Arturo Fuente Anejo, "The Shark"
Wow! I must give thanks to my nephew Scott for this one. He gave me one of these for Christmas and today I finally broke it out of the humidor. I wasn’t expecting too much, although Fuente is one of my favorite brands. This cigar has a dark wrapper and an interesting torpedo shape. It starts off as a round stick, but becomes box-pressed by the foot. I think it is a Reserva No. 77, also known as The Shark. Almost six inches in length and a 54 ring gauge. I was just researching it online, and it’s supposed to be a very rare cigar. And expensive, at around $35 a stick!
I started this cigar after cleaning our balcony and planter boxes of winter leaves, and washing off the table out here. Then I broke out the laptop and a glass of 15 year Glenfiddich. I fired up the Fuente and commenced to writing up Pizza Chicago and The Refuge. I also put Kitty-No-Name in her purple walking jacket and let her out onto the balcony to sit in the sun with me. I managed to write up the two restaurant reviews, despite this cigar. It was difficult with the huge plumes of thick smoke it was providing me. The flavor was a nice, medium flavor typical of Fuentes with premium Dominican fillers. It actually reminded me of an Opus X, believe it or not, it was that good! According to the info I found on the web, these Anejos use a 5 year old, Connecticut grown maduro wrapper aged in a Cognac barrel. Interesting indeed!
This exclusive cigar burned very nicely, with a very light gray ash. I must apologize because I really wasn’t concentrating on the cigar as I smoked it. I just knew it was a great tasting cigar, right up my alley in terms of flavor profile. I wasn’t thinking about tasting notes. I did find an excellent review online which does do this cigar justice. Here is the link: http://www.stogiereview.com/2009/01/01/guest-review-arturo-fuente-anejo-the-shark/
About halfway through, after learning of the wrapper aged in Cognac barrels, I switched my drink to a Remy Martin and what do you know, it paired very nicely!
Thanks Scott once again, for a great Xmas present!
