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Having had a good experience with its Vintage 1999 line, I pulled the Graycliff Château Grand Cru from the humidor with good expectations. Being in Europe, it’s hard for me to gauge how popular these cigars really are, since we rarely find non Cuban cigars at our tobacconist, but one thing is clear: Graycliff really does make a great tasting cigar.

Profile wise, in contrast to the Vintage 99, the Château Grand Cru is much nuttier with less darker notes like cacao or caramel. The smoke is dense, creamy and plentiful. I would pair this cigar with a glass of fine Champagne or Alsacian Riesling.

The wrapper is sweet on the nose with obvious notes of red pepper corns and spices. The cigar is rewarding form the start. The first inch or so is chock-full of toasted almond notes with some pepper hints.

You will love the sweet aroma of the Grand Cru. The even burn means no retouching with the lighter, which keeps the aromas pleasant.

The flavor profile evolves past the half way mark toward cedar accompanied by roasted nuts and light spices in the background. These notes stay in place through to the end, with perhaps a small hint of licorice if you take it far enough. The finish consists of sweet wood and nuts.

I recommend the Graycliff Château Grand Cru heartily to everyone. The lack of sheer power means it should be enjoyed by even the novice.

Check it out at Cigars Direct, where I got this lot, and as always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

By the laws of plain economics, raising taxes or imposing tariffs on companies that sell or produce a particular commodity, like cigar manufacturers, immediately results in a price hike of that commodity as companies rush to minimize their losses by passing the cost of the taxes or tariffs onto the consumers.

We saw this last year with the proposed flat $3.00 tax on cigars, which, if it had not been vetoed by the president, would have raised the average price of cigars by no less than $3.00 a stick. So, would anybody please explain the mechanism through which raising taxes on the oil industry or confiscating profits would in effect lower the prices we see at the pump? Arrrgh!

Anyhow, I was getting mildly nauseated as I watched the John McCain town hall meeting on Fox last night and decided it was time tune out the madness and enjoy a good cigar. I needed something of a serious cigar, so I pulled out a Camacho Coyolar Puro Rotshchild.

This cigar in my experience is very solid, with an excellent burn and aroma all the way. It’s certainly potent and has a good profile. I would say that this is one stick that benefits a lot by aging, as it has a lot of potential for evolution.

The Coyolar Puro experience starts with the marvelous wrapper before the light-up. I appreciate the dark aroma or cacao, wood and bittersweet spices. It lights easily, producing a very peppery initial burst of smoke. You know there is power to come right from that first peppery puff. However they achieve this, it’s very well done and extremely appealing.

The pepper would be too much if it did not subside as the cigar progresses; but it does. It evolves as the power picks up and the pepper mellows out into a very classic, old school almost leathery tobacco flavor with bitter spice notes in the background. The aroma has a distinct sweetness to it.

Past the half way mark, the smoke picks up strength again, but pleasantly so. I was so relaxed by now that the eerie moments, during the town hall meeting, in which McCain sounded just like Obama, or worse, didn’t freak me out anymore. The flavor was just too good and solid as usual.

Bitter espresso notes surfaced as the cigar approached the great finale. The aroma stays sweet, and overall the flavor too stays pleasant through to the end; so long as the power isn’t too much for you. I would recommend this as a complement to a good evening meal to any smoke that enjoys a full bodied cigar or one that is transitioning into one. The flavor is superb and should help the transition into fuller blends.