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| Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro |
Just prior to the 2013 IPCPR Trade Show, Casa Fernandez announced the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro. This cigar adds a maduro blend into its Miami line. The Casa Fernandez Miami line gets its name because the cigars are made at the Casa Fernandez factory in Miami, Florida. The original Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva is famous for utilizing the high-priming medio tiempo Aganorsa farm tobacco in the blend. Now the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro follows suit, but this time with a San Andres Maduro wrapper. This cigar has recently started making its way to retailers. I’ve had an opportunity to smoke this cigar, and this cigar stands at the top of the mountain when it comes to Casa Fernandez’s work. This is an outstanding cigar.
Over the past few years, Casa Fernandez has been building a solid reputation throughout the cigar industry. The company is run by founder Eduardo Fernandez and his cousin, Paul Palmer-Fernandez. The company is famous for using Aganorsa tobacco in their blends. Aganorsa tobacco refers to Nicaraguan-grown tobacco on farms owned by Aganorsa SA. Many cigar manufacturers covet the tobacco grown on these farms.
Without further ado, let’s break down the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro and see what this cigar brings to the table.
Blend Profile
Casa Fernandez has pretty much gone with a San Andres Mexican wrappers for the majority of the maduros they make. The Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro also uses this wrapper. As mentioned above, the blend also leverages the Nicaraguan-grown Aganorsa farm tobacco.
Wrapper: San Andres Mexican
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
We also mentioned the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro uses medio tiempo in the blend. Most people think of ligero being the highest priming on a tobacco plant. On some plants, two additional tobacco leaves grow, above ligero – these are called Medio Tiempo. As a result, this leaf gets the most sunlight and nutrients of any part of the tobacco plant. It results in a lot of flavor. This is not a common priming for tobacco, so as a result Medio Tiempo is not a tobacco that is commonly used.
Vitolas Available
The Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro is being launched in three sizes:
Corona Extra: 5 1/4 x 46
Toro: 6 x 54
Titan: 6 x 60
Appearance
For this cigar experience, I went with the Corona Extra size. The Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro has a milk chocolate colored wrapper. In fact on the 6/29/13 edition of Kiss My Ash Radio, Paul Palmer referred to the cigar as a “chocolate bar”. There is a fair amount of oil on the wrapper. The chocolate coloring of the wrapper does a very good job at hiding both the wrapper seams and the veins.
There are two bands on the cigar. The primary band is similar to the one on the natural version of the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva. At the center of that band is a red oval with the text “MIAMI” in gold. There is a pale yellow ring around the red oval with gold trim. On the top part of that ring is the gold font text “FABRICAS DE TOBACOS”. On the lower part of the ring is “CASA FERNANDEZ” – also in gold font. The remainder of the band has pale yellow, gold and brown in the color scheme.
The secondary band rests just below the primary band. It is a black colored band with gold trim. The text “Reserva” is prominently displayed in gold font.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
For my cigar experience of the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro Corona Extra, I went with my usual choice of a straight cut. Once the cap was successfully clipped, I moved on to the pre-light draw phase. The dry draw notes provided a mix of chocolate, citrus, and a little pepper. Overall I considered the pre-light draw of the Miami Reserva Maduro to be excellent. At this point, I was ready to light up this cigar and see what the overall smoking experience would bring to the table.
Flavor Profile
The start to the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro Corona Extra provided some notes of pepper, citrus, and leather. As the flavor profile began to settle down, the leather flavors transitioned into a sweet chocolate flavor. The retro-hale definitely had a strong pepper component.
The chocolate, citrus, and pepper notes would alternate in various combinations in terms of what being either a primary or secondary flavor. While the three notes could be detected, the flavors complemented each other nicely. In the last third, the flavor pattern changed. The pepper notes would remain in the forefront and was joined by some earth notes. The chocolate and citrus notes did not totally disappear, but became a secondary flavors.
The close to the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro had some spice, but had no harshness. The resulting nub was cool in temperature, but firm to the touch.
Burn and Draw
From a construction standpoint, the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro is an extremely well-constructed cigar. This was reflected nicely with the burn and draw attributes. The burn was extremely low maintenance as it needed minimal touch-ups to maintain a straight burn line. The ash was a mix of gray, white, and black coloring. The ash was firm and was not prone to any significant flaking during the smoking experience. The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.
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| Burn of the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro |
As for the draw, the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro scored very well. I found the draw not too loose and not too tight. Overall, I found the Miami Reserva Maduro to also be a low maintenance cigar to puff on.
Strength and Body
From a strength perspective, I found the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro had some nice pop to it. I found this cigar to be medium to full strength – falling just a little short of being a full strength cigar in my book. As for the depth of the flavors, I found them to be full-bodied. In terms of strength versus body, it was very close between the two attributes. Overall I still gave a slight edge to the body, but not by much.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to San Andres Maduro wrappers, I have sometimes begin a critic of how it is used with some blends. Namely, I find it can overwhelm a blend and bring a pungent taste into the flavor profile. With Casa Fernandez, they seem to hit on all cylinders when it comes to working with this wrapper. They consistently find a way to get the most out of this wrapper without overwhelming the blend. This also has been the case with the other blends that Casa Fernandez makes for other countries.
As for the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro, this is another great example on how Casa Fernandez has gotten the most out of the San Andres Maduro wrapper. This is a cigar that is excellent in terms of flavor, construction, and balance. Given this is a stronger cigar, I’d probably recommend the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro to a more a seasoned cigar enthusiast. As for myself, this cigar stands a-top the Casa Fernandez portfolio in my book. This is a box worthy cigar – and one I’d certainly smoke again.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Full
Finish: Excellent
Assessment: Memorable
Score: 93
Source: The cigar for this assessment was provided by an authorized representative of Casa Fernandez Cigars. The sample received was in order to provide feedback. Cigar Coop is appreciative for the samples, but in no way does this influence this write-up.
