Rob's 'Nudies No 3' parejos size (blend 2) 2018

[99call]

So a couple of weeks ago, I expressed an interest in the release date of Robs new No 1's and he (with supreme kindness) offered to send me a couple. Please don't batter his door with emails to ask for some sent, as again, it's something I didn't ask for, just a very unexpected kind offer, that i'm sure would turn into a backfiring point of annoyance if it led to a 100s of emails around the Christmas period. 

So these were rolled on the 18 of July 2018, and I hope I'm right in saying they are to be called (No 1's) in the Nudies line of customs Rob is creating.  Based on Partagas Serie Du Connaisseur No 3,  i'm assuming the sizes he sent are one No 1 and one No 3............and they are blend 2 "not our final blend, but getting there" in Rob's words. 

So, the cigars pictured are my only remaining SDC No 3 FPG from 1997, and above it the pigtailed No 3 and No 1?. I leave a question mark as I'm still as yet unsure if Rob is just creating a blend over different sized,  or trying to replicate the original cigars like for like. 

This page with review all three cigars, with the new pigtailed  "No 1s" (size 3 or Parejos) first.

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Robs (Nudies) No 1's, blend 2 (SDC size No 3 or Parejos) 2018 

Aroma at cold:   Slight twang on the nose, balmy/buttery tobacco, faint hint of barnyard

Cold Draw: Good resistance, Slight tang reminiscent of fresh Virginia tobaccos, mixed with mint leaves 

1^st 3^rd Quite remarkable, it’s not the power of suggestion, this does have a lot going on in tandem to the SDC3,  fresh sweet leather, buttery corn/popcorn. theres a great funk to this, like walking through the souk in Marrakesh (minus the smell of the tanneries), where everything intermingles, and you struggle to pull any one thing out, aspects of R&J mustiness. The blending doesn’t lend itself to being pulled apart or dissected, as it’s very homogenous, and something all of it’s own. The ash is snow white. Little bit of fresh cut oak.  It’s a little like R&J and Partagas vying with one another but the result, is a challenging, rewarding smoke.   Bit of R&J turkish delight, rosewater going on, with the savoury spice and mustiness to round out the flavour.  It’s precisely this rich mustiness that I think has transfers into a morish foie gras taste as it ages.  Light pencil aroma in the background

2^nd 3^rd  Only ever seen an ash this white on a Dip 3 before. Give a harder draw, which brings out touches of chlorine, that hint to this A, being nowhere near ready, and the long legs it has to offer. Its very very clean, but in a deep register if that makes sense, the flavours are rich and mature, but zero dirtiness to them. Developing a slightly dry palette, but any tannins are not overtly sour, more intriguing, and exotic.  Going through a soft,  flowers mixed with barnyard, this cigar just doesn’t move away from that challenging  light and dark, which fascinating, gratifying and very much like the SDC line.  Feeling a little bit more Partagas than R&J now, sweet barnyard funk, rich leather. Musky and perfumed, these are going to age fabulously well

3^rd 3^rd   Very well packed, I’m not timing this, but it appears to be offering a very generous smoking time. Floral notes, deep toffee richness and barnyard intermingle in the final third. the names Rolls & Royce spring to mind. That dark toffee/treacle, floral sweetness, is reminding me of a ERDMGDE I smoked early this year, A lot going for this cigar. Tannins and heft starting to build with 2.5 inches to go.  Galangal (non sweet ginger mixed with an green leafy taste) treacle, leather and barnyard.  

The final inch (strangely) was the closest this got to the 1997 SDC 3 (I've smoked previously) this cigar got in terms to the weird burst of mint, popcorn, Foie Gras-like aromas/taste

Conclusion     Wow, what is starkly poignant in my thoughts post smoking this enigmatic cigar, is the feeling that HSA current blends are sorely missing challenging smokes like this. Challenging sometimes is a convenient word for bad, or poor, when reviewing something, but not with this!!. It is full on exotic richness, that makes you look at todays blends in the standard catalogue, as being somewhat limited or dumbed down.  Thats not to say that this cigar will be for everyone, much like SLR Regios, or ERDM Choix Supreme. But thats the point, only when you take a risk in not catering for everyone, do you sometimes create something truly great, unique, and unusually satisfying. 

I think Rob and his merry men, have done a stonkingly good job with this, I will be interested to see how the No 1 size (long panatela) size smokes, and also the tweaking they're doing down the line. 

Score       94 with rocket boosters installed to reach for the skies down the line,   see you at the check outs in 2019 boys and girls!!

 

 

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Next cigar

 

[Jimmy_jack]

Sounds a treat! Can’t wait for the final blend.

[BrightonCorgi]

Look at that ash!

 

[Derboesekoenig]

Very excited for this. Thanks for the review!

Total smoke time?

[99call]

1 minute ago, Derboesekoenig said:

Very excited for this. Thanks for the review!

Total smoke time?

Felt like 1:30 hrs but was outside in the frost. So may have felt like longer than it was

[joshhooper7]

Can't wait to get my hands on a few bundles! What is the origin of the tobaccos used?

[Doctorossi]

Thanks for the evocative words! I'm still unpacking your review a bit... I was right there with you on the "challenging" blend idea until you brought up the ERDM Choix Supreme which is, in my opinion/experience, just about the furthest thing from "challenging" I've ever had.

Oh, well- tongues are all different.  ?‍♂️

[99call]

7 minutes ago, joshhooper7 said:

Can't wait to get my hands on a few bundles! What is the origin of the tobaccos used?

Cuban to my knowledge, not tasted anything like this outside of Cuba. If it wasn't it would be remarkable

[99call]

2 minutes ago, Doctorossi said:

Thanks for the evocative words! I'm still unpacking your review a bit... I was right there with you on the "challenging" blend idea until you brought up the ERDM Choix Supreme which is, in my opinion/experience, just about the furthest thing from "challenging" I've ever had.

Oh, well- tongues are all different.  ?‍♂️

I don't mean ERDMCS in terms of a mass of complexity, rather that.they have an unusual flavour that is a bit of an outlier.

[Doctorossi]

2 minutes ago, 99call said:

I don't mean ERDMCS in terms of a mass of complexity, rather that.they have an unusual flavour that is a bit of an outlier.

Ok. So, maybe I'm not a complete outlier, myself.  ?

[Head83]

Awesome review!!!  Looking forward to trying some of these out myself!!!

[joncat]

By the look of the ash I would say Nicaraguan leaf.  The fact that Hamlet assisted in the blending also causes me to lean towards Nicaraguan.  I'm sure Ken has also contributed to the blend.  Given that Rob, Ken and Hamlet have such refined palettes and are experts in the art of Cigars they are bound to be exceptional.  I am looking forward to trying them once they are out.   

Having said all that my money says they will be Cuban puros.?

[Derboesekoenig]

3 hours ago, 99call said:

Cuban to my knowledge, not tasted anything like this outside of Cuba. If it wasn't it would be remarkable

I figured it would be implied that they will be Cuban

[PigFish]

Looking forward to those as well.

I have to ask, as we both tended to agree that SdC contained a protein or venison game taste, do these possess any of that? I know that does not exactly sound appetizing but I have to wonder if these contained the same elements.

Thanks for sharing my friend. If I am going to trust online cigar tasting notes, it is going to be from some of my mates here.

Cheers! -R

[99call]

11 minutes ago, PigFish said:

Looking forward to those as well.

I have to ask, as we both tended to agree that SdC contained a protein or venison game taste, do these possess any of that? I know that does not exactly sound appetizing but I have to wonder if these contained the same elements.

Thanks for sharing my friend. If I am going to trust online cigar tasting notes, it is going to be from some of my mates here.

Cheers! -R

The only touch of that, was in the back end, which I found surprising as I thought it would be full of under matured tannin. I was pretty flabbergasted. As close as I've tasted in any other cigar. The bonus with these cigars is they are wonderfully constructed, as all the original SDC No3s I've seen are pretty ugly. I think these are a winner.        Or maybe El Pres is just punking me, sending some gas station specials?

[PigFish]

13 minutes ago, 99call said:

The only touch of that, was in the back end, which I found surprising as I thought it would be full of under matured tannin. I was pretty flabbergasted. As close as I've tasted in any other cigar. The bonus with these cigars is they are wonderfully constructed, as all the original SDC No3s I've seen are pretty ugly. I think these are a winner.        Or maybe El Pres is just punking me, sending some gas station specials?

... thanks for the report. -R

[99call]

1 hour ago, joncat said:

By the look of the ash I would say Nicaraguan leaf.  The fact that Hamlet assisted in the blending also causes me to lean towards Nicaraguan.  I'm sure Ken has also contributed to the blend.  Given that Rob, Ken and Hamlet have such refined palettes and are experts in the art of Cigars they are bound to be exceptional.  I am looking forward to trying them once they are out.   

Having said all that my money says they will be Cuban puros.?

Dark discontinued diplomaticos are capable of ash that white. I'll try and post one when I'm back home

[Raskol]

Great review....Thanks!! Looking forward to them ?

[nKostyan]

By the look of the ash I would say Nicaraguan leaf.  The fact that Hamlet assisted in the blending also causes me to lean towards Nicaraguan.  I'm sure Ken has also contributed to the blend.  Given that Rob, Ken and Hamlet have such refined palettes and are experts in the art of Cigars they are bound to be exceptional.  I am looking forward to trying them once they are out.    Having said all that my money says they will be Cuban puros. 

 

I assume that:

- it is very difficult to export the required amount of tobacco from Cuba

- it is to carry into Cuba tobacco from Nicaragua, you will become a laughingstock

- cigars are highly likely rolled in Cuba, it is cheap and allows you to take out the finished product without problems

- such ash is not a highly rarity for HSA cigars, but for custom it is more common

- the color of the wrapper can be achieved quite easily using steaming, which is also common for Maduro fake and custom.

 

In conclusion, I want to say that any ligador wants to get access to Cuban tobacco and try to create a mixture with Nicaraguan, Dominican, Honduran and others, but so far it is unlikely.

Thanks to Stefan for the review, surprised by the high rating (score 94 is the level of HSA top cigars and limitadas). I look forward to buying a custom sampler from El Presidente at the store

 

 

 

[99call]

13 hours ago, nKostyan said:

Thanks to Stefan for the review, surprised by the high rating (score 94 is the level of HSA top cigars and limitadas). I look forward to buying a custom sampler from El Presidente at the store

I was using the point boundaries that Rob and Ken seem to use i.e. sub 80 is pretty awful. 80-83 is poor. 84-87 is ok. 88-91 is good.92-94 is very good 95-98 is excellent. 99 is breathtaking fabulous. 100 is Unicorn territory. 

It's not a system the I completely understand, as to me if its scored out of 100, a terrible cigar, in my head, should be getting 30 etc

To me this cigar was very good. If that equates a lower score in a different system, please adjust etc.

[guideright]

Thanks for the detailed review. Like others looking forward to these blends.

[unclepauly25]

I’d love to try these, never had the pleasure of smoking a custom cigar.

[El Presidente]

Thrilled that you enjoyed it!

The one you smoked was the Nudies 3 and it indeed was inspired by my love of the Partagas Connie 3.  I would love to do this one in bundles of 50. 

The other cigar I sent you was the Nudies 1.  It is a gorgeous Lancero.  the blend/flavour I was aiming for was the Partagas Connie 1. 

We are close to nailing what we are looking for and will start the next stage of blending toward the end of Jan. 

thoroughly enjoying the process of building cigars again 

[alloy]

1 hour ago, El Presidente said:

Thrilled that you enjoyed it!

The one you smoked was the Nudies 3 and it indeed was inspired by my love of the Partagas Connie 3.  I would love to do this one in bundles of 50. 

The other cigar I sent you was the Nudies 1.  It is a gorgeous Lancero.  the blend/flavour I was aiming for was the Partagas Connie 1. 

We are close to nailing what we are looking for and will start the next stage of blending toward the end of Jan. 

thoroughly enjoying the process of building cigars again 

I am so very happy you are in the process of building this cigar! When we herfed with John S, he told us you were an educator to the culture of cigars (which he was doing, quite well I tell you). But to help blend a superb cuban cigar puts you (in my mind at least) up with Hamlet. 

I wish you well and would luv to see the Nudies come to fruition. If they are ever up on 24:24 or elsewhere, I will try to be the first to gain a bundle! 

[HDGSN]

Half wheels of Nudies ?