D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco

The D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage is a cigar line that is made by a company called Pure Aroma Cigars. The company is run by Isaisas Santana Diaz. Pure Aroma Cigars is based out of Miami, Florida but uses a factory in Costa Rica to make their cigars.  Diaz is originally from Havana, Cuba but has lived in the United States since 1995. He named his company’s main brand D’Crossier as a tribute to his great grandfather Francisco Crossier. Originally Crossier came over to Cuba from France in search of a place to expand some vineyards he owned. It was there where Crossier expanded his passion for cigars. Diaz founded the company to complete his great grandfather’s legacy. Since Diaz established the company, his cigars have quietly caught the attention of many. Recently I’ve had an opportunity to smoke one of the blends, the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage cigar. Overall, I found this to be an outstanding cigar – and one that is definitely worth checking out.

For this assessment, we focus on the large ring gauge Trabuco size. Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at this line and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage line is offered in both a natural and a maduro blend. The Trabuco size we are going to assess here is only available in the natural blend. The Imperium Class Vintage has a very different tobacco profile than many cigars in the marketplace today. The cigars include tobaccos from Costa Rica, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic.

Wrapper: Costa Rica
Binder: Ecuador
Filler: Costa Rica, Dominican Republic

Vitolas Available

For reference, we include following are the frontmarks available in the Imperium Class Vintage line.  The cigars are packaged 25 per box.

Trabuco: 5 1/8 x 60
Taino: 5 7/8 x 54
Bullet: 5 1/8 x 58 (Belicoso)
Robusto: 4 7/8 x 50 (Maduro)

Packaging of the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco

Appearance

The D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco had a very oily complexion on the wrapper’s surface. The Costa Rican wrapper is a colorado red – and almost a cinnamon-colored wrapper. There are some visible vein and some visible seams. This cigar had no soft spots and was a well-packed 60 ring gauge cigar.

The band has a mostly gold, red, and black color scheme.  It contains a “DC” in gold – representing the D’Crossier logo.  The logo is on a red background.  Surrounding the logo is a gold crown, a Roman style wreath, and some other gold adornments.  On both the left and right side of the logo is a black and white shield that says “HAND MADE” in small gold font in landscape mode.  The bottom part of the band has a black background with the text “Imperium Class Vintage” in gold cursive font.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

For the smoke of the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco, I went with my usual selection of a straight cut to remove the cap.  Once the cap was successfully clipped, I proceeded with the pre-light draw.  The dry draw provided a mix of cedar sweet spice and a little pepper.  I also picked up some notes of cinnamon.  I was wondering if the wrapper color influenced my taste sensation when it came to the cinnamon, but I was able to detect it on each smoke of the Imperium Class Trabuco.  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 D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco started out with a combination of pepper and earth.  I did not find the pepper to be overwhelming at the beginning.  After a few minutes a nice natural tobacco emerged with the pepper and earth notes.  The pepper could definitely be detected on the retro-hale through the nasal passages.

Around the five percent point, the natural tobacco became the primary note.  There was a nice sweetness to this natural tobacco.  The earth and pepper moved to the background.  Around the ten percent mark, some background cream notes joined the pepper and earth.

By the start of the second third, I found the earth notes moved into the forefront.  The natural tobacco sweetness and pepper notes floated between the forefront and background.  By the second half, the background cream morphed into more of a nut flavor.

The flavor pattern above pretty much held until the end of the cigar.  There were still enough dynamics in the flavor profile with the notes above.  The difference is the spice remained in the forefront in the latter stages of the cigar.  The close to the cigar was flavorful and did not have any harshness.  The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

Overall, I found the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco to be a well-made 60 ring gauge cigar.  This was reflected nicely in the burn and draw attributes.  For the most part, the burn line remained relatively straight.  The cigar required a few touch-ups along the way, but nothing that I considered to be excessive.  The resulting ash was a darker salt and pepper colored ash.  There was some flaking along the way, but again nothing too excessive.  The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco

The draw was excellent on the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco.  For a big ring gauge, I found that this cigar drew very well.

Strength and Body

Most cigars I have had with a Costa Rican wrapper have not been overpowering when it comes to strength.  I would add the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco to this list.  At the same time, I wouldn’t classify this cigar as mild strength.   Overall I found that this to be a medium strength cigar from start to finish.  The flavors also start out in the medium-bodied range.  By the end of the first third, I found that the flavors did increase just enough to move into medium to full-bodied range.  In terms of strength versus body,  I found the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco to be a cigar where the body has the advantage.

Final Thoughts

Overall I found the D’Crossier Imperium Class Vintage Trabuco to be an excellent cigar.  Diaz and his team definitely put some effort into making this a blend that works very well in a big ring gauge.  Not only does this cigar have a different blend, but it also brings some nice unique characteristics in terms of the flavors it delivers.  This is a nice cigar to introduce to both the novice and experienced cigar enthusiast – especially those who are fans of big ring gauges who want a nice change of pace.  As for myself, this is a cigar I would reach for again.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium (1st third), Medium to Full (remainder)
Finish: Good
Assessment: Nice to Have
Score: 90

Source:  The cigars for this assessment were provided by Pure Aroma Cigars.  The samples received were initiated by Pure Aroma Cigars in order to provide feedback.  Cigar Coop is appreciative for the samples, but in no way does this influence this write-up.