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| Nomad S-307 |
The Nomad S-307 marks the second core line, and third blend overall being released by Fred Rewey‘s Nomad Cigar Company. It is also second cigar that Rewey has done in Nicaragua – joining his limited release Nomad LE Lot 1386 cigar. For the S-307, Rewey has teamed up with Tabacalera Fernandez to produce this blend. We’ve been following this cigar for the past four months since Rewey first made the announcement back in July. Recently the cigar finally hit the market and I had the opportunity to smoke this cigar. I’ve felt over the past few months that Rewey is a rising star int he industry, and the release of the Nomad S-307 continues to solidify my thoughts here. This is another excellent cigar by this boutique cigar company.
In terms of the name, it is derived two-fold. The “S” comes from the fact that Rewey used a Sumatra wrapper from Ecuador. In terms of the 307, this represents the approximate area (in square miles) of the region of Nicaragua from which the Nicaraguan tobaccos originate from. Like all Nomad products, the cigar is distributed by Gary Griffith’s House of Emilio arm.
Without further ado, let’s break down the Nomad S-307 and see what this cigar brings to the table:
Blend Profile
I found it an interesting combination of Ecuadorian tobaccos for both the wrapper and binder. While not an unheard of thing, this is not a common blend configuration seen in the marketplace.
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Ecuadorian Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan
Vitolas Available
The Nomad S-307 is available in three frontmarks. Each of the cigars is in a box-press format. This marks the first Nomad release to be box-pressed. The cigars are packaged in boxes of 21.
Robusto: 5 x 50
Toto: 6 x 50
Torpedo: 6 1/2 x 52
Appearance
For this cigar experience, I went with the Toro-sized vitola. The S-307 Toro’s Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper’s color is chocolate-brown in color with some colorado red tinted into it. While there is not much oil on this wrapper, it was a very smooth wrapper. There are some visible veins and visible wrapper seams. The box-press itself was nice and firm.
The S-307 introduces a new band into the Nomad family. The band features a black, silver, and red color scheme. The background is black in color. Highlighting this band is the winged Nomad logo with a navigator symbol at the top. The text “NOMAD” is on the logo in a white colored modern style font. To the right of the band is the text @GODFADR (which is Rewey’s Twitter handle) in white font. To the left is text S-307 – also in white font. There was some cedar and raisin aromas I detected from the footer.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
Prior to lighting up my Nomad S-307 Toro, I went with my usual selection of a straight cut. Once the cap was clipped, I moved on to the pre-light draw. The cold draw provided me a mix of natural tobacco, pepper, and an interesting sweetness I could not draw an analogy to. Overall the pre-light draw provided a very nice mix of flavors. At this point, I was ready to light up my Nomad S-307 and await what the smoking phase would deliver.
Flavor Profile
Once I lit up my Nomad S-307 Toro, I immediately detected notes of earth, pepper and walnut. The earth and walnut notes moved into the forefront. The pepper notes soon took on some baker’s spice characteristics. This spice became more subtle and quickly receded to a secondary note. While there was spice throughout the smoking experience, this cigar never became a spice bomb. I also detected a subtle raisin sweetness that was more in the distance, but a little stronger than a tertiary note. Meanwhile the retro-hale also had more of a baker’s spice quality to it as there was a sweetness component to it.
As the S-307 progressed through the first half, the raisin sweetness slowly increased. By the midway point, it joined the earth notes in the forefront. The walnut flavors did diminish and became a background flavor – joining the spice.
In the second half, the raisin sweetness took on some more natural tobacco qualities and diminished. The earth notes remained a primary flavor. As the S-307 entered the last third, the primary flavors were earth and spice (as it had increased just a little). The sweetness had diminished by this point while the walnut flavors had dissipated. I found the last stages of this cigar to be very flavorful with no harsh notes. The resulting nub was outstanding – firm to the touch and cool in temperature.
Burn and Draw
When it comes to burn, Nomad Cigar Company is quietly building a reputation as one of the best burning cigars in the boutique marketplace. The S-307 falls into this category as it delivers a low maintenance burn. The burn line required minimal touch-ups to remain straight. The resulting ash was firm and not prone to any significant flaking or flowering. The ash was light gray in color with some darker streaks to it. The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.
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| Burn of the Nomad S-307 |
Overall I also found the draw on the Nomad S-307 to be low maintenance. It was not a tight draw, but it was not a loose one. Puffing on the S-307 made deriving the flavors and easy and enjoyable task.
Strength and Body
The Nomad S-307 is what I term a classic “medium/medium” cigar. In other words it is a cigar that has medium strength and is medium-bodied. In the case of the medium-bodied notes, I found that for this flavor profile, this was the right amount of depth. In terms of strength versus body, I found that both of these attributes balanced very nicely against each other with neither having a significant advantage over the other.
Final Thoughts
The one thing I’ve told many people is that the Nomad S-307 is a very different cigar than the Nomad LE Lot 1386. Both cigars may have come out of Nicaragua, but that is where the similarities end. The Nomad S-307 is not going to be a nicotine bomb, and it is not going to be a spice bomb. It’s differentiating attributes are going to be in the flavor profile where it layers a nice sweetness over an earthy flavor base. Overall, I think Rewey has delivered a solid cigar. It’s a cigar that can appeal to novice cigars, but it also appeals to those experienced cigar enthusiasts looking for that “medium/medium” cigar without a ton of spice. As for myself, this is a wonderful first smoke of the day. If this cigar is in your flavor profile, this cigar is worth picking up five or more and keeping around.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Finish: Excellent
Assessment: 3.0 – The Fiver
Score: 91
Source: The cigars for this assessment was provided by Nomad Cigar Company. The samples received were in order to provide feedback. Cigar Coop is appreciative for the samples, but in no way does this influence this write-up.
