Hoyo was inspired by Hoyo Edición de Cumpleaños 150, a successful, limited edition cigar released last year.  Hoyo 150th anniversary took the first step toward breaking the conventions of the brand by featuring a new variety of Nicaraguan tobacco, a shade-grown wrapper never used before in any other cigar. With sleek new packaging and a contemporary logo, Hoyo Edición de Cumpleaños 150 represented a new wave of the brand.

Continuing along the path carved by Edición de Cumpleaños 150, Hoyo is an artisanal line featuring special tobaccos, proprietary aging techniques and old world craftsmanship. Hoyo takes the same Esteli-grown Habano shade wrapper used in “150” and adds extended fermentation to deepen the flavor. The blend was also updated to complement the wrapper and features longer aging on the filler and binder to deliver a deep, rich smoking experience.

Hoyo begins with a proprietary wrapper called Esteli Habano Shade. Cultivated by the Plasencia Group exclusively for Hoyo, it is the first Cuban-seed, shade-grown wrapper, and is also one of the heaviest wrappers used in premium cigars. The Plasencias use special cultural practices to deliver a thick, pliable leaf with bold, peppery flavor. Given the power of the leaf, the Hoyo blending team chose to apply increased fermentation, taking place over two years, to bring deeper dimension to its taste.

Produced in Honduras at STG Danli, Hoyo is available in four vitolas: Rothschild (4 ½ by 50), Robusto (5 by 54), Toro (6 by 50), and Gigante (6 by 60). Packaged in boxes of 20, single cigars range from $5.49 for the Rothschild to $6.99 for the Gigante. 

The Facts

Samples Provided by General Cigar Co.
Price: $6.59
Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5 by 54
Wrapper: Esteli Habano Shade-Grown
Binder: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Filler: Pennsylvanian, Nicaraguan (Esteli & Ometepe)
Smoke Time: 1 Hour and 40 Minutes

Pre-light

Hoyo by General Cigar Co. wears an extremely dark brown shade grown Habano wrapper grown in Esteli, Nicaragua. Even with its dark color, tons of veins and dark color markings can be seen down the cigar. The wrapper has a nice oily shine and a few sugar-like crystals. The cigar is packed solid with no soft spots to be found.

Bringing the Hoyo to my nose, the aroma is pungent with a sharp vinegar, wet earth, and a faint woodsy smell. A much more pleasant aroma is found on the foot of the cigar as I am greeted with a cherry and chocolate combination. A section of the already ugly double cap is pulled away from the wrapper. Upon clipping the cigar, the entire cap fell off. Hopefully, the cigar won’t unravel on me! The draw is right on showing off a medium-rich profile with graham cracker, cedar, and potpourri-like spices.

First Third

As the cigar opens, dark, heavy flavors begin pouring out of the Hoyo. The profile is a mix of dirt/diesel, oak, dark red fruit, and pencil shavings. A medium/full spice lingers in the mouth and is causing a minor itch in the throat. The finish is of a bubble-gum that has lost all of its sweetness. About twenty minutes into the smoke, the flavors tapered off and smoke production died out. In that time, only a quarter inch of the wrapper burned down, but I could easily tell the internal tobaccos had burned significantly farther. After putting a flame to the wrapper to catch it up to the rest of the cigar, the flavors are back in full along with the smoke production.

Middle Third

As I enter the second third, the texture of the smoke is now thick in the mouth. The oak and dark fruit flavors are front and center, while the diesel has moved to the background but continues to sit on the finish of the smoke. The profile begins to jump back and forth from the oak and fruit to more diesel centered and a new chocolate joins in. At the halfway point, I am already feeling a nicotine kick in my gut. The spice heat has considerably calmed since the prior third but the pepper flavor has shifted up a couple of knots, and I am no longer feeling the spice itch in the throat.

Final Third

The most drastic transition took place as I made my way to the final few inches of the Hoyo. A richness has crept in showing sweet breadsy notes, chocolate, a floral quality and pepper. The newly arrived flavors are pushing back the more earthy qualities of the cigar that are becoming somewhat bitter at this point. The wrapper once again struggles to keep up requiring an additional touch-up to give me a few more minutes with this Hoyo. 

I may or may not have forgotten to take a picture in the final third…

Wrap-up

It has been years since I have smoked a Hoyo de Monterrey cigar. I remember being handed one years back as I was beginning to smoke more full-bodied smokes. I wonder if I would still characterize that Hoyo de Monterrey as a full-bodied smoke today… Well, if I was handed the new Hoyo, it would most definitely be considered a full cigar by most standards. Full in flavors and medium/full in strength but not overpowering. The dark flavors worked well in the profile from the start and by the time my palate was getting a bit fatigued, the cigar evolved to a more rich, easier on the palate profile that concluded the cigar. The smoke production was excellent as long as the wrapper continued to burn in-line with the cigar. I am going to blame the touch-ups on the high humidity going on in the U.P. and won’t dock any point from my non-existent point system. With all that said, I actually found the Hoyo to my liking and a cigar I will be grabbing again as I see it around.

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The Le Hoyo part of this cigars name is actually a series created by Hoyo de Monterray which also includes the Le Hoyo Du Roi, Du Depute, Du Gourmet, Du Maire and Du Prince. Each name also represents a slightly different vitola but something unique to this series is that no cigar is larger than a 42 ring gauge which is fairly odd to see in todays cigar world where everyone seems to be making a 6×60 or something similar. In fact, the whole Hoyo de Monterray line up does not even pass the 50 ring gauge mark.

The Le Hoyo des Dieux is actually one of the larger vitolas measuing 5.5 inches and a 42 ring gauge. Only the Du Gourmet is comparable at 6.8×33. I picked this box as my purchase for 2 reasons. Firstly, it came with great recomendations from a few BOTL’s and my secondly, my research showed it was claimed as the best option from the Le Hoyo series.

I won’t get into too many details of the brand history but it is an interesting read, as is most Cuban brands. Basically, a Spanish immigrant to Cuba started his career working the fields and eventually began his own cigar line which gained a loyal following. We’ve also touched upon a few other Hoyo De Monterray reviews including the Regalos Edicion Limitada 2007 and the Epicure Especial. Be sure to check out those 2 reviews for more info on the brand.

We’ve had some pretty crazy weather up here, going from somewhat warm to incredibly cold. In fact, we already hit -13F just this week… that was a bitterly cold day! But between the bad days there’s been some good smoking days I’ve been taking advantage of. So let’s see how the Hoyo de Monterray Le Hoyo des Dieux stands up in todays review!

Cigar: Hoyo de Monterray Le Hoyo des Dieux
Drink: Quinta Da Romaneira 2004 Unfiltered Late Bottled Vintage Port
Vitola: Grand Corona (5.5 x 42)
Wrapper: Cuban
Binder: Cuban
Filler: Cuban
Price: About $7.00
Burn Time: Just over an hour

Construction:
• The Hoyo de Monterray is a surprisingly consistent looking cigar, all the sticks in the box I purchased were remarkably similar. I point this out because I find some Cuban cigar boxes to have a wide variety of oddly constructed cigars sometimes
• The wrapper on this cigar screams cedar just by looking at it, it has a light brown almost woodsy looking appearance to it
• The are some medium sized veins here and there but for the most part these cigars are smooth and well constructed
• Each cigar had a nice firmness to them with just a little bit of give when squeezed
• The triple cap atop each of the Le Hoyo des Dieux is finished cleanly and appears very well applied
• Filler in the foot looks very bountiful as well, cleanly cut and evenly colored
• The draw on the Des Dieux is just about perfect, getting a nice stream of smoke from it with little effort

Burn:
• Toasting was very even and easy, the whole foot was glowing with very little effort
• The draw is going nice and sharp with only a slight wave to it
• Some times it seems as though the cigar has gone out but two quick draws seems to bring it back to life easily
• The wave got a little out of control and needed a small correction, after ashing it looks like the cause was a small hole in the filler. Not a big tunnel or anything but a big of a gap between the leaves
• The next ash revealed another small hole that was affecting the burn, this one looks more like a tunnel so I’m hoping it doesn’t extend too far…

Smoke & Ash:
• Each draw is bring a perfect mouthful of smoke with very little effort
• The resting smoke it fairly heavy right after a draw but quickly dies down to a very light line of smoke that gives off a sweet cedar aroma
• The ash is starting off with a nice light grey color to it and is looking clean and strong
• I was surprised to see the ash on this thinner cigar easily pass 1 inch and made it to about 1.5 inches before I tapped it off, very clean, strong and even
• I find myself taking a few extra draws as I get to the halfway mark to get more smoke and the resting smoke has died down too

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper on the Hoyo de Monterray Le Hoyo des Dieux gives off a nice cedar aroma with a small spice kick
• The foot also gives off a nice sweet cedary spice aroma with a sort of creamy touch
• Pre-light draw brings lots of cedary and woodsy goodness with a light spice undertone to it
• Initial few draws bring more of that cedary smoothness and an undertone of light gingerbread spices, very nice start
• The body right from the start is undeniably mild but very flavorful
• The retrohale on the other hand has no bite and only a faint cedar finish, but at least it’s smooth
• There is quite a bit of earthiness sneaking into the flavor profile within the first inch or so
• The body of the cigar seems to have picked up somewhat at only 2 inches, it easily jumped into a more medium range and the flavors are a lot more intense and enjoyable
• The gingerbread-type of spices are creating a neat little kick on the retrohale and the creamy cedar finish has stepped up a notch too, very nice
• Cedar, spice and earthiness still dominate the flavor profile but it’s picked up a bit in intensity
• I’m also picking up a slightly bready type of flavor which is going very nicely with the spices
• The cigar continued on with the flavors balancing nicely and taking turns being the prominent one
• There was almost no strength or harsh buildup to the end, it stayed a smooth and flavorful medium right to the nub

Final Thoughts:
Despite a couple draw and burn issues, I actually enjoyed this cigar quite a bit. The flavors were spot-on and not diverse, they kept my interest the whole way through. I think the vitola was a perfect fit since I may have gotten a bit bored if this were a larger torpedo or churchill. At a price that isn’t too scary these are also fairly high on the cost-to-flavor ratio. The finish on this cigar was also very flavorful and it burned right to the end with no negative side effects at all. I’m curious to see what some aging will do to this cigar but they are already very tasty as is. I will definitely be looking to keep some of these in my humidor. Not only were they tasty but I actually liked this vitola a lot too!

Pairings:
Today’s Port pairing comes from a random grab at the local store. I’ve never really seen this bottle before and I like to try new ones so I grabbed it. The winery is called Quinta da Romaneira and this is their 2004 Unfilitered Late Bottle Vintage Porto. Now I should note that I’m not exactly sure where the “unfiltered” part comes in here, the Port is surprisingly clear and clean with almost no sediment from the glasses I’ve had so far. This particular port fell short of my expectations, it almost tasted watered down. Closer to a glass of light red wine than a finely fermented port, and especially not one worthy of a 7-year aged sticker on the bottle. There are some nice light fruity notes and a decent merlot after-taste but it’s not my type of port. If you’re just venturing into port I’d say it’s a good starter bottle as it might bridge the gap between a light wine and a strong port. It’s not all bad though because it actually paired well with the flavors of the Le Hoyo des Dieux since they weren’t overpowering or super spicy. They both complimented each other quite well. I think this Hoyo De Monterray cigar would pair very nicely with a hot cup of coffee or possibly an oak aged beer to pair with the cedar flavors.

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