Perdomo 10th Anniversary Champagne Magnum 50

My interest for Perdomo cigars has been piqued since I first tried their Grand Cru Robusto. Since then I've tried a few more of their products and I've liked pretty much everything I've tried (with varying degrees of enjoyment). Granted, I haven't been absolutely crazy for everything they make that I've tried, but I've liked them to the point that I'm pretty sure I'd try anything the company makes. The burn is almost always great and the draw leaves almost nothing to be desired for my liking.

The 10th Anniversary Champagne line all feature pretty creamy, light colored wrappers except the most recent edition of Champagne Noir, which is a maduro variety of the Champagne blend. The Magnum 50 I sampled for this review has the natural wrapper and is about 6" x 50 ring gauge. The wrapper and foot have a nice cedar-like aroma to them and the cold draw displays a relatively loose resistance.

Now, looking at a cigar like this, I would not anticipate any surprise for flavor. The taste on the wrapper on cold draw was pleasant but very mild. However, upon lighting up I got a massive hit of pepper spice unlike anything I've had in a while. It wasn't on an unpleasant level, but had I been more prepared I might have been more...prepared. What I mean is, if I'd known to expect that level of flavor I would have been mentally ready to receive it. There's even more pepper if you perform a retrohale right after lighting up. Along with the pepper, there's some definite wood notes.

After half an inch or so, the pepper spice disappears and I was left with the wood notes along with some earthiness. The burn also started out very crooked but fairly quickly self-corrected to perfection. There was also a very good draw after lighting. All this lasts throughout the 1st third. Around the beginning of the 2nd third, those flavors are joined by an encore of the pepper spice but in a milder form. The final third contains all of this but also brings in a creamy texture that is very pleasant. There was one point where I nearly dropped the cigar but caught it before it went too far. This resulted in all the ash coming off and the cigar being stubbed out a bit. However, thanks to the excellent construction that I've come to know from Perdomo, it wasn't hard to get the cigar to recover from that.

Overall the cigar was smooth and mild with some interesting flavors. I have one more in the humidor and will smoke and review that at a later date. After smoking this one I still think I prefer the Grand Cru or even Lot 23 naturals from Perdomo, but opinions change all the time. However, if you like a mild, smooth cigar with a great draw and burn, you'll want to at least give this line a try as a morning/early afternoon smoke, or at the beginning of a sequence of cigars.