This epic encounter takes us to the island of Ometepe – a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua.   This is the place where a missing ingredient was applied to a blend that had been locked away for over a decade.

At #27 is the Torano Vault.  This refers to the name of a box that Carlos Torano used to log all of the blends since 1982 worked on by company.  This book is literally kept under lock and key in a safety deposit box (i.e. “Vault”).  One of the blends in the book was recorded in 2000 and is referred to as “A-008”.  This blend was very intriguing to both Charlie Torano and Bruce Lewis. This original blend consisted of a shade-grown Nicaraguan Colorado wrapper, a single binder from Jamastran (Honduras), and fillers from Esteli and Condega (Nicaragua).  It turns out that they loved the complexity of the cigar, but felt it wasn’t at the level of strength they wanted it to be.  Therefore, they set out to tweak the blend.  This was done by adding another binder to the blend from Ometepe.

The resulting cigar is a classic well-balanced medium strength/medium body cigar (the body does pick up toward the end).   The Vault delivers some wonderful flavors of  butter cream, cedar spice, and coffee.  Construction is excellent providing both a top-notch burn and  outstanding draw.

Click here for the full assessment done on this cigar.

Blend Profile

Wrapper: Shade-Grown Nicaraguan Colorado
Binder: Jamastran Honduras, Ometepe, Nicaragua
Filler: Esteli and Condega, Nicaragua

Vitolas Available

There are three core vitolas with a fourth limited release:

Robusto: 5 x 52
Toro: 6 x 50
Torpedo: 6 1/8 x 52
Corona Gorda: 5 5/8 x 46 (Limited Release)

Recommended Vitola:  Corona Gorda