At the 2015 IPCPR Trade Show, Las Cumbres Tabaco unveiled a lancero line extension to its Senorial line. Las Cumbres Tabaco is the company founded by Jose Blanco and his wife Emma Emma Viktorsson. The Senorial was the inaugural launch by Las Cumbres Tabaco in 2015. This is the first lancero produced by Las Cumbres Tabaco and it became the sixth vitola in the line. Like the rest of Las Cumbres Tabaco’s offerings, the Senorial Lancero is made at Blanco’s cousin Jochi Blanco’s Tabacalera Palma factory. Recently I’ve had an opportunity to smoke the Senorial Lancero. Lanceros don’t always translate to a great cigar, but in the case of the Senorial, I found this format worked great – delivering an excellent cigar experience.

The name Senorial translates to “manorial” while the company name Las Cumbres Tabaco translates to “the summits of tobacco”. The name of the company fits with the personality of Blanco himself I’ve always looked at him as someone who is passionate about tobacco and strives to deliver excellence with his work.

Blend Profile

The Senorial is a multi-national blend with tobaccos from three countries.  The wrapper and binder are tobaccos that have been imported while the filler tobaccos have been grown on Jochi Blanco’s farms.

Wrapper: Habano Ecuador
Binder: Nicaragua, Esteli
Filler: Dominican Piloto Cubano and Dominican Corojo
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic (Tabacalera Palma)

Vitolas Available

The Senorial Lancero becomes the sixth vitola in the line. From a packaging standpoint, the Lancero differs in that it is packaged in 48 count boxes as opposed to 24 count boxes for the other five sizes.

Lancero: 7 x 38
Corona Gorda No. 5: 5 1/2 x 46
Paco Robusto: 5 1/4x 52
Belicoso No. 2: 6 1/4 x 52
Toro Bravo: 6 x 54
Le Grand: 6 x 60

Appearance

The Ecuadorian Habano wrapper of the Senorial Lancero had a camel-brown color to it. Depending on how the light hit the wrapper, it did give off colorado red tint to it. There was some oil on the surface of the wrapper. While there were also some visible wrapper seams and some visible veins, I found the lancero to have a smooth surface. The cap is finished with a slight pig-tail.

The band is a smaller version of the band seen on the rest of the Senorial line. It features a blue, gold, and orange mountain-like design that has the look of an oil painting on canvas. The middle of the band has a curved orthogonal shape to it with gold trim. At the middle of that shape is an portrait of a village – also with an oil painting effect. The village design is surrounded by a gold-grimed oval. Across the picture of the village is the text “Senorial by Jose Blanco” – in gold font.  To the left of the orthogonal portion of the band is the text “Hand Made” in white”hand painted style” font while on the right side is the text “Dominican Republic” – also in the same white font.  The outer edges of the band have gold trim.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Prior to lighting the Senorial Lancero, I went with my usual choice of a straight cut. Once the cap was successfully clipped, I moved on to the pre-light draw. The dry draw provided a mix of caramel, fruit, and some spice. Overall I considered the pre-light draw of the Senorial Lancero to be excellent. At this point I was ready to light up the Senorial Lancero and see what the smoking phase would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The Senorial Lancero picked up where the pre-light draw left off. I detected notes of caramel, natural tobacco, fruit, and white pepper to start. As the Senorial Lancero settled into the early stages, I found the natural tobacco and caramel notes became primary, while the fruit and pepper notes were in the background.

As the Senorial Lancero progressed through the first third, the natural tobacco and caramel alternated as to which had the edge. Meanwhile the white pepper was more prominent on the retro-hale.

By the second third, I found the natural tobacco notes remained primary. The fruit notes increased somewhat and now floated between the forefront and background. The caramel notes were now grounded as a background flavor with the white pepper.

By the start of the final third of the Senorial Lancero, the natural tobacco was a primary note and this was joined by a woody note. There was an increase in the white pepper, but it never overtook the cigar. At the same time, the sweetness did diminish quite a bit. This is the way the Senorial Lancero remained until the end. The resulting nub was cool in temperature and slightly soft to the touch.

Burn and Draw

Overall the Senorial Lancero scored very nicely when it came to burn and draw. The burn path of the Senorial Lancero remained straight from start to finish.  The burn line had a slight curvature, but this cigar never was danger of tunneling or canoeing. I didn’t find the Senorial Lancero to be a cigar that required an excessive amount of touch-ups. The resulting ash had a silver-gray color. I found a little bit of flaking early on, but for the most part this remained a firm ash.  The combustion of the Senorial Lancero was excellent as this cigar maintained an ideal burn temperature and ideal burn rate from start to finish.

While this wasn’t a draw that had a lot of resistance, it was far from a loose draw. I considered this to be an open draw that made it very easy to derive flavor form.

Strength and Body

I’m not sure if this is a factor of age, but when compared to the other vitolas I smoked, I did find the Senorial Lancero to be slightly dialed back in terms of both strength and body. Overall I assessed the Senorial Lancero to be a medium strength from start to finish. As for the body, the Senorial Lancero started out medium-bodied, but by the second half, the profile progressed to medium to full-bodied. In terms of strength versus body, I found the body had a slight edge.

Final Thoughts

I wasn’t sure how the Senorial blend was going to work in the lancero format, but as I stated up-front this size worked great – and the result is a very solid addition to the Senorial line. This cigar keeps true to the roots of the Senorial line, yet delivers its own story. This was a cigar that was ready to smoke right out of the box, but my gut tells me the best is yet to come when aged. The Senorial Lancero is a cigar that can appeal to the experienced or novice enthusiast. It’s a cigar I’d recommend to one who loves lanceros, but it’s one I’d highly encourage someone who doesn’t smoke lanceros to give a try. Normalizing the 48 count box to a 20 to 25 count box, I’d consider this a box worthy cigar. It’s a cigar I’d easily reach for and smoke again.

Summary

Burn: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium (1st Half), Medium to Full (2nd Half)
Finish: Good
Assessment: 4.0-Box Worthy
Score: 92

References

News: Las Cumbres Tabaco Introducing Senorial Lancero
Price: $9.00
Source: Purchased
Stogie Geeks Podcast: Episode 168
Stogie Feed: Las Cumbres Tabaco Senorial Lancero by Jose Blanco