When your Godfather makes you an offer you can't refuse - The Romeo y Julieta Perfectos

[JohnS]

Growing up in Australia in the 1970s, and being of Greek heritage, I don't seem to recall any of the male family and friend members not being cigarette smokers. I don't recall going anywhere, as a kid, and there wasn't smoking, in fact.

Of course, my Godfather, who is also my Father's first cousin, was a smoker too until he gave it up in the 1990s, when he was in his fifties. No, unlike Marlon Brando's famous rendition of Don Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Godfather', my Godfather is the kindest, most gregarious person you'd ever want to meet. He also has some cigars stored away that he hasn't touched for years so he offered my one when I visited him last week. He was immediately impressed that I knew that the cigar he gave me was a discontinued Romeo y Julieta Perfectos, but honestly, I had to credit @ATGroom and @Trevor2118 for that information been so readily available via an internet search on my mobile phone.

This particular cigar, even though discontinued in 2003, would have been older than that...perhaps from somewhere in the vicinity of the late 80s/early 90s. I was impressed how it was stored; frankly, the cellophane didn't 'yellow' over time and the cigar looked quite good. I'm still in the process of editing my review, which will be published in this year's edition of my smoking blog, but I can tell you that my initial thoughts prior to smoking this late last week was that it was either going to be bland and 'newspaper-like', or it was going to surprise me and be better than I would normally expect. In other words, I didn't figure there'd be any middle ground.

When I removed the cellophane, the bouquet was the clue as to how it would smoke. You see, when aged cigars stop giving off a smell, that's when you know that they are well past their peak. This cigar gave off a flowery scent, so I knew that the cigar would still have flavour. Unbelievably, it even had some Romeo y Julieta core DNA cocoa and cherry, alongside the floral notes. It was all a pleasant surprise for how well it smoked over 75 minutes or so.

What makes this all the more intriguing is the fact that the Romeo y Julieta Perfectos was a machine-made (mecanizado) cigar. It was a 44 ring gauge x 127 mm or 5 inches Perfectos, tapered at the head and foot. It's a really nice size for what it is. Now, what I also found interesting was the slight tear in the wrapper that held in-tact during the smoke and didn't unravel. You see, the wrapper was quite thin, which suggested to me that it was hand-finished. According to Cuban Cigar Website; some Machine-bunched hand-finished cigar had the filler and binder bunched by machine but the wrapper was applied by hand. Hand finishing of machine bunched cigars (by the hand application of the wrapper) was reduced in the 1990s and was fully phased out by circa 2002.

Machine-made cigars once used to be commonplace, from the 1950s until the early 2000s. They tended to have reciprocal Hand-finished versions. On the whole, I don't expect cigars of this type to age this well, but every now and then it's nice to be surprised.

Incidentally, if you're looking for a review on the Romeo y Julieta Perfectos, about the only one I could locate was Brook Whittington's review in late 2009, published on Halfwheel and also here on our forum as a topic discussion. There are also only three instances of this cigar been referenced in almost twenty years. These are linked below:

I now look forward to publishing the second review on the Romeo y Julieta Perfectos when my blog starts up again in early 2024.

[cigaraholic]

Your review brings tears to my eyes.....I used to smoke the hell out of that cigar😰😰😰😰😰

[Chas.Alpha]

John, I was piqued when you mentioned cherry being in the note, as well as it being your expectation. I never remembered R&J having a cherry taste in them until mid 2010-2020. Is that something I missed, or has my palate grown along with my shirt and trouser size?

CAH

[JohnS]

I was surprised too. You could equate that 'cherry' flavour with a berry or fruit note. It was definitely there and I was well-pleased!

[eaglebear29]

My gawd this is amazing, everything about it is intriguing. History, art, family heirloom, amazing story and can't wait for the review. Stuff and stories like this are a real treat and really make CC smoking so fascinating. 

Again, very much looking forward to that review. I could only dream that one day I could have such an experience as this with a cigar/family and a part of art history.

What a moment to cherish.

Wonderful read, thank you for this.

[ha_banos]

I think we must be of a similar age @JohnS And a similar cultural background. Only the other side of the planet lol.

I too remember growing up from the 70s cigarette smoke in the house from my uncle and dad. Rollies and packs. However I don't recall any cigars around lol So no such luck.

Also your godfather having quit smoking yet looking after the cigars still is lucky. Hopefully now he'll just dump the lot on though lol

Thanks for the write up.

[99call]

15 hours ago, ha_banos said:

I think we must be of a similar age @JohnS And a similar cultural background. Only the other sided of the planet lol

I too remember growing up from the 70s cigarette smoke in the house from my uncle and dad. Rollies and packs. However I don't recall any cigars around lol So no such luck.

Love this story. I have a good friend of Lebanese heritage, and once when discussing what he thought were the best cigarettes on the market, stuff like Black Sobrainie, Phillip Morris, Dunhill etc etc. He told me that when he was a kid visiting Lebanon, and they were having guests, a fancy cigarette bowl would be pride of place. A bit like when people put out a lush bowl of beautiful fresh fruit on the dinner table, he said there was a beautiful selection of super premium cigarettes in large bowls around the house. 

Now that's what I call hosting!! Being British however, in that situation, I would have been incapable of accepting the generous offer, and simply left the house with a slight feeling of frustration. What a terrible curse.

[cigaraholic]

Cherry, berry, fairy, R&J was fruit bomb tobacco until 2000....aka da leaf change. The cherry bomb years sadly are a thing of the past, at least they’ve mustered up some turkish delight on a good day now.

[JohnS]

15 hours ago, eaglebear29 said:

Wonderful read, thank you for this.

Thank you!

15 hours ago, ha_banos said:

Also your godfather having quit smoking yet looking after the cigars still is lucky. Hopefully now he'll just dump the lot on though lol

Thanks for the write up.

I think that if my Godfather has any more around, they'd be of the cheaper, machine-made, packaged-in-cellophane variety. Anyway, it's nice to know that cigars like this offer us intrigue, and especially more so when they smoke well after long-term aging (whether done intentionally or not).

[CaptainQuintero]

On 1/15/2024 at 3:17 AM, Chas.Alpha said:

John, I was piqued when you mentioned cherry being in the note, as well as it being your expectation. I never remembered R&J having a cherry taste in them until mid 2010-2020. Is that something I missed, or has my palate grown along with my shirt and trouser size?

CAH

 The RyJ spectrum (to me) seems to have a scale with vegative/herbal on one side and that jammy/cherry/Turkish delight on the other. I've never gotten both extremes in a single cigar, I think they blend for one or the other, premium/MM doesn't seem to indicate which either from my experience. 

  The most cherry/sweet dark berry RyJ I've ever had was a 60's RyJ Romeo, but I've had similar with the Tres Petit Corona and Ex4 (I think I've reviews of them floating around here somewhere). The Belicosos used to be pretty vegative and herbal to me but the blend/quality change shoved it more towards the Short Churchill/Ex 4 blend. In fact I can't think of too many examples that have that profile now, maybe some of the cheapie Cedros?

[Vuelta-Perilla]

I get a 10' box from the pre-embargo era. The ring wear "Perfectos" mention.