AVO Domaine 10
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012I picked up a couple of these the other day at a local cigar shop. The creepy guy behind the counter suggested them, so I figured why not. To those of you that are new to my site – I’m not big on intro’s and long winded back stories of cigars. So let’s see how the AVO Domaine treated me…
Wrapper: Sungrown Connecticut from Ecuador
Binder & Filler: Dominican
Size: Robusto 5 x 50
Price: Around $7.00
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
The velvety smooth wrapper had a rugged look to it. No flaws were found, just some veins and bumps. The smell of the wrapper was barnyard, while the foot had more of a woody and earthy odor. The cigar was a bit squishy and had some minor hard and soft spots – nothing of concern. The draw had some resistance, but fell well within my tolerances. The pre-light flavor was sweet, woody and earthy.
The burn required no corrections, and the ash held for over an inch. When I removed the band, a nice chunk of wrapper came off with it. Too much glue – a pet peeve of mine. Cigars are made by humans, stuff like this will happen from time to time. I got over it.
Flavor:
The first third started off with a very dry smoke feel with earthy and woody notes. The flavor evolved into a nuttiness with an easy black pepper through the nose. The dry smoke feel seemed to stand out the most to me though. It wasn’t bad, it was just so dry that it couldn’t be ignored. I chugged a lot of fine filtered Florida tap water, which helped.
The second third developed in to a powdery cocoa flavor combined with nuts. Like before, easy black pepper and earthy notes were noticed when retrohaling. The dryness went down a notch, which increased enjoyment.
The last third took on a creamy smoke feel. This was a far cry from the parched feeling from before. The dry cocoa flavor became less dry, and increased in strength. Nutty notes lingered and were noticeable from time to time. The pepper became more of a sweet spice that left a tingle on the tongue and lips.
Conclusion:
This was a solid medium bodied cigar. I appreciated the change up of flavors from third to third. Besides the little incident with the band, construction was fine. There really is nothing bad to say here. I think it is worth trying.