The Good Stuff:

The Foundation Cigar Highclere Castle Senetjer is a very limited edition cigar created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s Tomb:

One hundred years ago, Lord Carnarvon left Highclere Castle for the ancient sands of Egypt. He, along with archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun, hidden for 3000 years. We crafted this cigar for the Highclere Castle Cigar line to pay homage to archaeology’s greatest discovery. With our secret blend, we have endeavored to capture the spirit of ancient incense; “Senetjer” is the ancient Egyptian word for incense or “that which makes holy”.  The box design is an exact replica of a storage box from the tomb itself.  This cigar embodies life at Highclere in the era of the 5^th Earl of Carnarvon, his love for cigars, and his passion for ancient Egypt. 

– https://foundationcigarcompany.com/senetjer/

Blended by Nick Melillo, Foundation Cigar’s founder and produced by AJ Fernandez, The cigar features a special 7th priming Ecuadorian Habano wrapper over a Brazilian Mata Fina binder and undisclosed filler tobaccos. The cigar comes in a single 6 3/4 x 52 perfecto format, packed in boxes of 12 running $33 per cigar. I purchased mine over from our friends at Cuenca Cigars.

• Size: 6 3/4 x 52
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano (7th Priming)
• Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
• Filler: Undisclosed
• Body: Full
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $33

Prelight:

The Foundation Cigar Highclere Castle Senetjer is a very big cigar. Let’s just get that out of the way. The cigar starts with a very consistent, very dark brown wrapper. The wrapper’s texture carries some slight toothy grain and a whole mess of oils coating it. The wrapper feels a bit thin and delicate while the cigar as a whole is very hard, very heavy, and packed very tightly. There are a good amount of veins running through the wrapper leading from the cigar’s tapered foot up to the cigar’s tapered, double-wrapped cap. The cigar is finished off with a gold, black, and purple band with the Senetjer crest and logo embossed on the front.

The wrapper on the Foundation Cigar Highclere Castle Senetjer gives off mostly oak and dark chocolate aromas while the foot is so tapered in I get pretty much the same scents off of it. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter while the cigar releases loads of gingerbread, cedar, and dark chocolate on the cold draw.

First Third:

The Foundation Cigar Highclere Castle Senetjer starts out with a very small cayenne pepper blast which quickly fades away allowing the cigar to release bold notes of dark chocolate, brown sugar and cinnamon over lighter notes of cedar and spice with mostly oaky undertones. This cigar tastes like Christmas in the best way possible. The draw is so perfect as each little puff kicks out huge clouds of thick white smoke which really stick around before dissipating while the cigar releases a good amount of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray as the oils burn off the wrapper. The burn line is mostly solid with one smaller wave in it, which is to be expected with a perfecto footed-cigar. The ash left behind is tightly compacted and medium gray which held on for about an inch before falling into my astray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Foundation Cigar Highclere Castle Senetjer and a really awesome grape/raising flavor has started to become a dominant force in an already jam-packed flavor performance. The sweetness has dropped back some allowing the cedar and oak to join the dark chocolate leading the charge while all the cinnamon, brown sugar, and spice are still there just not as potent. The retrohale brings the spice to the forefront of my palate so I find myself doing it quite often. As expected the burning has completely resolved itself without any assistance from my torch and the cigar is now burning like a dream. I close out the second third with only a minor nicotine kick.

Finish:

The sweetness is just about gone from the Foundation Cigar Highclere Castle Senetjer leaving behind bold notes of cedar and oak mixed with dark chocolate and lighter notes of espresso and cinnamon. It took me a little over 2 hours to smoke the Senetjer down to the nub and I didn’t want it to end. I experienced no harshness, no extended heat, and I never once had to reach for my torch to touchup or relight the cigar.

Overview:

While the $33 price tag is pretty impressive, so is the performance that the Foundation Cigar Highclere Castle Senetjer put on. The flavors are incredible, in tune with my personal palate, enjoyable, and complex with just the right amount of change-ups to keep me entertained all the way through. The burn-time is a factor here as well as you get a lot of bang for your buck. While these aren’t a cigar that I will keep in my regular rotation mostly due to price, they are a cigar that I will keep around for those days when I have an urge to smoke something extra special.

The post Foundation Cigar Highclere Castle Senetjer appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The Good Stuff:

The Highclere Castle was revealed at last year’s IPCPR show in Las Vegas. Nick Melillo tamed up with Sir George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon who is the current owner of the Highclere Castle which is famously known for it’s location on the hit TV show Downton Abbey. 

The Highclere Castle Website has all the details:

Highclere Castle Cigar was meticulously crafted by master blender, Nicholas Melillo, inspired by the style and flavor profile of cigars imported by the earlier Earls of Carnarvon to Highclere Castle at the turn of the 19th century.

The result is a hand rolled cigar from Estelí, Nicaragua, using the best Connecticut Shade wrapper available.  The filler includes both Criollo and Corojo from the volcanic soils of Jalapa and the island of Ometepe.  For the binder, the ancient Mata Fina, a carefully selected dark tobacco from Brazil, is used to tie the flavors together. Our special blend is finalized with our very own exclusive hybrid seed that we have named Nicadán, whose flavor is reminiscent of tobacco leaf from a bygone era.

The resulting smoke is silky smooth, exceptionally creamy with a lite peppery profile.  Close your eyes and you’ll get a nose of fireplace and leather books that brings you right to Highclere Castle’s library. Subtle, sweet notes lend themself well to hints of citrus and the finish is elegantly clean. 

We control each step of the production process starting with carefully selecting the tobacco, monitoring the weather and growths year to year, and managing the rolling process.  Even our boxes are hand made from sustainably grown cedar logs grown on Nicaragua’s east coast at our friend Pedro’s family business, also located in Esteli. 

The Highclere Castle comes in five size: Churchill (7 x 48), Corona (5.5 x 46), Petit Corona (5 x 42), Robusto (5 x 50), and the Toro (6 x 52) all packaged in boxes of 20 ranging between $12 and $14.40 a stick. Big shout out to my buddy Jason for hooking it up with a few of these.

Size: 5 x 50
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade
Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Nicaraguan
Strength: Mild/Medium
Body: Medium
Price: $12
Pairing: Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Chili Hazelnut Break (Imperial Stout 11.5% ABV)

Prelight:

The Foundation Highclere Castle starts out with a beautiful light, orangish brown wrapper that’s extremely consistent in color. The wrapper’s texture is silky smooth with a good amount of oils and almost no tooth or grit. There are almost no present veins, only natural webbing running through the wrapper’s leaf as it’s laid seamlessly over itself. The wrapper feels very thin and delicate while the cigar itself is packed nicely, not to tight or too soft. The cigar features a standard body with a round double-wrapped cap. The cigar is then polished off with a manilla band with gold, red, and orange metallic in featuring the Highclere Castle crest boldly on the front of it. 

The Foundation Highclere Caste’s wrapper gives off light cashew and cedar aromas while the foot of the cigar features subtle cedar scents over natural tobacco. The cap cut like butter under my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw features a nice subtle sweetness and pepper mixed with spice, cashew, and naturally tobacco flavors. 

First Third:

The Highclere Castle starts out with a massive cayenne pepper blast that totally caught me off guard and left both my lips and tongue tingling. The pepper only really lasted through the first few draws but my lips felt the sting for quite some time. After the pepper fades I was greeted with lots of cedar, spice, nutmeg and honey flavors along with soft coffee and hazelnut. Some nice saltiness started to transition to my lips mellowing out the pepper sting. The burn line was thin with slight waves leaving behind a good amount of rightly compacted medium gray ash which held on for an inch before falling into my ashtray. 

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Foundation Cigars Highclere Castle and the flavors have really creamed out into a more balanced experience. Creamed coffee, hazelnut, honey and spice lead the charge backed by a soft brown sugar sweetness. I just wish this cigar carried over the body it started out with, I feel it mellowed out a tad too much. The retrohale brings out some of the spice and pepper that I picked up in the first third. The burn line is still a bit wavy but I haven’t had to reach for my torch so no complaints there. I close out the second third feeling absolutely nothing in terms of nicotine. 

Finish:

Into the final third of the Foundation Cigars Highclere Castle and the cigar has continued to mellow out more and more as the experience progresses. There is no more spice or pepper all I am really left with at this point is some lightly creamed coffee, light hazelnut, soft honey and spice. The cigar took me a little over an hour to smoke down to the nub and I experienced no harshness, nor extended heat. 

Overview:

The Highclere Castle started out with a bang, but quickly began to fade out into something just a bit too mild for my preference. The cigar was beautiful and burned brilliantly but the flavor profile left much to be desired. One thing I had to keep reminding myself was that this cigar was blended for a different market. Usually the European cigars tend to resemble the Cuban cigar market a bit closer producing much more milder cigar experiences which is exactly what the Highclere Castle delivered. For the price though, I think I can think of quite a few mild cigars that I personally would reach for before this one. 

Pairing:

Because of the existing hazelnut flavor I repeatedly picked up in the Highclere Castle I decided to pair this cigar with Evil Twin’s Imperial Biscotti Chili Hazelnut Break. The 11.5% Imperial stout leads with roasted malt, cocoa, hazelnut, caramel, and even a nice tartness with a medium mouthfeel before finishing with gobs more hazelnut and cocoa along with a great sweetness and good amount chili with a decently boozy aftertaste. 

The post Foundation Cigars Highclere Castle appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.