The Cigar Insider tasting panel rated 242 cigars in 2008, and found many to be of exceptionally fine quality. Seventy-seven of the cigars we rated (31.8 percent) scored 90 points or higher, “outstanding” on our 100-point scale, up slightly from 2007, when 30.5 percent of the cigars scored in the 90s. Ten cigars scored 93 points or more, down from 14 in 2007.
This may well go down as the year of the cigar made under contract: the two highest-scoring cigars of 2008 are made for cigar companies that don’t own their own factories, as are six of the brands with an average score of 90 points or higher.
For only the second time in the history of Cigar Insider, we named one cigar a classic: the Rocky Patel Decade Torpedo, which scored 95 points. The Honduran cigar, made in one of Nestor Plasencia’s factories for Rocky Patel, joins the Padrón Serie 1926 80 Years Maduro (a cigar that we rated last year) as the only cigars ever awarded 95 points by this newsletter.
The entire Rocky Patel Decade line did well in our ratings. We rated all four sizes in a vertical brand tasting, and the average score of 92.8 points was the highest brand average of the year. The brand, which Patel created to celebrate the milestone of surviving for 10 years in the cigar business, features ultra-dark Ecuadoran wrapper tobacco around Nicaraguan binder and filler. The cigars tend to be medium to full bodied, with tasting notes that include black cherry, cream, leather and nuts.
Another standout cigar was the Alec Bradley Tempus Centuria, also from Honduras. The 7-inch cigar is rolled in the boutique Raices Cubanas factory for Alan Rubin’s Alec Bradley Cigar Co. The Tempus Centuria scored 94 points, and the entire line (which consists of five sizes) averaged 90 points.
Eight cigars scored 93 points, including another two contract brands: the La Aroma de Cuba Edición Especial No. 5, made for Ashton Distributors by Jose “Pepin” Garcia, and the Rocky Patel Decade Robusto.
The other 93s went to the Litto Gomez Diez Chisel Puro, a powerhouse cigar with perhaps the most unusual shape in the cigar business; My Father No. 1 and No. 3, made by Garcia; and a trio of Cubans, the Por Larrañaga Robusto de Larrañaga Edicion Regional; San Cristobal de La Habana La Fuerza; and the Vegas Robaina Clasico.
The performance of Garcia and his son Jaime this year was impressive. The men have taken on a daunting number of new cigar brands (most under contract for other companies), but despite the added workload their results have been nothing short of amazing. We rated eight brands made by the Garcias this year, and all but three posted averages in the 90s. The 601 Box Pressed Maduro, which the Garcias make for United Tobacco, averaged 91 points, as did My Father, which the company owns. Cubao, another United Tobacco brand, averaged 90.5 points. La Riqueza, made for Tatuaje owner Pete Johnson, averaged 90 points. Two brands the Garcias make for Ashton, San Cristobal and La Aroma de Cuba Edición Especial, also did well, averaging 90 and 89.6 points, respectively. Another company owned brand, El Centurion, averaged 89.3 points, while the one-size El Triunfador, made for Johnson, scored 87.
