Partagas Serie D No4 - another Robusto review

The weekend finally saw some decent weather and a chance to get out in the garden for a cigar and some Cheltenham Festival study (first three bets have all gone by the wayside as I write this). I following racing as closely as I can but with time being what it is I had to do some cramming. The smoke I had selected was the Robusto that I think is the best-selling for its size, the Partagas Serie D No4. I have a cracking box of these from 2008 that I only have two of left but this particular stick was from the Robusto sampler I have been smoking my way through. It was a bit of an ugly duckling with a slight green hue to the wrapper, I have no idea what age it was but I’d say 2010 or earlier it wasn’t as recent as 2011. There was a slight aroma of hay and nuts to the wrapper and a great draw pre-lighting. The opening few draws were straight into stride and just below medium with nuts, straw and a slight touch of vanilla toffee. A very balanced smoke with no spice through the nose a very even burn. Towards halfway the flavours were developing a bit but in the same sort of profile as before but then a little spice and old leather entered the fray, I was really enjoying this smoke. Up to the final third much as it was good it wasn’t how I think of SDN4’s as being but then it went up a notch in richness and the spice with white pepper appeared and the character was more as expected. The construction was faultless to the end with lots of smoke, just how I like it. Just goes to show that, as with old bottles of wine, appearances can be deceiving. A good smoke that went on a journey…90 points