Avo Limited Edition 2004 – Avo Legacy (Avo LE04)

In 2004,  the fourth annual Avo Limited Edition cigar, the Avo Limited Edition 2004 – aka the Avo Legacy (Avo LE04) made its debut.  The Avo Legacy coincided with brand ambassador Avo Uvezian’s 78th birthday. From 2001 through 2014, the release of the annual limited edition was timed to right around the time of Uvezian’s March 22nd birthday (Recently the Avo Limited Edition 2015 was released and in a change of direction, the series is moving away from a “birthday” cigar). Today we take a look at the Avo Legacy that was included in the recently released Avo’s Greatest Hits Sampler. Overall, I found the Avo Legacy not only to be an interesting cigar experience, but also a very good cigar.

As mentioned, the Avo Limited Edition series was launched in 2001 and has followed each year with a different limited production release is done in a different size and a different blend. The commemorative Avo Greatest Hits sampler was announced just before the 2014 IPCPR Trade Show. This sampler contains 14 of the limited edition cigars between 2001 and 2014.

Avo Greatest Hits – Packaging

Avo Greatest Hits – Closed Box

In terms of the cigars included in the Avo’s Greatest Hits, some are cigars that have been aging in the warehouse and some have had their blends reconstructed using the same tobaccos (The LE05 was not included because this the reconstruction of the blend could not be done to Master Blender Henke Kelner’s satisfaction). It has not been disclosed whether or not the Avo Legacy is from 2004, or if it has been reconstructed.

Avo Greatest Hits – Contents

Avo Greatest Hits – Close Up

Over the past several weeks, we have been assessing the cigars included in Avo’s Greatest Hits. Most of the cigars in this series “Assessment Update” (aka Agile Cigar Review) formats. Since the Avo Legacy has not been assessed yet, we will use a full assessment format here.

Blend Profile

The early releases of the Avo Limited Edition series utilized a sun-grown wrapper from Ecuador. he Avo Legacy is no exception.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun Grown
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican (including Piloto tobacco)
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic

Vitolas Available

The Avo Legacy was produced in a single size – a 5 3/4 8 x 48 Belicoso. The cigar was originally made available in 12 count boxes. A total of 10,000 boxes were produced.

Appearance

The Avo Legacy has a medium brown colored wrapper. The wrapper has a slight amount of oil on the surface. The wrapper has some thin visible veins and some thin wrapper seams giving the cigar a smooth appearance. The belicoso tip doesn’t quite taper all the way and has a small, flat tip.

There are two bands on the Avo Legacy. The first band is similar to the red, gold, black, and white version of the classic Avo band. The background to the band is red. The gold, black, and white Avo logo is front and center on that bend. To the left of the logo is the text “AVO LEGACY” in gold font. To the right of the logo is the text “Avo Uvezian”- in cursive gold font. The band also has gold and white trim going around it.

There is one difference between the Avo Legacy contained in Avo’s Greatest Hits and the original. In the original release, a CD of 12 songs called “Avo Legacy” was packaged with each box. For the cigars in the box, each of the 12 cigars had a different red secondary band containing one of the song titles from the CD. For the version with Avo’s Greatest Hits, the band is also red, the secondary band contains text “Legacy” in gold font (which actually is the title of one of the ten songs on the CD).  There is also a gold pinstripe across the top and bottom.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

For my smoking experience of the Avo Legacy, I went with a straight cut and removed about half of the belicoso tip. Once the tip was removed, I moved on to the pre-light draw experience. The dry draw delivered a mix natural tobacco sweetness as well as some subtle chocolate and pepper notes. Overall I considered this to be an excellent pre-light draw. At this point, I was ready to light up the Avo Legacy and see what the smoking experience would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The start of the Avo Legacy served up a mix of earth, white pepper, grass, and a underlying natural tobacco sweetness. The grass and pepper notes became primary early. The earth and natural tobacco notes became secondary. The white pepper was also quite prominent on the retro-hale and at times was a sharp spice.

During the first half, a creamy, almost malt-like note surfaced in the background replacing the earth-like notes. The natural tobacco notes still provided some sweetness. Meanwhile the grass notes in the forefront exhibited some of the herbal notes found on many Davidoff cigars.

During the second half, I still found the herbal / grass notes to be primary. I found the pepper to be present on the tongue, but more intense on the retro-hale. The creamy / malt notes were still present in the background. For the most part, I found this to be the flavor profile for the duration of the smoking experience. The resulting nub was a finger-burner – firm to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

From a burn perspective, I found the Avo Legacy perform quite well. The burn path remained relatively straight. At times, there was a slight curvature, but this was easily remedied with a touch-up. The burn line itself was also relatively straight. As far as touching up this cigar, it did need to be done with tlc as this wrapper easily blisters. The resulting ash was silvery gray The ash was not overly tight and at times occasionally had some minor flaking. The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the Avo Legacy

The draw was ideal as well. It was not too tight, nor was it too lose. The clipped area performed quite well. The remaining tip did not get soft, nor was it prone to cracking.

Strength and Body

From a strength perspective, I found the Avo Legacy to start out in the mild to medium range. There was a slight increase in the strength and by the middle of the cigar, the Avo Legacy moved into the medium range. I pretty much found the Legacy stayed on the low end of medium strength for the remainder of the smoke.

The body was a very different story. I found the Avo Legacy started out medium-bodied. The body of the Avo Legacy increased linearly during the smoking experience. It moved to medium to full-bodied in the second third, and by the last third it passed into full-bodied territory. The retro-hale played a key role in how I assessed the body of this cigar.

In terms of strength versus body, I found the body had the edge and by the end it was a considerable edge.

Final Thoughts

The Avo Legacy is fine part of the Avo Limited Edition series. I have not smoked the original 2004 release, so I do not have a baseline to compare it to. What I can say is that the Avo Legacy that was included in the Avo Greatest Hits Sampler was a very good cigar. It will deliver a lot of those classic Davidoff herbal / grassy notes. I think some might be surprised at the spice that is delivered on this cigar as it does push this cigar to the fuller side in terms of body. At the same time, this cigar isn’t going to go past medium in strength, so it will not be a nicotine bomb. This is a cigar I’d easily recommend to a seasoned cigar enthusiast, especially a Davidoff / Avo fan. It’s certainly a cigar I wouldn’t discourage a novice from trying. As for myself, this is easily a cigar on its own worthy of a box split.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Mild to Medium (Start), Medium (Remainder)
Body: Medium (1st Third), Medium to Full (2nd Third), Full (Last Third)
Finish: Excellent
Assessment: 3.5 – Box Split
Score: 91

References

News: Avo’s Greatest Hits Sampler Features Limited Editions
Price: $224.00 (Sampler Price)
Source: Purchased
Stogie Geeks Podcast:Episode 117
Stogie Feed: Avo 2004 Legacy