“Smoking cigars is like falling in love. First, you are attracted by its shape; you stay for its flavor, and you must always remember never, never to let the flame go out!”
—Winston Churchill
What Makes This Maduro Special
This cigar immediately moved to the top of my list of favorite cigars! The brand is newer to the U.S. market. Although I want to keep all these cigars to myself, I am compelled to share my amazing experience with Segovias de Estelí owner Art Garcia and this incredible and beautifully constructed semi-box-pressed Maduro.
Garcia said, “Breaking into this industry is not easy.” Nor has he taken shortcuts in his entry. “I’ve been around tobacco for a long time,” he said. “I started getting involved in cigarmaking on my travels through Nicaragua. I went into the fields and warehouses and got my hands dirty finding out everything I could about how a cigar is created. I learned to work the leaf, even how to de-vein leaves by hand. And I found that this kind of manual labor, this kind of attention to industry practices, was very educational. My aim was to become an expert tabacalero, and I believe today that is what I am. I kept up that kind of manual work for years, and in the process I made a lot of good friends, in the business, and in and around Estelí. I still live full time in Estelí.”
About the blend:
“Consider your thoughts and feelings towards Maduro cigars and toss it out the window. Segovia de Esteli’s Segovia Maduro is the tastiest, most flavorful blend in existence. Our maduro consists of a Mexican San Andrés leaf for its wrapper, over Nicaraguan binder and filler. The blend features volcanic, robust tastes and aromas from Nicaragua thanks to its extra fermented leaf, which provides a deep, rich, and flavorful profile making this the hardest blend to resist!” ~ Segoviasdeesteli.com
Maduro Semi Box Press
Brand: Segovias de Estelí
Factory: Tabacalera Segovias De Estelí S.A.
Vitola: 6×56 Semi Box Press Toro
Filler: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés Maduro
Binder: Nicaragua
Body: Medium Plus Boldness
Age: 4-5 Years
Price: $14
Visual/Pre-light Draw
This semi-box-pressed medium brown Maduro wrapper is soft and oily to the touch. Overall, the cigar’s construction is rock solid, with minimal veins. Its colorful and multicultural ribbon band displays the brand’s ‘El Diamante De La Segovias’ diamond logo, superimposed over the volcano that overlooks Art’s tobacco fields in Estelí, Nicaragua. The cigar also has a classy gold foot band. It is extremely floral on the side sniff, with nice vanilla rose petals, and a hint of moist raisins on the dry foot odor. There was no spice on the palate while prepping the head for a nice vertical Colibri V-cut, introducing a beautiful dry draw containing bold notes of vanilla oats.
First Third
With a proper slow soft flame lighting of this beautifully constructed sem-box pressed Maduro, we get awesome campfire notes overlaid with dark chocolate. But then boom, light vanilla cream bomb notes on the first puff, with some light hay earthiness on the finish. I can not believe how perfect the draw is and then some sweet leather notes appear. This is the smoothest retro-hale I’ve ever experienced, with nice creamy leatheriness on the finish. I absolutely love this retro-hale. Immediately I was amazed with this cigar!
More vanilla sweetness comes through with high volume output and foot smoke, filling the room with beautiful fruity berry notes, amazing! I could not help but notice how this semi box press shape rests perfectly on the lips and delivers the cigar’s awesome flavors through its perfect draw!
Now some slight saltiness appears, only accenting the sweet leathery notes, amazing! Resting the cigar on the ashtray now fills the room with notes of freshly cooked tortillas. I love it! We have a great ash, the cigar burns nice and slow, then we get cookie dough. Yes! Cookie dough all day, with a hint of caramel swirl on the finish. No whisky involved! Then sweet leather and cookie notes blend together for an incredibly flavorful smoking experience.
Second Third
Okay, this lengthy ash is making me nervous. Time to tap it off and continue this incredible smoking journey of flavors. The sweet leather notes become bolder. The foot smoke odor transitions back to notes of dark chocolate, as the cigar’s smoke input coats the entire palate with thick notes of vanilla-glazed hazelnuts. Absolutely delicious!
Time to introduce the cigar to this Inchgower 11, independently nurtured and bottled by Single Cask Nation. This top-tier pairing has me ‘fading under’ the “Streetlights” by Lipless and Richard Walters:
Final Third
Once again, that crazy lengthy ash is making me nervous! Another tap off, and the flavorful experience gets even crazier. Those sweet vanilla and smooth leathery earthy notes continue to dominate the experience. The cigar becomes a bit bolder and meatier, with an even slower burn, forcing the smoker to sit back and slow their roll. Now we get a little spice on the tip of the nose during the retro-hale, with bold leatheriness on the finish. The draw tightens a bit, in a good way, concentrating the cigar’s bold flavors, delivering them even more perfectly to the palate.
Very interesting!
The chocolaty foot smoke odor has become creamier before transitioning again to sweet notes of syrup-covered oatmeal. I’ve never experienced so many transitions on a cigar’s foot smoke odor. Everything about this cigar has become enhanced to a whole new level in this final third, then boom, there it is, my precious and favorite marzipan!
This cigar is my effing jam!
The Pairing
Joshua Hatton and Jason Johnstone-Yellin’s Single Cask Nation (SCN) independent bottling company started in 2011. In January 2024 SCN joined The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) portfolio and was recently named Independent Bottler of the Year at the 2024 Icons of Whisky America World Whiskies Awards
Hatton expressed his gratitude: “We’re still sort of pinching ourselves after that win. It’s nice to know that 13 years of hard work can pay off! Since this announcement we’ve had people within the industry (bar owners, shop owners, distributors, etc…) congratulate us. Should we start to see an increase in sales due to this win, that would be fantastic. However, for us, the recognition alone puts a nice wind in our sails and we will just continue doing what we’ve been doing.”
Inchgower was built in 1871 by Alexander Wilson & Company to replace the Tochineal distillery, and is now owned by Diageo. The water used in the production of Inchgower comes from a burn in the nearby Menduff Hills, making this a ‘Lower Speyside Malt.’
Hatton purchased the original nine-year-old ex-bourbon-barrel-aged Inchgower directly from Diageo before finishing it in a First-Fill Sherry Hogshead for two additional years. It was bottled “by whisky geeks for whisky geeks” at 56.3% ABV, specifically for Drammers Club, at what Hatton described to be “its prime, at least for our palates.”
Cigar to the whisky: The sweet leathery notes of the cigar turn to moist banana bread, embedded with melted chocolate chips, overlaid with beautiful deep, dark sherry notes. Simply an unreal level of ‘unusual awesomeness!’
Whisky to the cigar: Fruity and moist sherry bomb notes turn to candied melons with a nice sweet vanilla char on the finish, which melts away into smooth chocolate.
Cigar smoked whisky: We get candied raspberries, with charred vanilla and sherry swirl on the finish. Super cool!
Together, this cigar and whisky simply “both know what to do, don’t get caught up in everything, hold back, or overthink this,” because this pairing does all the work for you!
Cheers!
Acknowledgment and Live Pairing
Thank you Joshua Hatton and Art Garcia for guiding us through the pairing, live on the Great Cigar & Pipe Show. Hit play below to hear Art and Joshua’s incredible success stories.
Congratulations Joshua Hatton, Jason Johnstone Yellin, and the entire Single Cask Nation!
Be sure to check out their bottlings at SingleCaskNation.com.
Also, hear directly from Joshua and Jason on their One Nation Under Whisky Podcast.
Photography by: James Archie
