This past February at the annual ProCigar festival in the Dominican Republic, one of the cigars that made a big splash was the Quesada Seleccion Espana. The Espana as indicated by its name is a cigar that was intended to be made available only available in Spain. Legendary Master Blender Manuel Quesada dropped by Outland Cigars for an impromptu visit and I was lucky enough to be offered a sample of this cigar from his brand. I was more than thankful to get an opportunity to enjoy a cigar that is difficult to get and has gotten such positive attention. The great news – this cigar lives up to much of the hype that surrounds this cigar.
When Quesada discussed the cigar, he portrayed it as being “Cuban-esque” in style. Cuban cigars are sold in Spain and do very well in that market. The idea was to bring an old-school cigar to Spain to compete with the Cuban cigars.
Let’s take a closer look at what the Quesada Seleccion Espana brings to the table:
Blend Profile
The appearance of this cigar is highlighted by the beautiful Arapiraca wrapper.
Wrapper: Arapiraca (grown in Ecuador)
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican, Connecticut Broadleaf, Nicaraguan
Quesada talked about the wrapper. He mentioned this is a similar wrapper to what is on the Quesada 35th Anniversary cigar. The difference is the wrapper is taken from a lower priming (viso). Quesada described the filler as all-Dominican, although I have seen some references mention that there is also Nicaraguan tobacco in the filler.
Vitolas Available
The Espana is available in three sizes:
Petite Robusto- 4 x 50
Robusto- 5 x 52
Corona- 5.5 x 42
These are definitely smaller cigars. Quesada mentioned that the smaller vitolas were a deliberate attempt to capitalize on the European market. In general, Europeans prefer smaller cigars.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
For this cigar experience, I sampled the Petite Robusto. I placed a straight cut through the beautiful cap. The initial notes I got on this were coffee, but there was a slight sweetness and slight pepper notes that I detected as well. There was a subtle mix of flavors from the dry draw that satisfied me. It was then on to fire up the Espana and enjoy the smoking experience.
Flavor Profile
While I heard some reports that this cigar had a lot of flavor transitions, I didn’t get that. The Quesada Seleccion Espana wasn’t the most complex cigar, but it did offer up a very interesting flavor profile.
The initial notes contained some pepper and cedar spice, but I was also treated to some significant notes of tea. The tea flavors reminded me a lot of the signature tea notes found in Illusione cigars. For the first half of the cigar, this was the flavor profile that pretty much held. The spice notes mellow a bit after the first ten percent, but still are very much present during the smoke.
In the second half, I did notice an increase in the spice – and this time it took on more of a pepper spice. Overall, the Quesada Seleccion Espana had a little kick and I liked it. As the cigar experience came to a close, I got a wonderfully small nub that was cool and firm. There were no harsh notes at the end.
Burn and Draw
Construction-wise, this was one of the best Quesada/Fonseca cigars I ever had. The burn was razor sharp and required very few touch-ups. The burn rate and burn temperature were perfect. The draw was outstanding as well .
Strength and Body
This cigar had more strength than I would have thought from looking at it – and I was pleasantly surprised by this. It has just enough power from the nicotine to qualify as a “Medium to Full” in terms of strength. The same goes for the body. The flavor notes had some nice depth to them – and I would definitely classify this as Medium to Full.
Final Thoughts
The Quesada Seleccion Espana proved to be a positive cigar experience. I sincerely hope that Quesada does give some consideration to making this more widely-available in the United States. I do think this is a cigar that probably the more seasoned cigar enthusiast will appreciate. I would definitely reach for this cigar again – and look forward to trying the Robusto and Corona vitolas.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Low
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Medium to Full
Assessment: Nice to Have
Disclaimer: This cigar made given to me as an unsolicited sample during a visit by master-blender Manuel Quesada. This played no role in final assessment given to this cigar.
Some false information here.. There are currently 10 shops in the USA that sell the Espana. If anyone needs to know where to buy em, find me on twitter @nyisles
Some slight changes made above to the wording. Thank you.
anytime coop.
I was more than thankful for the opportunity to enjoy cigars, which are difficult to obtain and got positive attention like that. The great news – and this is the life of the cigar up to a lot of hype surrounding this cigar.
camacho triple maduro
I was fortunate to try this cigar…two of them actually and found them to be some of the best cigars I've had in a long time. It truly is within the flavor profile of a cuban cigar and what's important here is that they need "rest" for them to really give you that complex taste. I'd say they need at least 9 months and I know where I can get a box of these…several in fact and I plan to buy the Robusto even though the ones I had were coronas.
A fair point and worth a re-visit.