Chinchalero Novillo Fuerte Maduro - 1 Single

Approaching the final third the flavour smooths out with a Picallilo-like finish, creamy with a faintly menthol aftertaste (I could barely taste any spice at all). Fat Chinchalero's have a way of making you feel sad to finish them. Approaching the last inch when it starts to get hot I like to give the tip of the base a dip or two in cognac, buys you a beautiful couple of cool last puffs.

By all means not a bad cigar, the major differences between this and other Chinchalero's is that this has a distinctive fragrant earthy taste (probably due to the wrapper) and gets a bit spicy towards the second third which some people might love but it is also a little heavy and strong for my liking compared to similar Chinchalero's which are mild and creamy and I think have a beautiful well-balanced flavour. I'm going to stick with the Picadillos as I personally find them more enjoyable, but if you have tried them or the Novillos and want something similar but stronger and sharper then give these a shot.

Sorry I forgot to mention I used a punch to cut the cap do the first part of the cigar which probably contributed to the problems I had

I wish I could give this 5 stars as the look and taste and smell are great. Unfortunately I had a lot of trouble smoking this one. First cigar of this size I've smoked and had serious tunnelling going on to the point the filler had burned down and the wrapper had dried out and shrunk around the cherry putting out the cigar. This happened quite a few times. I used cutters to cut the cap about halfway down which did make things a lot better but the burn was still quite uneven. Flavours were smooth and chocolaty. For the money It's still a bargain and i will be ordering more to rest for a few months and next time leave out of the humidor for a few hours before smoking to let the wrapper dry out a bit as it was just too oily to burn at the same time as the filler. And I will straight cut the cap from the begining too.

If you get a good one of these it can be a quite a spectacular experience, bursting with deep and rich flavours, great smoke output and with a strong saltiness that lingers on the tastebuds. Unfortunately experience has taught me that as many as two out of every three tend to burn terribly unevenly and need to be constantly adjusted - and that's no way to have a relaxing smoke. With reluctance, I won't be ordering more.