Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill

Overall Score

1 review for Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill

  1. K******

    Alec Bradley Prensado #1

    Origin : HondurasAlec Bradley
    Format : Churchill
    Size : 7 x 48
    Wrapper : Honduras
    Filler : Honduras, Nicaragua
    Binder : Nicaragua
    Hand-Made
    Price : $11 each

    Given the high honor of Cigar Aficionado’s 2011 #1 Cigar of the Year, the Alec Bradley Prensado line could easily be considered an “overlooked” brand until the beginning of 2012. No, I certainly do not agree with most of the C.A. Top 25 choices however every now and then they do strike a gem (but don’t rate it high enough). However, I can actually say I was pretty excited to get this long Churchill lit up. Let’s see how she did…

    A little back history on the Alec Bradley brand. Formed in 1996, the Alec Bradley Cigar Company is named after owner Alan Rubin’s two sons, Alec and Bradley. The Prensado brand hit the markets in 2009, just two years after the infamous Tempus line. The cigars are rolled at the Raices Cubanas Factory in Danlí, Honduras and are available in six different vitolas all packaged in boxes of 20.

    On to the review…

    Alec Bradley Prensado #2

    The pre-light ritual for the Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill showed a solid performance. The wrapper had a wonderful dark chocolate color to it however was coupled with large veins throughout. The cigar did have a semi box press to it and no soft spots were detected on the stick. Cap is a tad lumpy on the top however applied nicely around the seams. Smell is of an old cedar chest, touches of cocoa, and a slight barnyard aspect. The cold tight draw was interesting with tobacco, fruity plum notes.

    Pre-light score: 8 pts.

    Alec Bradley Prensado #3

    The Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill opened with a wonderful old antique book aroma and was accompanied by a great full bodied smoke however very quickly settled into the mild/medium bodied range.

    Alec Bradley Prensado #4

    The opening first third tastes were somewhat earthy but mostly bland and non-detectable. Ash was a dirty dark gray and black with an overall amber hue. Burn was somewhat wavy but not terrible. Near the end of the first third the cigar ash began to flower.

    Alec Bradley Prensado #5

    Moving into the second third the taste department was more of the same… nothing. I was trying and struggling to find and pinpoint something in the cigar but there was just nothing! The aroma was somewhat decent but still not enough alone to hold up what we classify as a good smoking experience. In fact, after 1 hour and 15 minutes of smoking this cigar I just put it down. Such a disappointment…

    Smoking score: 4 pts.

    Alec Bradley Prensado #6

    My final thoughts on the Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill’s are not good. In fact, I’m very disgraced that anybody, especially Cigar Aficionado, would rate this as their #1 Cigar of the Year. This thing is not even close to being smoke-able in my terms. The taste can be summed up as non-existent, the aroma decent, aesthetics nice, and the price high. I can assure you I will not be purchasing anymore of these EVER and wish you will take my advice and not waste your time or money on this smoke.

    Overall Experience score: 3 pts.

    Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill Rating

    Pre-Light: 8 pts.
    Smoking: 4 pts.
    Overall Experience: 3 pts.

    TOTAL: 15 pts.

    [sz]alec bradley prensado[/sz]

    Helpful?
    0 0
    • N*******

      Uneven burn, could never get it to straighten out. As for flavour it was just acceptable, not spectacular to make a a cigar of the year. I have better on much taste on cheaper cigars. Will not be buying again, still have one cigar to finish as bought to two. Really disappointing as this came on the advise of a salesman. I

    • b****

      Hard to disagree; CA’s #1 rating was an aberration. My experience with a number of Prensados of different sizes hasn’t been as bad as yours, but it isn’t a cigar I’m going to smoke when there are so many better options available.

      FOO, I’m glad you enjoy them. “Smoke what you like, like what you smoke.”

    • F**

      I’m shocked by the review, all my Prensados are real nice sticks, a lot like a rocky decade. You should try another to make sure you aren’t slandering a fine stick.

    • M******

      Really good review and reflects my experience as well. I do have one picky comment -I believe you are misusing the term “infamous.” (perhaps not after reading your review!) I have seen on several occasions the term incorrectly applied to Don Pepin Garcia!

    • K*****

      Thank you for this review because it confirms what I already know about this cigar. I’m not an aficionado but I know a bad cigar when I experience one. I bought a five pack and all were horrible. My complaint was the burn on everyone. My cigars were firm on the ends but soft in the middle. I’m very careful with how my cigar burns and I felt I was working hard to correct the uneven burn on each of the cigars I had. ALL of them went out in the middle where they were soft and I had to relight all of them! It made the experience horrible! I cannot enjoy a cigar when I’m fighting it the whole time. I wish I had the ability to put down a cigar when it is pissing me off but I just cannot so I struggled with each of them till the end. I tried everything like dry boxing them before I smoked them to switching humidors but all five sticks did the same thing. Unfortunately they were the only cigars I tried from bradley and I wasn’t impressed at all. I don’t know why this was #1 at all!

    • p*****

      Hi i had the same awful experience with this stick, over rated cigar.

    • B******

      I’m a huge Tempus fan, so had been eager to try a Prensado. I, too, was extremely disappointed in the Prensado. It lacked flavor, Like you, I put it down early and have never tried one again. Thanks for your honest review.

    • D******

      Kaleehb, thank you for confirming I wasn’t crazy when I wrote my review of the Prensado Churchill …. glad to see we both got the same, albeit poor, performance scores. This cigar is a prime example of how looks can be deceiving. My honest opinion is that if this cigar was never given the accolades by Cigar Aficionado it would have died a slow death. In my view, CA probably saved Alec Bradley because leading up this cigar they had produced a fair share of duds. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve just submitted a review of the new Nica Puro … finally something from Alec Bradley that can be smoked. That review should be up in a couple weeks.

      In any event, spot on with your review.

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Cigar Region Honduras
Filler Honduras, Nicaragua
Wrapper Honduras
Binder Nicaragua
Length 7
Ring Gauge 48
Vitola Churchill
Construction Hand Made