Rating:
Brand:		- Victor Sinclair
Origin:		- Dominican Republic
Price:		- Around $2-$3 per cigar

There are some surprises in life that are just outright shocking. I’m not not talking about the rare blessing of discovering that it is steak instead of hamburgers for dinner, it’s much more shocking than that. What I’m talking about is like the revelation you had when you discovered that Playboy really was not about the articles.

Recently, on a whim, I purchased a sampler pack of the Victor Sinclair cigars because I was in the mood to try something new. From the pictures, and yes I know you can’t judge a book by its cover, the cigars looked great. I knew there was a chance that I would not like any of the cigars from that brand but then again that’s why they make samplers in the first place. My investment cost was pretty low and even if all of the cigars ended up tasting like something my dog would not even chew on in the end I really wasn’t out all that much coin. After all, a deep scrubbing with the tooth brush along with drowning the back of the throat with the infamous Listerine will help make any bad cigar memory fade away.

The first cigar I tried from the sampler was the Connecticut Yankee and I have to admit I was not impressed. Barely out the gates on this new adventure and I was already looking to exit stage left. My first pick happened to be the one cigar that I was not going to like or it was just going to be a long journey to the finishing line. I know I’m not going to love every cigar brand out the but two bad cigars in a row would make me less than enchanted to see if a third cigar was the charm. The dilemma, and yes there was a dilemma, was deciding what cigar I should choose next. There was still a variety of different cigars to choose from so I decided to fall back on an old age formula to determine which one to try next; I went with the cigar that had the coolest label.

My second cigar choice happened to be the Vintage Select. Of course I was a little apprehensive about smoking this new cigar, I just had a nagging gut feeling that I was not going to like the entire brand. However, for the sake of adventure and the belief in giving second chances, I grabbed the stick from my humidor to see what this cigar had to offer. The bottom line, sometimes my gut doesn’t know what it is talking about.

About the Victor Sinclair Vintage Select Cigars
Wrapper: Maduro
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican
Strength: Mild – Medium

The cigar comes in four different styles:

• Churchill 7 X 50
• Robusto 5.5 x 50
• Toro 6 X 50
• Torpedo 6.5 X 54

Flavor
The flavor is what really floored me with this cigar. The first thing that I noticed was that my pre-lit cigar had a great nutty flavor. Now I’ve read a few other reviews on the Vintage Select where some of the reviewers mentioned that there was a chocolaty, espresso and variety of other flavors they tasted. In all honestly none of these flavors jumped out at me. I was not drinking anything but water at the time I smoked this cigar and the nutty flavor is what I noticed the most.

Of course lighting the cigar changes the flavor a bit and I was more than curious to see how this cigar would taste once lit. The cigar continued to exceeded my expectations. The draw was smooth and still contained the same rich nutty flavor, although not as intense, that I originally tasted. I did not experience any bitter or harsh aftertaste with this cigar and fully enjoyed it until the end.

Construction
I thought that the overall construction of the cigar was pretty good. I also liked the draw which was tighter than some of the other cigars I’ve tried yet still loose enough to easily fill my mouth with smoke. However, the burn was a little uneven but it was nothing that I was not willing to overlook.

One of the issues that I did have with the cigar was the label. As of the writing of this review I have smoked three different Victor Sinclair cigars and have had issues removing the label from each cigar. I know that I may have two left feet but by all means I’m not all thumbs. I’m not sure of what industrial strength super glue they used on these labels but whatever it was it was meant to be there for good. I only bring this up because the wrapper on a couple of the other cigars from my sampler was damaged when I tried remove the label. I’m usually pretty cautious when I remove the labels and these are the only cigars that I have had this problem with. I’m not sure if it is an issue across the board or just something going on with my sampler but in either case it is still worth noting.

Appearance
I have no qualm with appearance of this cigar and in all honestly all of the cigars in the entire sample looked great. The Vintage Select cigar has a deep brown maduro wrapper with an elegant gold and white label near the head.

Price
The Victor Sinclair cigars can be picked up for around $2 to $3 per cigar.

Final Comments
Overall the Vintage Select in my opinion is a very good cigar. The construction could be better and cleanly removing the label was a challenge but none of the flaws took away from the overall enjoyment of the cigar. The taste is really what sold this cigar for me. The Vintage Select was a pleasant surprise an I look forward to picking up more of these in the near future.

Popularity: unranked [?]