Avo Limited Edition 2007  – Avo LE07

2007 marked the seventh consecutive year of an Avo Limited Edition cigar as the Avo Limited Edition 2007 (Avo LE07) made its debut.  The Avo LE07 coincided with brand ambassador Avo Uvezian’s 81th birthday. From 2001 through 2014, the release of the annual limited edition was timed right around the time of Uvezian’s March 22nd birthday (Recently the Avo Limited Edition 2015 was announced and in a change of direction, the series is moving away from a “birthday” cigar). Today we take a look at the Avo LE07 that was included in the recently released Avo’s Greatest Hits Sampler. Overall, this is a real hidden gem in the Avo Limited Editions and the version included with this sampler definitely is one of the better releases in this series.

As mentioned, the Avo Limited Edition series was launched in 2001 and has followed each year with a different limited production release is done in a different size and a different blend. The commemorative Avo Greatest Hits sampler was announced just before the 2014 IPCPR Trade Show. This sampler contains 14 of the limited edition cigars between 2001 and 2014.

Avo Greatest Hits – Packaging

 

Avo Greatest Hits – Closed Box

In terms of the cigars included in the package some have had their blends reconstructed using the same tobaccos (The LE05 was not included because this the reconstruction of the blend could not be done to Master Blender Henke Kelner’s satisfaction). It has not been disclosed whether or not the Avo Limited Edition 2007 is from 2007, or if it has been reconstructed.

Avo Greatest Hits – Contents

 

Avo Greatest Hits – Close Up

Over the past several weeks, we have been assessing the cigars included in Avo’s Greatest Hits. Up until now, the cigars assessed have been done as in our “Assessment Update” formats. Since the Avo LE07 has not been assessed yet, we will use a full assessment format here.

Blend Profile

In terms of the blend, the press release announcing the Avo LE07 states:

“As in the past, the blend features a sun-grown Ecuadorian wrapper, Dominican-grown binder and filler leaves, this time emphasizing the Piloto Cubano and San Vicente strains.”

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun Grown
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican

Vitolas Available

The Avo LE07 was produced in a single size – a 5 5/8 x 48 Corona Gorda sized vitola. The cigar was originally made available in 20 count boxes. A total of 7,000 boxes (140,000 cigars) produced with 4,000 boxes (80,000 cigars) reserved for the U.S. market.

Appearance

The Avo LE07 features a medium brown colored wrapper. There is some oil on the surface of the wrapper. I considered the surface of this wrapper to be smooth. There are some visible veins and there are also some thin wrapper seams.

The Avo LE07 is unbanded. It is one of three unbanded cigars released in the Avo Limited Edition series (the other two are the Avo 22 and the Avo LE05 – as mentioned earlier, the latter is not included in the Avo Greatest Hits Sampler).

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As I normally do, I started with a straight cut to remove the cap of the Avo LE07. Once the cap was successfully clipped I moved on to the pre-light draw. The dry draw provided a mix of natural tobacco and wood flavors. At this point, there wasn’t much in the way of spice. Overall this wasn’t the most exciting pre-light draw. Since the pre-light draw is not factored in our scoring and assessment rating, there was no loss of points here. At this point I was ready to light up my Avo LE07 and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The Avo LE07 started out with some notes of sweet natural tobacco. There was a secondary wood note and in the background there was a distant black pepper note. As for the retro-hale, I detected a black pepper note through the nasal passages.

As the Avo LE07 moved through the first third, some additional notes entered the equation including berry, grass, toast, and cream. The wood notes entered the forefront and alternated with the wood as to which was the primary note. Meanwhile the black pepper slightly increased and had more of a lingering effect on the tongue on the after-draw.

The flavor profile remained similar into the second half: The natural tobacco and wood alternated in intensity. There were still notes of pepper, grass and toast. The cream and berry notes got a little more intense in the latter part of the second third, but still remained in the background.

The last third saw a slight change with the pepper coming close to the forefront. The pepper never got overwhelming  There were still plenty of flavor nuances at the end. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

Overall the burn and draw scored very nicely on the Avo LE07. The burn line remained on a straight path from start to finish – requiring only occasional touch-ups. The burn line itself was slightly wavy, but this proved to be extremely minor and had no adverse effects. The resulting ash was on the firm side and had a near white color. The burn rate and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the Avo Limited Edition 2007 (Avo LE07)

The draw to the Avo LE07 was not too tight, nor was it too loose. This was a low maintenance cigar to derive flavors from.  The cigar itself produced an abundant layer of smoke.

Strength and Body

From a strength and body perspective, I found the Avo LE07 to fall into the medium range for both attributes. There was a very slow and gradual increase in strength as the Avo LE07 burned. By the very last stages of this smoke, it had just enough strength and body to be assessed at medium to full. In terms of strength versus body, I found a good balance between both attributes with neither attribute overshadowing the other.

Final Thoughts

Overall I have found the Avo’s Greatest Hits sampler has done a really good job at capturing the essence of these classic annual releases by the Avo brand. This is one of the blends in the sampler I had not smoked this prior to the sampler release, so I do not have a baseline to compare it to. What I can say is that the Avo Limited Edition 2007 is an excellent cigar – and it might rank as one of the better releases I have had in this sampler / series. I found this to be a cigar that has excellent flavor, plenty of complexity, and quality construction. This is a cigar I would recommend to either the novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, while I smoked this out of the Avo’s Greatest Hits sampler, on its own this is a box worthy cigar.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: High
Strength: Medium (Medium to Full at very end)
Body: Medium (Medium to Full at very end)
Finish: Good
Assessment: 4.0 – Box Worthy
Score: 93

References

News: Avo’s Greatest Hits Sampler Features Limited Editions
Price: Sampler Price: $11.50 ($224.00 for sampler)
Source: Purchased
Stogie Geeks Podcast: n/a
Stogie Feed: Avo Limited Edition 2007 – Avo LE07 (Part of Avo’s Greatest Hits Sampler)