Rockey Patel Vintage 1992

Rocky Patel is often boasted about in all the big review magazines. My favorite cigar store, 2 Guys Smoke Shop, in Salem, New Hampshire also crowned this one their "Cigar of the Year" award in 2005. It's made with 5 year old Honduran tobacco fillers and a 10 year aged Ecuadorian sun grown wrapper. For tonight's smoke, I went over to my local store and bought a Rocky Patel Vintage 1992 natural Churchill. Length is 7 and ring is 48. Cost was $8.50.

What bothered me from the get go on this one is the look of the cigar. While there weren't many visible imperfections, it's one of those machine rolled sticks that end up having a square shape to them. I've heard arguments that this is done purposely for the sake of flavor but I don't buy that. It just doesn't have that natural cigar feel to it, especially when you to to take a puff and it feels like a popsicle stick in your mouth.

Another problem I have with these square shaped cigars is that they never seem to cut smoothly. This one is no exception as the cutter feels like its trying to go through a piece of wood. However, it does toast and light relatively easily and I'm able to get it going without too many problems.

Once I start smoking, the stick does burn quite nicely. The ash ends up falling off rather early but the cigar still seems to burn evenly throughout. The draw is nice and the fullness is certainly there. This is somewhat surprising for one of those square sticks but good since I can now focus on the flavors of the smoke rather be distracted by the construction.

Rocky Patel calls their cigars medium to full bodied and that is actually quite accurate. There are definitely some bold notes right from the start but they aren't quite overpowering. There are some spicy leathery flavors as well as a strong nicotine presence which I like.

After a while, some earthy tones become more prominent. The problem is that nothing much comes along with them and for a while the cigar takes on a rather simplistic personality. I've always been somewhat annoyed by cigars who seem to have flavor transition just for the sake of having them but don't actually offer great flavors all around. I'd rather stick to one enjoyable taste than shift in and out of mediocre one.

For the final third of the smoke, the flavors finally kick back into gear. Some nice spicy notes come back and a great pepper flavor turns me back on to the cigar. For the last part, it actually fades in and out quite well between bold spicy smoke and more mild almost sweet flavors. If only the entire cigar had been like this, it would have easily ranked as one of my favorites. The last few puffs end on a very bold note and one last sip of scotch finishes everything off quite nicely.

I'll certainly say that Rocky Patel makes a nice cigar. A few weaknesses bring down the overall score (poor cut, awkward shape, boring tastes in the middle) but it's certainly something I would smoke again and I will definitely end up trying the rest that this brand has to offer.

Overall Rating: 83