Rocky Patel Vintage 2003 Cameroon
Monday, October 31st, 2011The cigar up for review today is touted as medium bodied, with aged Cameroon wrapper and 8 year old binder and filler. From Rocky’s website, they claim it is rich with complex flavors of white pepper, dark chocolate, espresso and sweet spice. It sounded like they were worth a try, so I picked a few up. As always I paired this cigar with water. Let’s see how my experience with the Vintage 2003 Cameroon compares to Rocky’s claims.
Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Dominican and Nicaragua
Size: Robusto 5.5 x 50
Price: $6.65
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
The wrapper glistened with oils and had minimal veins. There was some discoloration but it didn’t take away from the overall appearance. The odor of the wrapper and foot reminded me of a barnyard. The cigar was rock solid to the touch and evenly packed. This resulted in a draw that was a bit snug. The pre-light draw had an interesting sweet flavor and I couldn’t find anything to compare it to.
In the last third, the fragile Cameroon wrapper started to split pretty badly, but I smoked through it with no problem. The ash held for around an inch, and I did one burn correction.
Flavor:
The first third began with an easy pepper, but not your traditional hot black pepper. There was a definite bitterness associated with black coffee or espresso. There was a slight earthiness and wood way in the background. The easy spice lingered on the aftertaste with black coffee.
The second third did not have a lot of change. Through the nose, the pepper remained like in the first third. Black coffee with a tinge of sweetness dominated the flavor profile. At about the half way point the sweetness increased and resembled chocolate. Not the standard chocolate, but more of a dark chocolate or cooking chocolate.
The last third picked up on body a little, but remained in the medium range. Core flavors were coffee, bitter chocolate, and a spicy pepper. The pepper was still present but the smoke remained easy to pass through the sinus. A slight tingle was left in the mouth and on the lips on the aftertaste.
Conclusion:
This was a solid medium bodied, easy to smoke cigar. The flavors were interesting enough to not get bored. I could see some of you full bodied smokers getting bored with this one though. As for me, I enjoyed it. It wasn’t really anything special, but it did the job. I would prefer to pair this cigar with coffee. I think the Rocky Patel Vintage 2003 Cameroon is worth a try at the very least.