Last year, exactly a year ago, I was in Las Vegas with some of my cigar smoking friends for a nice herf and one of the hangouts was Casa Fuente in the Coliseum mall in Caesar's Palace. Besides a great mojito they also have a small selection of premium cigars, all Fuente made, and amongst them their house blend "Casa Fuente". The seven different vitolas of Casa Fuente are for sale in a nice sampler and if memory serves me correct, I paid $150 for this sampler of 7.
Somewhere in the last year the lid of the sampler decided to reach out for the sun and became so crooked that I can't even close the lid anymore. A bit disappointing actually for a rare sampler, especially for a renowned company like Fuente. The cigars are all packed in cellophane with a Casa Fuente print on it. The seven vitolas (double corona, churchill, pyramid #2, double robusto, belicoso, corona gorda and robusto) are hidden under some orange packing paper and have an orange cloth band on the foot.
The 6½x52 double robusto is the only one that is not only cellophane wrapped but also has a piece of cedar wrapped around it. Much to my surprise I notice that the band is crooked, I guess the roller had an off day while gluing the band.
Once I unwrap this double robusto I can smell a medium strong cedar aroma with a hint of cinnamon. I really like the aroma of this cigar. The medium dark, slightly reddish, wrapper is smooth and silky and has some tiny and thin veins, so thin that they are not worth mentioning. The construction feels great and after punching the cigar I get a great predraw with a raising and pepper flavor.
The first flavor I taste is a full cedar flavor with some earth and coffee. An inch later I also taste a caramel like sweetness. The cedar tones down a bit but remains the main flavor. Soon after that the cedar disappears and I taste leather and earth, with a very mild caramel flavor on the background. Much to my surprise the leather and earth flavors are very much like a Cuban cigar, which is very unusual for a cigar from another country.
That Cubanesque flavor only stays for a short while, after ⅓ the flavor changes to a non Cuban earth and leather and I can also taste some nutmeg. Halfway the flavors change again, the earth and leather disappear and I taste a mild herbal flavor with a sweet nutmeg added to it. That doesn't change till I get to the last quarter of the cigar when the cedar returns and chases away the herbs, only the nutmeg stays to support the cedar.
The smoke time of this baby was about a 100 minutes. The cigar gave me a reasonable amount of smoke and the draw was fine. This full flavored medium bodied cigar has a good burn, a little crooked but nothing to complain about really. The ash is quite firm and has a nice silver gray color. I got a big flame when I purged the cigar.
Would I buy this cigar again? Next time I am in Las Vegas I will buy another sampler
Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Smoke & ash: 7 / 10
Aroma first part: 8 / 10
Aroma second part: 8 / 10
Aroma third part: 7 / 10