Quai d'Orsay No. 54 TOU DIC 19 12DCRC

[saltbox]

Rested at 62RH for 2.5 months, 11 months box age. This'll be my first experience w/ the marca, so excited to see how it lives up to the hype.

First third: Opens very light, creamy with a faint sweetness on the finish and a white peppery retrohale. At this point, it's very reminiscent of many Connecticut shade wrapper cigars. A quarter inch in, a bit of twang appears, alongside some buttery cake or donut notes. Towards the end, the sweetness takes on a light caramel note, and there are some faint hints of espresso on the retrohale.

Middle third: Becomes a bit fuller in flavor, developing a bit of a darker richness underneath the light creamy cakey notes. Milk coffee emerges on the palate, and cedar on the retrohale.

Last third: Some occasional vanilla and orange notes appear as the cigar also takes on a white peppery spice.

Overall: Lighter than I personally prefer. A Cuban take on the classic Connecticut shade wrapper cigar, which I also don't particularly care for in the realm of non-Cuban cigars. Just an okay smoke, not bad but not amazing, and definitely doesn't live up to the hype the cigar had earlier, even if it has seemed to fade away recently. To me, this cigar was also a good example of one where retrohaling can really make the difference between good and boring, as those retrohales really help accentuate some of the more delicate notes that can be hard to detect on the palate alone. 87/100

[Kaptain Karl]

I feel the same! I got the flavors but they were meek. Imo this is a symptom of the ring gauge. Too much weak seco leaf in the ring gauge waters the flavor down. 

[saltbox]

45 minutes ago, Kaptain Karl said:

I feel the same! I got the flavors but they were meek. Imo this is a symptom of the ring gauge. Too much weak seco leaf in the ring gauge waters the flavor down. 

I've seen that you're a big fan of the Coronas Claro, which I've got a box of on the way but haven't tried yet, so I'll take your word on it. I've got a few of the No. 50 and No. 54 lying around, so for now I'll be cautiously optimistic and hope for some longer aging to bring out more flavor, though it's gonna be a while as I think nothing I have is as old as DIC 19.

[MrBirdman]

Most large RG cigars I've smoked are nearly flavorless unless they're retrohaled. Of course retrohaling improves almost any cigar.