La Mission Du L’Atelier

By Tony Casas | August 24, 2015

Another hot El Paso Summer day and I am found out back enjoying a La Mission Du L’Atelier and a bottle of Deschutes Not the Stoic.

The Good Stuff:

The La Mission Du L’Atelier made it’s debut just a month ago at the annual IPCPR trade show. The name “La Mission” comes from a French winery called Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion which is located in the Pessac-Leognan region just southeast of Bordeaux. This winery is known for offering bold, full bodied wines as the cigar is one of the more full-bodied offerings by L’Atelier. The La Mission Du L’Atelier features a Mexican San Andreas wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and Nicaraguan Filler. As with all L’Atlier blends, La Mission contains Sancti Spiritus tobacco.

The La Mission Du L’Atelier comes in 3 sizes, the 1959 (4 3/4 x 52), the 1989 (5 5/8 x 54) and the 2009 (6 1/2 x 56). The cigars come packaged in boxes of 18 and run between $8 and $10 a stick. There are also line expansions already planned for future formats. The naming structure of the formats represents each year the winery received a 100 point rating by Robert Parker who offers the “Parker Points” scale of wine ratings. That being said, the future expansion vitolas will be carry the names 1955, 1982, 2000, and 2005. I picked up a handful of these over from out good friends at Smoke Inn.

Size: 4 3/4 x 52
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $8
Pairing: Deschutes Not the Stoic (Belgian style Quad 12.1% ABV)

Prelight:

The La Mission Du L’Atelier features a stunningly dark, and consistent brown wrapper. The wrapper is so dark it almost looks black against hard light. There isn’t much color variation but I do see some slightly lighter areas around the smaller veins that run through the cigar’s body. The wrapper is a bit dry with some soft tooth leading up to a stubby, triple wrapped, pigtail cap. The La Mission Du L’Atelier is generously packed as the soft-box-pressed cigar has very little give when I squeeze it between my fingers. The wrapper feels very hard, and thick. The cigar is polished off with a very large decorative manilla, red, black, and gold embossed band which features a large red “M” wit the words “La Mission” and “L’Atelier” surrounding it in black.

The La Mission Du L’Atelier’s wrapper is extremely pungent kicking out some really strong molasses, spice, and oak aromas while the foot of the cigar is a bit more tame leading with spice and other natural tobacco aromas. The cap cut clean and easily using my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces a ton of spice, pepper, oak, and very bold tobacco.

First Third:

Right oft the bat the La Mission Du L’Atelier leads with a ton of black pepper. After a the first few draws the pepper begins to subside a bit while the cigar showcases some great bold oak and strong tobacco flavors backed by some dark chocolate, spice, black cherry, and molasses. The draw is absolutely perfect. Each little puff kicks out a ton of thick, white smoke while the cigar gives off only a slight amount of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor sharp with some slight waves, but nothing concerning as it leaves behind a trail of brilliant white ash which held on for a bit over an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

The La Mission Du L’Atelier is still rocking with lots of oak, black cherry, spice, molasses and some slight chocolate while the pepper has now faded out. This cigar is created to celebrate a winery, and I can’t help but think about how well this thing would pair with a bold wine. Good work. The retrohale is real sharp with lots of spice, pepper, and oak. I don’t find myself doing that too often. The burliness is still slightly wavy but I haven’t had to touch it up or relight at all so I’m not complaining. I close out the second third with only a slight nicotine kick.

Finish:

The flavors have remained both bold, and solid with a slight ramp up in body into the final third of the La Mission Du L’Atelier. The bold oak and spice are leading the way backed by the molasses, dark chocolate, and some interesting pine. I’ve really enjoyed how bold this cigar has been. It took me about an hour and a half to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I experienced absolutely no harshness or extra heat. The La Mission Du L’Atelier did leave a slight nicotine kick, but never once overpowered the cigar smoking experience.

Overview:

L’Atelier has made some great blends in the past, but they have outdone themselves with the La Mission which has quickly become my favorite release by them to date. The cigar is bold, complex, and just all around enjoyable at a damn good price. L’Atelier has become increasingly easier to track down as well. This is a perfect cigar for a novice looking for a perfect bold, premium cigar that won’t break the bank, and the seasoned cigar smoker who enjoys more full-bodied cigars, especially those who tend to pair their cigars with wine.

Pairing:

Not the Stoic is a Belgian style Quad brewed by Deschutes in Bend, Oregon. This 12.1% ABV beer is brewed with pomegranate molasses and aged 11 months in 15% Pinot Noir and 15% Rye Whiskey Barrels .The Not the Stoic leads with a ton of cherry, spice, malt, and caramel with a very light mouthfeel before finishing with even more spice, fruit, cherry, molasses and some slight booziness. It’s really not as boozy I expected and probably the closest thing to a wine in terms of a beer. It almost reminds me of a light dessert wine like a ruby port. Like a port, this beer gets so much better as it warms.This cigar would pair perfect with any bold, red wine. I personally can’t wait to pair this with a big port. Mission accomplished. Pun intended.