Adrian Magnus XO Cognac Infused 12-Year Aged

By Tony Casas | May 27, 2025

Today I am taking a look at a special and mysterious cigar. The XO is a cognac infused cigar from Adrian Magnus.

The Good Stuff:

The Adrian Magnus XO is a very special cigar. While the company keeps most of their details of the blend close to the chest, what we do know is that the cigar is manufactured in the Dominican Republic, utilizes Dominican tobacco, and carries a 12-year aged filler tobacco that is then infused with Cognac. The cigar is offered in a singe 6 x 52 toro format which comes packaged and boxes of 3 and 24 which runs a little over $34 per cigar.

• Size: 6 x 52
• Wrapper: Undisclosed
• Binder: Undisclosed
• Filler: Undisclosed, 12-year aged, cognac infused
• Body: Medium
• Strength: Medium/Full
• Price: $34

Prelight:

The Adrian Magnus XO starts out with a very light, very consistent yellow-ish brown wrapper. The color is incredibly consistent. The wrapper’s texture is very smooth with a ton of oils coating it. There are almost no veins located along the wrapper, and only slight signs of natural tobacco webbing in the leaf.

The wrapper is laid seamlessly over itself leading up to the cigar’s round, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is then polished off with an extravagant white, maroon, and gold band with the Adrian Magnus crest, “12-years” and the “XO” logo all embossed on the front.

The Wrapper on the Adrian Magnus XO gives off only a light amount of earthiness and musk while the foot of the cigar releases a ton of bold cognac aromas with just some lighter tobacco undertones. The cap cut clean and easily. The cold draw produces bold notes of cognac, natural tobacco, and cedar.

First Third:

The Adrian Magnus XO starts out with a blast of cognac. It’s not overpowering, but it’s definitely present. Underneath the sweetness of the cognac there are bold notes of cedar and earthiness, with some lighter tobacco undertones, saltiness, and musky earthiness. The base flavors in the cigar can easily go overlooked by the cognac. The draw is absolutely perfect as each tiny puff kicks out a huge cloud of thick, white smoke which takes forever to dissipate while the cigar releases a ton of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is dead even and leaves behind a tightly compacted trail of dark gray ash which held on for about an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Adrian Magnus XO and I’m impressed with out well the cognac flavor has been keeping up without being too obnoxious of a flavor. I tend to think most infused cigars care more about the infused flavor and less about the cigar, but that’s not the case here. The base cigar is giving off notes of vanilla, musk, earthiness and cedar which marry up beautifully with the cognac. The retrohale brings out more of the vanilla and I find myself doing it quite often. I close out the second third with only a minor bit of nicotine.

Finish:

the final third of the Adrian Magnus XO is stellar. The cognac is still going strong while the backing flavors of vanilla and cedar have really ramped up backed by cashew and musk. The entire cigar took almost two hours to smoke down to the nub and I loved every second of it. There was no extended heat, no harshness, and the cigar burned perfectly from start to finish. It actually left me with a decent little nicotine kick too that I didn’t expect.

Overview:

I wasn’t’t sure what to expect going into the Adrian Magnus XO. I am usually pretty mixed when it comes to infused cigars and was happy that this one in particular showcased the cognac, without being all about the cognac. The flavor profile of the cigar is still great and the cigar burned flawlessly from start to finish. While this is a special cigar, and I really appreciated the deep, rich flavor, the only tough pill to swallow is the $34 price tag. I may change my mind about that after I smoked a few more of these however cause tonight, this really hit the spot.