique flavors from this cigar al through the entire smoke. It started with some definite cocoa, spicy and clovelike flavors. I also felt like it had some cinnamon hints to it as well. The combination of flavors was just not what I could discern so easily. I will say this, although the flavors were more difficult for me to pick out, they were defined and separate initially. The light up and for the first third, they were separate, like spaghetti sauce just made. The flavors are there but individualized. Working towards the second third, the flavors evened out, blended and smoothed out some. I still picked up spice and a clove/cinnamon sweetness but also picked up a floral hint as well. It was just a strange combination. The floral seemed out of place. But overall the flavor profile wasn’t too complex but unique nonetheless. In the beginning of the smoke it was a bit mild and really didn’t advance too much from there. It may have gone to low medium strength but really that’s about as far as I can go.

Finish

The finish on these were shorter than I expected. It wasn’t one that I liked though. It was one that I wanted to have something to wash my pallet afterwards. It was like a coating on my tongue and pallet. However, the dissipated shortly afterwards. Being that it was a mild to medium strength cigar, I really had little effect afterwards.

Final Notes

Well this was an interesting smoke. The fact that I had such a hard time with the draw, the smoking experience was really affected. The flavor profile, although a bit simplistic, was shadowed by the draw and strength. This could be a morning to early afternoon smoke, but probably not a go to for me. I would however recommend it to those with the kind of a profile that is a darker wrapper with that spice and sweetness combination but with a mild to medium strength. The look of the cigar may have over hyped my expectations a bit, but it was just some minor issues I had that took away from the overall experience. That being said, it wasn’t a bad smoke and in the $5 range would be priced appropriately.

Bill's Ratings:
Appearance and Construction 85
Nose 90
Burn/Aroma 85
Flavor/Strength 85
Finish 85

Overall Rating: 86

[Ceedee]

Partagas Spanish Rosado San Agustin (5.5" x 52)

Appearance & Construction

I would categorize the appearance of this cigar as "classically rustic". The ruddy-brown "rosado" wrapper had a matte finish with some light oilyness and had some veinyness to it, but not to an extreme. The wrappers on the cigars sampled were all even in color and had a nice toothiness. This cigar was nicely wrapped and had a decent heft to it while being a bit solid to the touch. The double cap was easy to clip. It was there I noticed however, that the tobacco was pretty tightly packed and had some stems in each of the sampled cigars.

I kept the cigars sampled at a temp range of 66-69º F and at a 64-68% RH level before I smoked them.

Nose

The overall aroma at the foot was of hay and sweet classic tobacco. Some woodiness was present as well.



Burn & Aroma

The burn of this cigar was either ok or totally unacceptable. Let me say that 3 of the cigars I sampled were very well plugged. Two were almost impossible to draw from - period. I was very disappointed in that as I could not smoke 3 of the 5 cigars I was entrusted. The other two cigars had what I would call a "stiff" draw - smokeable but made my experience less pleasurable than I would have expected. The ash of the 2 cigars mentioned was pretty flakey but the burn did not tunnel, it was roughly even and the ash held for at least an inch each time I went to tap it into the Stinky.


Flavor & Strength

With all the issues I had with this cigar, I DID enjoy the flavors present. It harkened back to my younger days when my brother and I would occasionally smoke Partagas Sabrosos in the summertime. There was a good amount of leather and cedar and something more vegetal that I could not place. Not overly complex, but certainly smooth and pleasurable to my palate. I really enjoyed the smoothness of the overall flavor and had fun exhaling through my sinuses. In summary, I would put this cigar on the lower end of the MEDIUM strength meter and firmly MEDIUM in terms of strength. I would say though that the flavors did NOT distinguish themselves from many other cigars made in the Partagas lines, so no real surprises here.


Finish

A short, dry finish full of leather and woodiness.

Final Notes/Comments

I was really hoping for a "homerun" with this cigar as I really do have fond memories of my first cigar smoking experiences with Partagas. However, the construction element here really make me unhappy. For 3 of 5 cigars to be unsmokeable due to impossible draws, was really way out of line. I will base my overall critique (save the construction element) on the 2 cigars I was able to smoke, therefore. So, all in all I would have to say I am undecided if this cigar would ever be worth taking the chance on spending MY cash on. That being said, it could be that MY PARTICULAR sampling was just the "luck of the draw" or lack thereof when it came to plugged sticks. The flavors were solid and I did enjoy the remaining cigars, it's just that I am hesitant to recommend this cigar due to my poor construction experience. Perhaps I will try again at a later date and offer a second opinion (besides my esteemed panelists). We shall see...

Here's my take:

Size - Robusto
No. of cigars reviewed - 5

Appearance Construction - 75 (Appearance was agreeable, but construction was like a 'C')
Nose - 82
Burn & Aroma - 80
Flavor & Strength - 80
Finish - 83

Overall Rating - 80

Cigar Live Rating Scale
1. 95-100 - Perfection
2. 90- 94 - Exceptional/Superb
3. 85-89 - Excellent
4. 80-84 - Impressive
5. 70-79 - Mediocre to Good
6. below 70 - Dog Rocket