Paper Bands for Macanudo Vintage 1997 Maduro

The Paper Band of the Macanudo Vintage 1997 Maduro

One of the most exciting things to come out of General Cigars in 2010 was the release of its Macanudo Vintage 1997 Maduro. It was exciting for two reasons: 1) It continued to show that Macanudo is serious about trying to penetrate into the medium to full area in both strength and body for their cigars; 2) The initial batches that were released had a striking metal band (see below). As I mentioned, this metal band was not going to be around forever, and it appears the time is about here.

The Macanudo Vintage 1997 Maduro is a terrific cigar. This cigar has a beautiful oily Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper. It is also supplemented by a Honduran binder and a nice mix of filler ( Brazilian Mata Fina, Nicaraguan Ligero and a combination two types of Piloto Cubano long filler tobacco from the Dominican Republic). This cigar is definitely more of a medium to full body and medium srength (high end of the medium). The flavors are robust with a combination of roasted coffee, black cherry, raisin, and wood.

But as you can see from the pictures above and below, Macanudo has gone to their traditional band going forward. The band that was on the footer of the metal banded version has been moved up under the main band. While I have yet to sample one going forward with the new packaging, I don’t anticipate anything changing that helped to make this my #24 Cigar for 2010. However those metal bands, while they did make smoking the Vintage 1997 Maduro a little awkward were still a work of cigar art – and will be missed.