1 review for Vintage Montecristo Tubos 2003
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Vintage Montecristo Tubos 2003
Overall Score
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Vintage Montecristo Tubos 2003. This is a gift from a collector and trader of Cuban cigars and he donated a few aged and vintage cigars for us to review. This particular cigar was made in 2003 and comes from the collection of a Greek collector, who has a very well designed aging system for his cigars.
Montecristo was founded in 1935 when Alonso Menendez bought the Particulares Factory and the two brands they made: Particulares and Byron. Then he changed the name into Montecristo. Menendez’s favorite book was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Later on, he bought the H. Upmann factory. And that gave birth to Hunters & Frankau, the exclusive Habanos distributor in the UK. Hunters were the exclusive distributor for Montecristo, Frankau had the rights to H. Upmann. They merged and are still active today. The Corona Grande in the tubos was released somewhere in the 1970s and is still in production today.
Name: Montecristo Tubos
Country: Cuba
Factory: Unknown
Size: 6â…›x42
Vitola: Corona Grande
Wrapper: Cuba
Binder: Cuba
Filler: Cuba
Price: € 15,70 (The Netherlands)
Cutter: Xikar X2
Lighter: single flame
Smoke conditions: indoors with ventilator
Smoke time: one hour fifty minutes
The review
The cigar looks good. Colorado Claro in color, no veins that make it unappealing. The wrapper is soft like velvet. The ring is simple, classic. Just a small brown ring with the white Montecristo logo. The aroma is amazing. Strong, cocoa and hay but mainly cocoa.
The cold draw is a bit tight. 2003 is a year where the tobacco wasn’t rushed through fermentation yet, but it was at the end of a period where a lot of new rollers were hired. And with new, unexperienced rollers and not enough quality control, the early 2000s are notorious for having a bad draw. The cold draw has a mild leathery and strong hay flavor. From the moment the cigar is lit, the flavors are soil and coffee with a hint of marzipan sweetness. After a few puffs, leather shows up. A centimeter in, the cigar tastes like leather with chocolate. There’s still some of the marzipan sweetness lingering around in the aftertaste. The cigar than turns to leather with toast and some salt. The flavors are mild, smooth and mild. This is a great morning cigar after a light breakfast. Halfway there’s a strong hazelnut flavor, with toast, leather, pepper, and green herbs. There’s chocolate too. The final third has pepper, wood, leather, toast, and nuts. It’s still smooth but the flavors are much stronger than in the beginning.
The draw is a bit on the tight side, but still acceptable. The ash is light gray and quite dense. But not firm at all, it breaks off easily. The smoke is thick for a Cuban cigar. And white. The burn is very straight. This is a medium-bodied, medium flavored cigar. It starts out mild but grows to medium-full flavored. The smoke time is one hour and fifty minutes.
Strength: medium
Flavor: medium