Romeo y Julietta De Luxe EL 2013 Review

Romeo y Julietta De Luxe EL 2013 Review

Romeo y Julietta De Luxe 2013

The Romeo de Luxe Edicion Limitada 2013 is a release I was surprised to see when we got the announcement. Romeo already has had so many new vitolas in the last few years (Short Churchill, Wide Churchill, Petit Churchill…) that I wondered if it would benefit from an edicion limitada like a brand like Ramon Allones would.

The De Luxe is a Capuleto (Double Robusto) size that measures 52 x 162 mm. All this great information is available at cubancigarwebsite.com and that is one of the best sources of information for Cuban cigars period.

This release has a very neat varnished 10 count box. The cigar itself looked beautiful with a shiny wrapper and great aroma.

There seems to be a soft spot in the middle of the cigar. Hopefully that won’t affect the burn too much. This is quite a large cigar. It is bigger than what I usually smoke but I am looking forward to it although it doesn’t have much aroma it has a shiny and oily wrapper.

After the cut, I get some sweet tobacco flavour from it. Let’s start.

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1st

Right off the start, the De Luxe is a smooth smoke and very little sweetness. It is almost meaty for a better lack of terms. The smoke is rather thin and leaves very little after taste.  On a good side, it has a perfect burn. It is like a razor. It is producing thicker smoke and more flavours now. I get vanilla through the nose and mushroom on the palate. This is all over the place. I can’t say this is a usual Romeo y Julietta experience for me. I don’t taste the usual wood, cedar flavours and it is missing some of the after taste.  It is a light to medium cigar at this point.

2nd

The flavour jolts have calmed down to produce a more even smoke. It is still thin, dry but at the same time quite delicate. It is still sitting at light medium in body. The blend used in this cigar is quite different from other one used in the marca but also in the other Edicion Limitada. I think they did quite a good job at differentiating this release from the regular production. Personally, I am not yet sold but I can clearly how a lot of people will enjoy this cigar. It has a lot going for it.

Romeo y Julietta De Luxe 2013

3rd

On the last third, the body as picked u to medium and it is suiting it nicely. Flavour wise, it is still linear with some vanilla, mushrooms/meat and a longer after taste. At this point, I decided to switch from my usual sparkling water and ice cube to something with alcohol content. I thought to myself, what is this cigar missing, sweetness is what immediately popped in my head. I decided to pair the last part of this cigar with bourbon.  Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon 12 Year Old is my poison.

This is quite nice and really helps me like this cigar. The sweetness, the honey, oak and spicy notes just push this up. At the same time, the cigar is waking up and producing interesting but undefined flavours. Well this is one of those experiences where I would leave this cigar age for another 6 months to a year and revisit it. This can become a quite good cigar especially for the Romeo y Julietta lovers out there. I know there are a lot of you (even if you don’t admit it!)

7.75/10

Romeo y Julietta De Luxe 2013

This cigar was purchased here:
http://lacasadelhabanomontreal.com

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4 Comments

  1. Good review!

    I like the way you put the expression of flavors within the context of the RyJ profile. Well done.

    Ironically, your point about an EL for RA is a good one. Unfortunately, they have decided to jump head-first into the RE business. This is not a TOTALLY bad thing (Lusitanos, Libano, etc), but the fact that they have decimated their regular line of cigars is a sad thing (898s?) 😉

    I will be buy the Alemania 898s, but they will not be cheap. I think I will light up a Allones Extra RIGHT NOW!

    Keep up the good work and THANKS!

    Jack

    1. Thank you for the kind words Jack.

      I absolutely agree with you that RA is missing some of its key cigars like the 898 (a white whale for a lot of collectors) and the Coronas just to name these. I think RA would have benefited from another EL like the RA Extra as a promotion for this classic brand. I thought thate release was really well done. Old school bands, Corona Gorda vitola and packing some punch.

      In an interesting conversation I had in Havana with a high ranked Habanos executive 2 or 3 years back, revealed that discontinued cigars are considered as dormant, not deleted in the sense of dead but dormant… whatever that means, it leaves more hope than a dead great cigar no?

      Mark my words, the RA898 Alemania will fly off the shelves like the Escepcion Selection Finos Italia did.
      Thank for your comment and smoke in good health!
      Simon

  2. The cigar impresses from start to finish. And right from the moment you see it. Nice review! For me it’s outstanding.

    1. Thank you Peter. Finding a special cigar is always a moment that sticks with you. I still remember.the first time I tastes a vintage cigar!

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