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| Sindicato by Sindicato Cigars (Churchill) |
The Sindicato is the long awaited eponymous release by Sindicato Cigar Group. It marks the fourth line to be launched by the company (joining Affinity, Hex, and Casa Bella). Word of the Sindicato Cigar surfaced at the 2013 IPCPR Trade Show. This past week, this long-awaited release has begun to arrive at retailers. Carrying the company name, the cigar is being positioned as a flagship offering by the company. It is also the company’s first Nicaraguan puro. I’ve recently had an opportunity to smoke this cigar. This cigar appears to be the breakthrough cigar for the second year company as this is one outstanding cigar.
The company has employed a strategy of partnering with established factories to make their cigars. For the Sindicato, the company partnered with Casa Fernandez to make the cigar. It features tobaccos that come from the Casa Fernandez farms. The cigar was blended by Arsenio Ramos.
Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the Sindicato Cigar and see what this brings to the table:
Blend Profile
The wrapper is being sold as a differentiating factor. The Sindicato features a unique limited shade grown Corojo Jalapa wrapper from the Fernandez farms. Sindicato says the wrapper is grown under shade to provide a consistent appearance of the wrapper leaf.
The cigars are made at the Casa Fernandez factory in Nicaragua
Wrapper: Shade Grown Corojo Jalapa
Binder: Esteli Double Leaf
Filler: Jalapa and Esteli
Vitolas Available
The Sindicato is being launched in six sizes. Each of the sizes is a box-press. The cigars are packaged 16 per box.
Corona Gorda: 5 1/2 x 48
Robusto: 5 x 54
Toro: 6 x 54
Belicoso: 6 1/8 x 54
Churchill: 7 x 52
Magnum: 6 x 60
Appearance
For this cigar experience I went with the Sindicato Churchill. The color of the Shade Grown Corojo wrapper of the Sindicato falls into light to medium brown range with a slight colorado red tint. There was a slight amount of oil on the surface of the wrapper. There was little in the way of visible wrapper seams and visible veins. The cigar itself had a firm box-press with no soft spots. The cap of the cigar features a coiled pig-tail – somewhat a smaller version of the coiled pig-tail on the Sindicato Hex. The footer to the Sindicato is covered.
The band is mostly black, gold, and silver. There is a large black shield on the front of the bad with silver trim around the shield. The text “SINDICATO” is in large gold colored font on the shield. Just below that text is the text “Sabor Evolucionando” (which translates to “evolving taste”) in gold font. Toward the lower part of the shield is the text “HECHO A MANO” in silver font. There is gold trim on the edges of the band. The gold trim is thicker toward the bottom of the band and features the text “PUROS SUPERIORES” in large black font.
Preparation for the Cigar Experience
As opposed to pull off the pig-tail on the cap, I placed a straight cut to remove the cap. This is something I normally I do with pig-tail caps. I then moved on to the pre-light draw phase. The dry draw of the Sindicato Churchill provided me notes of cedar sweet spice and leather. Overall I was quite pleased with the pre-light draw of this cigar. At this point, I was ready to light up my Sindicato cigar and see what the smoking phase would deliver.
Flavor Profile
The start to the Sindicato delivered some notes of cedar sweet-spice, natural tobacco, and pepper. The pepper note was more of a combination of red and black pepper on the retro-hale while on the tongue it had more of an exotic spice quality.
In the first third, a pattern emerged where I detected the cedar sweet-spice along with some background nut flavors on the draw. Meanwhile, the finish and after-draw produced some of the exotic spice notes.
In the second third, the nut flavors moved into the forefront as a primary flavor. The spice and cedar notes were now background flavors. As the Sindicato moved into the last third, the spice displaced the nut flavors as the primary flavor. By this time, the spice had more of a classic pepper flavor than the exotic spices from earlier on. This is the way the flavor profile held until the end. The resulting nub was cool in temperature and firm to the touch.
Burn and Draw
From a burn standpoint, the Sindicato maintained a straight burn line – requiring some occasional touch-ups along the way. The resulting ash was a salt and pepper color. The ash was slightly loose and was prone to some minor flaking from time to time. The burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.
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| Burn of the Sindicato (Churchill) |
The draw was excellent to this cigar. It was not too tight and it was not too loose. This was a low maintenance cigar to puff on and derive flavors from.
Strength and Body
From a strength perspective, I found this cigar delivered a nice kick. The Sindicato started out in the medium to full range. The strength did gradually build on this cigar and by the last third, it progressed into the full strength range. The flavors to the Sindicato had some nice depth to them and their weight could definitely felt on the pallet. I assessed the Sindicato to be a full-bodied smoke from start to finish. In terms of strength versus body, the body had the edge early on – however by the last third, the increase in strength put these two attributes on equal ground.
Final Thoughts
I found Sindicato’s eponymous cigar to be an excellent cigar. This was a cigar that had a nice amount of complexity along with some very nice flavors. It was back in February when I smoked my first Sindicato and I was impressed. Now two months later, as I revisited this cigar, I saw find this cigar is smoking even better. My gut tells me even at this point, this cigar has not reached its full aging potential. Finally, I did think the Churchill size does some nice justice to this particular blend. This is probably a cigar I would steer more toward the experienced cigar enthusiast as this is stronger and fuller offering. As for myself, this is a cigar I’d smoke again. This is easily worth a box split.
Summary
Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: High
Strength: Medium to Full (1st 2/3), Full (Last Third)
Body: Full
Finish: Good
Assessment: 3.5 – Box Split
Score: 92
References
News: Sindicato by Sindicato Cigar Group Officially Announced (Cigar Preview)
Source: Sample Provided by Retailer
Price: $12.95
Stogie Geeks Podcast: n/a
Stogie Feed: n/a
Taste wise this cigar beat on all cylinders. The flavor profile completed strong and was pleasant throughout.