Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No.2 - UTL Jul 19 (PDLRW)

JohnS · February 14, 2021

Let me preface this review by admitting that I'm only doing it as I wanted to post up some pictures for Valentine's day because I know @First Lady and @WarriorPrincess would love topics such as this one. And why not? These posts are positive and give us all a little 'spring in our step' don't they?

Valentine's Day 2021 was special for my wife and I this year because we both couldn't remember what we did for 2020. I think that was because my wife's brother was newly diagnosed at the time with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. That's another feelgood story in itself as he has been in remission for it since September 2020.

Many years ago, my other brother-in-law had a dear friend visit Sydney from his hometown in Leominster, Massachusetts. Mark was a specialist in Dentistry and recently retired. His children had grown up and moved to Arizona and he imparted some wisdom about that with me in telling me that the most important thing, in his view, as you reach those retirement years is the absolute importance of having a solid, strong relationship with your wife. He noted that his peers had an array of different personal situations, but the ones doing okay were the ones with strong support from their partner and vice versa. Mark developed ill-health a few years later and sadly has since passed, but believe me, I never forgot his advice.

This year my wife and I decided to book the local seafood restaurant where I live in Sydney for Valentine's dinner. We had a great view of the Georges River and it was a wonderfully temperate Summer's day, that is, it wasn't too hot nor windy and there was no sign of thunderstorms like you get in my part of the world at the end of the day. It wasn't overly humid either. It was just a great Summer's day.

We had a hot and cold seafood platter and afterwards we celebrated the night by opening a bottle of Billecart-Salmon (please pronounce thusly: Bill-car Sal-moh) Brut Rose Champagne, which is up there with being the best Rose champagne on the market, in my view. The cigar I had to celebrate Valentine's day was a Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No.2. I could have had something far more exotic, I suppose, but these have been ever-so-good to me of late and why not stick with a sure thing?

My notes on the cigar are below...

This was my third Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No.2 from a 5x3 cardboard pack in the last six weeks or so. After smoking through 20% of its contents, I'm confident that the question of aging in cardboard packaging will be but a moot point as all three cigars thus far have been great to excellent.

Light and mild, with distinctive Hoyo de Monterrey flavours with evident, this HdM Epi 2 was a little 'spongy' but it smoked very well, the draw was just right and smoke output was ideal. The flavours were well-balanced too; light milk cocoa, cedar, malt, cream and vanilla and I must say that these milder, sweeter flavours really resonated with me.

Immediately after smoking this, I told myself how I need to re-visit this cigar quite soon as it was that enjoyable on a pleasantly warm and sunny Summer's day.

The cigar was a solid 93 points, the champagne 95 and the day itself was 99-100!

At the end of the day I felt ever so smug to be in the 'good books', so-to-speak. But all jokes aside, I am grateful for 24 happy years with my wife!

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