AVO LE10 (Limited Edition 2010)

What a weekend. I took a bit of time out of my extrememly busy weekend to enjoy the great rain we have been getting here in El Paso to bring you all a review of AVO’s LE10 (Limited Edition 2010).

I got a box of these cigars in the mail as a gift from a great BOTL @cigarsthomas. They were shipped over from the great guys over at Buckhead Cigar Club who still have plenty in stock! This is yet another cigar that I have been trying to get a review out for, but each time I light up I kept pushing the review aside to just sit back and enjoy the experience.

The Good Stuff: The AVO LE10 was released to celebrate Avo Uvezian’s 84th birthday. One abnormal trait in this cigar’s construction is the filler is completely composed of ligero tobacco. Ligero, being the stronger tobacco, is seldom used in full force by AVO and it will be extremely interesting to see just how well of a balance AVO can pull off with the Mexican Sumatran, Dominican Ligero, and Ecador Sun Grown tobacco used to create this limited edition cigar. The AVO LE10 only comes in very limited production boxes of 10, and run for about $150 a pop.

Size: 5.5 x 55  –  Wrapper: Ecuador Sun Grown  –  Binder: Mexican Sumatran  –  Filler: Dominican  –  Body: Full

Prelight: The AVO LE10 is a very bulky, thick ring gauged cigar. It’s nice to see something a bit meatier add to the AVO portfolio. I’ll start with the beautiful double bands the LE10 carries. Carrying the AVO tradition the LE10 has a very similar band to all the rest of the AVO lines. The A V and ) logo inlayed with black ink and silver metallic crested on a purplish brown band with the words “Avo Uvezian” and “LE10” inlayed in silver on the band. The secondary band is silver, lined with white with a silhouette of Avo himself, along with the words “Limited Edition” on it. The wrapper is a consistent orange/milky brown with quite a few larger veins running through the entire length of the cigar topped off with a beautiful round triple cap. The wrapper is just beautiful in construction, thick, and extremely oily. Some of the AVO LE10’s oil actually rubs off onto your fingertips as you hold this cigar. This is a wonderful smelling cigar, even before lighting up. This is a very well constructed cigar with no signs of any flaws or soft spots. The LE10 gives a ton of resistance when applying pressure to the body of the cigar. The wrapper emits a powerful sweet-cedar scent with backing notes of citrus and tobacco. The LE10’s foot is one of the only smokes I have had that gives off less of an aroma than the wrapper itself. The LE10 gave a little push back, but in the end clipped cleanly using my Cuban Crafters double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces a very oaty, bready, tobacco flavor, where as the wrapper adds slight pepper to my lips.

First Smoke: The AVO LE10 lit up with extreme ease under my triple flame butane torch lighter. I was greeted with a soft, pepper welcome upon taking my first few draws which was accompanied by very spicy, woodsy, mossy earth flavors with a ton of pale spice transferred from the wrapper to my lips. The draw is extremely effortless and produces a good amount of thick smoke. The LE10 doesn’t give off a ton of stationary smoke, but it is very heavily scented of tobacco, with leather. Probably not the best idea to light one of these up around people who don’t like smoke. The retrohale is a bit sharp, but primes the nasal passage with a ton of the more woodsy/cedar flavors the LE10 carries. The burnline is razor sharp and has developed one large wave that seems to be correcting itself as I continue to smoke this cigar into the second third. The ash is a tightly packed very nice light grey with slight flakes and held steady for almost 2 inches before stumbling into my ashtray.

Halfway There: Surprisingly the pepper is still very evident going into the second third. The main flavor now is a very bold cedar backed by the earth note, a bit of leather, and some well balanced citrus with even a bit of graham. I am really enjoying the complexity of the flavors in this LE10. Just into this portion of the cigar I am already feeling a bit of the nicotine. It’s a very nice touch, and isn’t too strong, just enough to differentiate itself from the more mild cigars that AVO usually produces. The burnline corrected itself as I was hoping and is burning line a champ.

Finish: I am surprised yet again the pepper in this AVO LE10 is still alive and strong. Just strong enough not to overpower the other flavors in this stick. The LE10 has become much more smooth, and a bit more tame as the nicotine begins to take a backseat to the flavors into the final third. The most dominant flavors are that of the earthy moss and leather notes that have carried all the way through the cigar. The citrus is no longer evident, but the graham and bready flavors are still alive and make for a perfect mash up with the other flavors produced by this cigar. There is absolutely no harsh buildup in this cigar, no matter how hard I hit it. The burnline is still super sharp, and dead even. All in all this cigar actually took almost 2 hours to take down from start to finish.

Overview: In my opinion, AVO has a real winner with this LE10. Too bad they are produced in such limited quantities. Hopefully future AVO blends will carry similar characteristics. Buy again, for sure. Box worthy, of course! If you can find these, by all means stock up. If you can’t there are many retailers that are willing to ship these cigars. Get them while you can. I would strongly recommend these to any trained cigar smoker, although the complexity may be a bit much for the novice (and me) I still think it is a very enjoyable smoke to anyone that enjoys a good cigar. Although finishing very smooth, be prepared to walk away from this cigar was a nice little nicotine buzz.

Pairing: Keeping the doppelbock train alive, I decided to pair this cigar with one of my favorite Doppelbocks,Weihenstephaner Korbinian. Korbinian is a strong, bold and flavor enriched beer. The alcohol content averages at 7.4% and brings flavors such as chocolate, coffee, and fruit as well as a bit of bitterness to the pallet. It made for another excellent pairing with the AVO LE10. I think, with the complexity of the LE10 just about anything stout will be a great pairing with the cigar. Coffee, scotch, wine, a stout, or a doppelbock are ideal. Just don’t overdue it with anything too flavorful.