D’Crossier Golden Blend Aged 10 Years

It’s a bold statement to display the age of your product on the packaging. A technique typically used for alcoholic spirits, namely bourbon and scotch, an age statement shows confidence in a product. It means putting yourself out for the world to see, exposing your efforts – your strengths and weaknesses. An age statement is something not typically found on a cigar, then again, few can handle a product that takes 10 years to create.

The Golden Blend Aged 10 Years is the newest product from D’Crossier Cigars. Building on the original Golden Blend cigar, the Golden Blend Aged 10 Years consists of stronger tobaccos with a longer aging process.

According to D’Crossier: 

It’s interesting what age can do to a product. Typically, in my experience with bourbon, the strength of the alcohol increases with age and will eventually peak at around 10 – 15 years before mellowing out. If the same can be said for cigars, the new Golden Blend is right in the wheelhouse for a full-powered smoke. This is exactly what brand owner Isaias Santana Diaz had in mind when creating the Aged 10 Years – all the smooth complexities from the original Golden Blend, cranked up a few notches!

Golden Blend specifics:

Late last week, Cigar Dojo received a package from Mr. Diaz. This is always very exciting, as you never know what he’s going to “bomb” you with. Inside was a magnificent new box of Robusto Golden Blend Aged 10 Years (as you might have guessed). One of my favorite aspects of cigar smoking is the packaging, and Santana comes second to none in this arena. A cedar box with a gold foil embroidered D’Crossier logo, finished with a golden seal, encasing the 25 Robusto cigars. Open the gold latch and you’ll find the cigars, separated in two layers, divided by a Spanish cedar sheet. The cigars shine instantaneously while opening the box, with the likeness of treasure being unearthed! In addition to the usual D’Crossier band, the cigars have been wrapped in a second, golden band – it is accented with red and textured with a look similar to the Cohiba Behike (had it been pure gold).

The cigars have a Cuban look about them, perhaps with a darker wrapper. The Ecuadorian wrapper has a red-brown hue and is speckled with gold dust (due to the oils in the tobacco) that sparkles when held to the light. The wrapper is slightly bumpy and feels dense and weighty in the hand. In addition, it is triple capped, looking and feeling very well-constructed.

Brown sugar, sweet tobacco, barnyard hay, and perhaps a little cinnamon make up the aroma of the cigar. With a cut, the cold draw is of hay and a zesty spice. And like the pre-draw, there are flavors of zesty spices and black pepper when lit. The spice creeps to the back of the throat and lingers in the nostrils – from the fist puff, I can tell this is a new side to the Golden Blend. Cedar, toasted bread, and sweet butter are most noticeable, with a very long, sweet finish. While the palate is sweet and creamy, with an oily texture that is very enjoyable, it is the retrohale that stands at the forefront. I honestly have to tell myself not to retrohale sometimes, to keep my olfactory senses fresh. But with the Golden Blend 10 Year, I couldn’t help but let the entirety of the smoke rush through my nose. It’s not silky smooth, like the original Golden Blend, there’s a musky, peppery sensation with complexity to back it. Yet unlike some “pepper bomb” cigars, this won’t have your nose running (or sneezing).

Past the first inch mark, the flavors really start to develop. Hay and earth play subtle notes, while sweet cream, cinnamon, and aged tobacco provide the bulk of the flavor. Through the retrohale, in combination with the zesty pepper and muskiness, I could taste a flavor that reminded me of blue cheese. The best way to sum-up the cigar’s profile at this point was like this: slathered butter on toasted bread, sprinkled with cinnamon and black pepper (I think I may try that later…).

If you’ve smoked D’Crossier cigars before, you’ll know the flavors are often very similar to that of a Cuban cigar. This was also the case with the Aged 10 Years, but with an added twist. Have you ever wondered what your favorite Cuban would taste like if its strength were kicked up a few notches? To me, that was the experience I had with this cigar.

Moving into the second third, the burn line was becoming a little “wonky” and I gave it a quick torch adjustment. This didn’t come as a huge surprise to me, as the cigar was fresh off the truck. Give these smokes a month or two in your humidor and I believe this problem will solve itself. The draw was a little on the firm side, but not so much to be a bother – sometimes I actually find a little resistance in the draw preferable.

One of the things I found enjoyable about this smoke was that, whether I smoked it fast or slow, the flavors remained. It didn’t get too hot with quick puffs, and it stayed lit when taking my time between puffs. Up until the halfway point, I’d peg the cigar at a medium+ in strength, medium/full in flavor, and medium body. It was at this point that the strength shot up to full! Standing and smoking quickly became sitting and smoking, and I was glad not to be smoking on an empty stomach. The dominating flavors were still buttery and creamy, but with more savory elements, such as meat grease. This was a great example of how to balance flavor with high strength, it’s not often that you’ll find a cigar that remains sweet and also strong. Anise, roasted nuts, and strong tobacco flavors began to take over the profile, and I could sense the end was near. It was just past the second band that I let the cigar go – still providing interesting and complex flavor, yet verging a bit too close to a harsh side I didn’t want to know.

Would I smoke this cigar again?

Absolutely! Between the original Golden Blend and this new blend, I could be set for life.

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