AJ Fernandez San Lotano Oval Gordo

No. 1. November 23rd, 2020

What a strength bomb!

I smirk at reviewers who baulk at strength. What is a cigar without a bit of punch. Phil Kohn reaches for his crash helmet, lest he fall and break his furniture. 'A smaller vitola might have been better', says he. Not me! Well, I've met my match. The San Lotano Oval Gordo was strong from the start and builds into a strength bomb. I tried listening to a podcast during the hundred minutes of this stogie. But I felt myself drifting in and out of consciousness: words fluttered by. I sat reeling in my chair and ended with a sweat such as I can't recall for months or years. (That night, at one a.m., I woke feeling most unsettled in the gut, sat up, went back to sleep after ten minutes, but felt drained the next day. Nicotine overdose!)

Am I exaggerating? (Does Kohn exaggerate?) Yes, a bit (Yes, probably a bit). The flavour and complexity of the cigar were excellent. But I must confess. I've met my match in this cigar.

Vitola: 6.5 X 60

Origin: Nicaragua

Strength: Strong, strong, STRONG Neptune rates it as medium. Not the one I tried.

Wrapper: Colorado Maduro, a lovely dark brown

Binder: Nicaragua

Filler: Nicaragua and Honduras

Construction: I marvel at the beauty of this cigar: smooth, medium brown wrapper, one large, elegant vein, a dainty light spot.

Draw: Perfect: just enough resistance, excellent smoke output throughout.

Flavour: Delicious and complex with spice building gradually to end with a spice bomb.

Aroma: Excellent, rich and complex.

Consistency: Perfect.

Burn: Almost perfect burn. No major touch up required. A bit wavy but always correcting.

Ash: Delicate, easy to dislodge with a slight twitch.

Finish: Long

Body: Full

Strength: Strong, stronger and strongest.

Time smoke: 100 minutes. I put it out an inch before the end, head swimming and sweat overpowering.

Overall: This cigar needs a good, airy environment in which to enjoy it. It's a wonderful full bodied cigar. I probably took it too fast.  I'm a bit in denial: I've read elsewhere that this is a medium bodied cigar. How was mine so overpowering in the final third? Let's see what the remaining 19 in the box bring.

No. 2. December 12th 2020

More strength than flavour. The second sample from the box was not as strong as the first: but still dizzyingly strong, and probably more strength than flavour and complexity. It was still an enjoyable 95 minutes, but body and flavour were a bit lacking. Let's give it a little more time and see whether the profile balances more.

No. 3. March 27th, 2021

What a difference a few months made: at least for the first half. The cigar was much improved since No. 2, above. It began with a delicious pepper burst which subsided into a smooth, balanced, rich and flavourful, medium to full bodied, cigar with satisfying long finish. Draw was easy and burn was a bit wavy but corrected easily. It was thoroughly enjoyable for the first hour with no sign of overwhelming strength - until the last third. Then flavour became much more peppery and strength built - and built and built until I began sweating and my head started spinning. Flavour deteriorated to pepper and not much else. The final two inches were overwhelming to the dizzying proportions of the previous two samples and subsided to mere strength without much flavour. I left the cigar an inch before the nub. Overall, quite a journey - from delicious, complex and balanced to overpowering. Let's see whether another month or two will ripen away the overbearing strength in the last third. 90 minutes.

What dreams may come: I left it at an inch and a half. I was sweating and feeling dizzy. I staggered to my room, where the air conditioning soon remedied the sweats and went to bed. That night, I had the most vivid dreams. I woke up a few times during the night, feeling mildly dyspeptic, but each time remembering the strange dreams. It was as though the volume on dream clarity had been turned up. In one dream I was at a conference which was going twenty four hours around the clock. I sat down on a sofa during a session of the conference and woke up a sleeping figure, almost sitting on his head. He turned out to be the president of the United States. It wasn't Uncle Joe. It was someone more like Wilbur Post (the (human) star of Mr Ed). With a moderate nicotine dose, I sleep quite soundly. What dreams occur do not linger in the consciousness with great vividness. The high potency Oval seems to bring on a strange psychotropic effect.

4. August 21st, 2021: I approached this cigar with trepidation. It's a monster and the previous one kept me awake all night. After nearly five months I was keen to see whether the strength had toned down. It had. It still packed a punch. After one hour I broke into a slight sweat but that soon dissipated and I smoked the cigar to the nub.

The first inch was delicious, cool and intense. I puffed through the first inch in just over ten minutes, wondering how long this cigar would remain so good: complex, balanced, smooth, intense. Not long. After the first inch the intense, balanced, flavour subsided and became less multi-dimensional. It was still a good, full bodied, strong, cigar with excellent aroma and tasty, clean, long finish. It did not degenerate into a pepper bomb, as per no. 3, above. Strength was a bit more than desirable in the second half. But there was no head-spinning. Ageing seems to have made it tolerable, even pleasant.

Total time: 100 minutes

Verdict: Satisfying.

January 29th, 2022: Fairly flavoursome during the first third, but nothing on the robusto; not the same richness or complexity of flavour as the robusto demonstrates. The coolness of the length of the cigar was a plus. Aroma was excellent. The burn was adequate and the draw was easy. But by the second third, strength started to accumulate and, by the final third, to dominate. Flavour began to dissipate markedly. All that remained of flavour in the final third was a vegetal pepperiness. 

Conscious of the previous harsh dreams I had experienced after smoking this vitola, I abandoned the cigar at 80 minutes, at around the beginning of the final third. But the die had already been cast. That night I dreamed the most vivacious dreams. It was like a movie marathon of vivid dreams, each followed by a short period of waking. I dreamed that I had woken up. Then woke up and found that my prior waking was in fact dreaming. I dreamed that I was walking down a  street marvelling that the brilliant realism of the dream, as if praising the CGI effects of a film.

What this cigar reveals is how different vitolas of the same brand can be. The Gordo and the Robusto are like two different blends. Strength, body, flavour all all quite different from Gordo to Robusto. In terms of balance, the Robusto wins hands down.