Partagas 1845 Hertiage Rewrapped

Up until this month,  General Cigar Company’s product releases for 2012 have focused around line extensions (as well as the annual release of the Punch Rare Corojo series).  However last month General announced that a new blend was being added to the Partagas brand.  This is significant because this is the first new blend to come to Partagas line in a long time.   This cigar is called the Partagas 1845 Heritage Rewrapped.  From its presentation to packaging to the overall smoking experience, it appears that General Cigar has a winner with its new cigar.

The new blend was a collaboration between Jhonys Diaz, Francisco Rodriguez, and Yuri Guillen of General Cigars. The legendary Benji Menendez served as an advisor for the project.  According to the press release, Diaz and his team worked through 50 different blends before coming up with the final blend.

As for the name 1845 (which is a name on other Partagas Cigars), this is significant because it marks the year Don Jaime Partagas y Ravelo established the Partagas factory in Havana Cuba.

Let’s take a closer look at the Partagas 1845 Heritage Rewrapped and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The name “Rewrapped” is in reference that this is the first Partagas cigar to use an Ecuadorian Habano Viso wrapper.  As for the binder, it is a proprietary Habano-seed tobacco that originates from Connecticut called “Connecticut Habano”.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Seed Viso
Binder: Connecticut Habano
Filler: Dominican Piloto Cubano, Nicaraguan (from three regions)

Vitolas Available

The Partagas 1845 Heritage Rewrapped comes in four vitolas and is packaged 20 to a box:

Corona Extra: 4 1/2 x 46
Robusto: 5 1/2 x 49
Double Corona: 7 1/4 x 54
Gigante: 6 x 60

The box is unique for the Partagas 1845 Heritage Rewrapped.  It features an acrylic, frosted lid with the banding of the cigars inside still visible.  The lid slides off and it can then be used as a pedastal for the box. There is an opening on the front to easily pull out a cigar.  The Partagas 1845 web-site has a nice photo of this box.  The box contains an information card with a QR Code on it.

Appearance

For my cigar experience, I opted to go with the Robusto. General Cigar advertised the Ecuadorian Habano Viso wrapper as being unique – and from its appearance, I can see why.  The color of the wrapper has a strong colorado reddish tint to it.  There are some dark spots on the wrapper.  I’d also categorize the wrapper as somewhat oily.   There are also some visible wrapper seams and visible veins.

The distinguishing characteristic is that the design of this band is situated to be horizontal.  The color scheme of the band is black and gold.  There is a gold eagle in the center of the band.   There is a black ring surrounding most of the eagle (its wings do cross the ring on the left and right).  Across the top of the ring is the text “Partagas” in gold.  Under the eagle and intersecting the black ring, there are two concentric ovals with black borders  Inside the middle oval it says “1845” in a gold etched style on a gold background.  The outer oval has a darker gold shade.  It has the text “FLOR DE TABACOS” across the top part and “CIFUENTES Y CIA” on the bottom – both in black font.  There is additional black and gold around the rest of the band.

Banding of the Partagas 1845 Heritage Rewrapped

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

For my Partagas 1845 Hertiage Rewrapped Robusto, I opted to go with my usual straight cut into the cap.  The pre-light draw provided me notes of cocoa, cedar, and nuts.  Overall, I was pleased with the dry draw notes by this cigar.  At this point, it was time to fire up the Partagas 1845 Heritage Rewrapped and see what the smoking experience would deliver.

Flavor Profile

The initial flavor profile of the Partagas 1845 Heritage started out with a nice blast of baker’s spice.  There were also some nut flavors mixed in with the spice.  It wasn’t quite a Garcia family pepper blast found on My Father Cigars.  I would categorize this blast as significant, yet different than the trademark Garcia spice at a beginning of a cigar.  The spice settled into somewhat of a sweet baker’s spice – sharing the forefront with the nut flavors.  The nut flavors eventually moved slightly ahead of the spice as the primary note.

As I mentioned the spice had some sweet qualities to it.  By the end of the first third, those sweet notes seemed to separate out from the spice.  I categorized this sweetness as dried fruit.  The dried fruit flavors joined the nut in the forefront with a more classic baker’s spice in the background.

As the Partagas 1845 Heritage moved into the second third, the dried fruit had more of a raisin quality.   The raisin notes soon stood alone in the forefront.  The nut notes now played more of a secondary role, and the bakers spice was in a tertiary role.  There were even times I detected some caramel sweetness in the second third.

Later the sweetness dialed back a little and was on par with the nut flavor.  The spice soon picked up in the last third.  Eventually the spice, raisin, and nut flavors were all at the same level.   This is how the flavor profile of the Partagas 1845 Heritage finished.  The nub was a little softer in touch and warmer in temperature than I preferred (this happened on each sample), but I wouldn’t categorize the finish as harsh either.
.
Burn and Draw

As for the burn and draw, the best way to categorize these attributes is good, but short of excellent.  I smoked two samples for this assessment, and my experiences were identical in both cases.  The burn did require several touch-ups throughout the smoke.  My butane lighter did the job to keep the burn going straight, but there were more touch-ups required than I would have liked.  The burn rate was ideal.  The burn temperature was ideal for most of the smoke – except for the end where it was a little warmer than I liked.

I normally like a little resistance on the draw, but I did find the draw tighter than I would have liked.  This was not a draw I had to struggle with too much, but I wondering if this contributed to the uneven burn.

Strength and Body

From a nicotine standpoint, the Partagas 1845 Heritage does provide some pop.  For the most part I categorized this on the upper end of medium to full for the majority of the smoking experience.  Toward the end, I actually felt this had enough pop to notch its way into full strength territory.  As for the body, there is some nice depth to the flavors from start to finish.  I also assessed this to be on the upper end of medium to full-bodied.  Except for the finish (which has more strength), the strength and body balance each other very well on this cigar throughout the smoking experience.

Final Thoughts

In thought 2010 was a great year for General Cigar.  In 2011, I thought they fell a little short in terms of what they delivered.  However 2012 is off to a great start for General.  The Partagas 1845 Heritage Rewrapped was a very good cigar.  Even though it had some burn/draw issues, I would say these were minor and not major.  I’m curious to see if time corrects some of these issues.  This is a great cigar to put the Partagas line back out front and center.  This is a nice cigar for a novice cigar enthusiast looking to move into something medium to full in both strength and body.  I think seasoned cigar enthusiasts will enjoy this cigar as well.   This is a cigar I certainly look forward to smoking again.

Summary

Burn: Good
Draw: Good
Complexity: High
Strength: Medium to Full (Full at end)
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 91

Source: The cigars for this assessment were purchased from Casa de Montecristo in Countryside, Illinois and Iwan Ries in Chicago, Illinois.