A. Flores Gran Reserva – Robusto

At the 2013 IPCPR Merchandise Bear witness, the A. Flores Gran Reserva was ane of 2 new lines being showcased by PDR Cigars.  The A. Flores derives its name from its master blender, Abe Flores. Ever since he expanded his PDR Cigars mill in Tamboril, Dominican Republic, Flores has been a person sought after by many cigar manufacturers to make cigars for them. At the aforementioned time, Flores has connected to make products to be sold by his company – PDR Cigars.  With the A. Flores Gran Reserva, I institute this to be an excellent release from Flores.

In terms of its placement in the lines under the PDR Cigars umbrella, the Gran Reserva is put into the A. Flores line.  This line was introduced last twelvemonth with the Serie Privada blends.   The A. Flores branded cigars include the year "1975" on it.  This was the year Flores was born.

Without further ado, let'southward break downwardly the A. Flores Gran Reserva and see what the overall cigar experience brings to the table.

Alloy Contour

The A. Flores Gran Reserva has a good corporeality of Dominican Corojo in the blend. Like all PDR Cigars, the Gran Reserva is fabricated at the PDR Cigars factory in Tumbril.

Wrapper: Dominican Corojo 2006
Binder: Non disclosed
Filler: Dominican Corojo, Nicaraguan Habano

Vitolas Bachelor

The A. Flores Gran Reserva is intended to be a small-scale batch offering. This is a trend that Flores has been post-obit with many of his releases. The cigar is being launched in iii sizes and each size will be limited to 500 boxes per size for this yr. One of the sizes will be a minor sized half corona and in that location will exist a v count tin that will be a regular production offering.

Half Corona: 3 1/2 ten 46
Robusto: 5 x 52
Gran Toro: vi x 54

A. Flores Gran Reserva – Half Corona size

Advent

For this cigar feel, I smoked the robusto size of the A. Flores Gran Reserva.  The cigar has a cedar roofing for a little more than than half of the length of the cigar.  There is a crimson ribbon by the footer of the cigar.

The A. Flores Gran Reserva's Corojo wrapper definitely has a reddish color. I would almost categorize information technology equally a rosado color. The wrapper definitely has some oil on information technology. There are a few visible veins and the wrapper seams are somewhat well-hidden.

A. Flores Gran Reserva – with cedar wrap removed

The ring has primarily a red background with gold trim.  The text "1975" is at the center of the ring in  white font.  There are a couple of gold-trimmed concentric ovals surrounding that text. On the outside of the ovals on the upper portion is the text "A. FLORES" in white font. On the lower portion is the text "GRAN RESERVA" – too in white font. There is additional gold designs and trim on the band. Toward the top of the band is the text "FABRICA PDR CIGARS" in small golden font. On the lower role of the band is the text "REPUBLICA DOMINICANA" in gold font.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Prior to starting any of the tasting activities on the A. Flores Gran Reserva, I removed the ribbon at the footer as well equally the cedar wrap.   Afterwards the visual inspection of the cigar,  I then proceeded with my usual choice of a directly cut to remove the cap. The pre-light draw yielded notes of cedar sweet spice and leather. While the cedar wrapping did not comprehend the cap, I yet was not surprised to have cedar notes on the pre-light draw.  At this point, I was at present ready to light up my A. Flores Gran Reserva and encounter what the overall smoking experience would evangelize.

Flavor Profile

The first to the A. Flores Gran Reserva started with a pretty potent blast of pepper. The pepper quickly subsided into a combination of pepper and what I term a cedar sweet/spice.  I found the cedar sweet/spice was nowadays on the draw, while there was more than of a pepper flavour on the after-describe.  The pepper could also be detected on the retro-hale.

In the first 3rd,  I plant the cedar notes continued to be main flavors.  The pepper notes macerated into the groundwork.  There likewise were some earth notes that surfaced in the background.  It was besides around this fourth dimension where there was a secondary cinnamon flavor that emerged.

Toward the midway bespeak, I found the Gran Reserva to transition to more of an earthy profile. The spices which in the commencement half where a combination of cedar and pepper macerated some more and became more of an exotic pepper that had less bite to it. This flavor profile held until the end.  While there was a slight increase of the exotic pepper toward the end, I found the Gran Reserva remained more than on the earthy side.  The resulting nub was ideal – house to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

From a construction standpoint, I found the A. Flores Gran Reserva to be a well constructed cigar. This was reflected very nicely in both the burn and depict. The fire was low maintenance every bit information technology did not require an excessive amount of touch on-ups. I would categorize the burn line as relatively direct.  In that location was a little bit of jaggedness, but the burn was far from uneven – and it was not a burn prone to canoeing or tunneling. The resulting ash was more of a white and charcoal greyness color. There were a couple of points where there was some minor flaking, but nothing major. The burn charge per unit and burn temperature were ideal.

Burn of the A. Flores Gran Reserva

I found the draw to score extremely well.  This was not a tight or a loose draw.  The Gran Reserva was too a depression maintenance cigar to puff on from showtime to stop.

Strength and Trunk

From a strength perspective, I found the A. Flores Gran Reserva to deliver the correct amount of pop.  I assessed this cigar to be medium to full in terms of the amount of nicotine delivered. As for the flavors, in that location is some nice depth.  The flavors never reached the total-bodied range of depth, but hands roughshod into the upper end of the medium to full-bodied range.

I found the Gran Reserva did an fantabulous job of balancing both the strength and body. Neither attribute would overshadow the other during the smoking experience.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I constitute the A. Flores Gran Reserva to be a prissy addition to the PDR Cigars portfolio. I think the small batch model that has been seen on a lot of recent PDR releases is working well for Abe Flores – and its assuasive him to be more creative with his blends. I institute this to be more of a modify of step cigar for PDR. The flavor notes such as cinnamon and exotic spice were flavors that surprised me coming from a PDR cigar. If yous like a cigar that delivers a lot of cedar and a variety of spices, this is going to be the cigar for yous. This is a cigar I would recommend to either the experienced or novice cigar enthusiast.  This is the kind of a cigar that I would notwithstanding give to a novice to come across if they tin handle something more than fuller.  As for myself, this was an enjoyable cigar. It's one that I would fume again – and ane that I would consider a 5 pack buy of.

Summary

Burn down: Excellent
Draw: Excellent
Complexity: Medium >
Strength: Medium to Full
Body: Medium to Full
Finish: Good
Assessment: Squeamish to Have
Score: 91

Source :  The cigar for this assessment was provided by PDR Cigars.  The asking was initiated past PDR Cigars to myself (Cigar Coop) to provide feedback. Cigar Coop is appreciative for the samples, simply in no fashion does this influence this write-upwards.