Foundation Cigars Highclere Castle Senetjer (Nov 2022)

[Ardan]

You can go on the company's website for more info on this cigar found here: Highclere Castle Senetjer - Foundation Cigar Co. (foundationcigarcompany.com), especially if you want to see some of the packaging pics.  This is a review of a single stick I bought, although I did purchase a box as well... simply haven't opened it yet.

This is a 6 and 3/4" by 52 Perfecto, with a Habano Ecuador 7th Priming wrapper, Brazilian Mata Fina binder and undisclosed filler, aged 3 years.  Normal retail in the USA is $31 although I am sure if I bought this in NY it would cost at least $50.  So is this cigar worth the price?

First of all, this was a great cigar from beginning to end, very well balanced and very smooth.  A solid medium, although there was subtle complexity in the flavor profile, especially between transitions.

It is a solid cigar, with no blemishes on the wrapper.  Felt very solid to the touch without much "give".  Draw just a tad tight when first lit, but that is due to the perfecto shape.  Once gone past that first little part, the draw opened up and was as perfect as it gets.  The burn was excellent, requiring no touch ups during the smoke time of approximately an hour and a half.  Paired with water as I just wanted to taste the cigar on its own merit.

Pre-smoke, the wrapper just had a light cedar smell to it.  I am used to a lot of my cigars having a very earthy smell to them, so I noticed this difference right away.

The first third starts very light flavor wise, with just a hint of spice and chocolate.  Maybe a little bit of black pepper in the initial few puffs but that went away very fast.  Slowly the Brazilian Mata Fina starts to take over introducing some of the unique flavors you can find with that type of Tabacco.

The second third is where this cigar shines in my opinion and grows into its own.  The spice goes away almost completely, and now you get more of the chocolate, coffee, earth and some citrus notes. I am not the best at discerning some of the intricacies of the flavor profiles, but the combination of what was there was balanced almost to perfection and I simply did not want it to end.

Going into the final third, the citrus goes away with coffee notes becoming more prevalent.  At no point however was there any bitterness or leather.

The construction of the cigar was great and it held up very well.  The smoke itself was creamy and the aroma was a mix of cedar and frankincense.  The last however may have been simply because I was in church all last week for the Greek Orthodox easter/holy week and the memory of that smell is still fresh in my brain

As a comparison to a lot of the Cuban cigars I enjoy and that I associate with floral smell and flavor notes, this cigar has none of those.  This is not stated as a negative, but just a difference.  Although undisclosed, the filler seemed to be a blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco, but then again who knows.  The star of this cigar is the Brazilian binder.  It brings all the flavors together and is what makes the cigar in my opinion.

Is this cigar worth the price tag?  If this was a regular production cigar, I would say that it comes close but no.  That is still better however than the Opus X or the Andalusian Bull, both of which I like but think should be priced at half of what they retail.  When you take into account however the "rarity" of this cigar and the unique packaging I would say then that it is worth it.

Buying a box of these was an impulsive buy for me.  However, it combined a few elements that made it so.  The tie-in to Ancient Egypt although has nothing to do with how the cigar performs, the shape (always a sucker for perfectos), and the blender, whose cigars I have always liked and keep in my humidor.  My biggest fear was that I was over-hyping this cigar prior to smoking it, but I am glad that it lived up to my expectations.