The 10 Best Cigars of 2014

One entire year of taste tests. Hundreds of cigars turned to ash. Round after round of smoking cigars blind. Through the considerable haze of smoke we finally can see the winners emerge: Cigar Aficionado has chosen the Top 10 Cigars of 2014.

Top 1 Best Cigars Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado

Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado

One look at the sharply pressed corners and carefully curved head and foot of the Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado tells you this is no ordinary cigar. The Nicaraguan smoke represents the pinnacle of achievement for Oliva Cigar Co. The Oliva Cigar story began in the late 1800s, when Melanio Oliva started growing cigar tobacco in Cuba. His heirs carried on the family tradition in the fields, but it was his grandson Gilberto Oliva Sr. who began making cigars.

As with so many cigar stories, Gilberto Oliva Sr. faced a difficult road. He left his native Cuba in 1964, and eventually started working for the Plasencia family in Honduras. In 1995 he and his son Gilberto Jr. created a cigar within Plasencia’s factory called Gilberto Oliva. A year later, they set out to open a factory of their own, and shortened their brand name to Oliva.

Business was tough in those days, and Oliva struggled. Faced with dwindling reserves of cash, in a cost-cutting move they turned to Gilberto Sr.’s robust stocks of Nicaraguan tobacco, which changed the flavor profile of Oliva cigars at a time when the interest in Nicaraguan flavor was increasing.

Nicaraguan tobacco helped Oliva survive. The cigar that brought it to the attention of connoisseurs debuted in 2006: Oliva Serie V. Made by a small group of rollers and blended for strength and style, the Serie V line was an immediate hit. In 2012, to pay tribute to the first man in the family to grow cigar tobacco, Oliva added the Melanio version, which is distinguished from the original by its Sumatra-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador. The Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado has rich, big notes of leather framed by a range of coffee, caramel and woody intonations. It’s a classic smoke.

Oliva’s cigars have appeared on our Top 25 list nine times in a row. This is the first time the company has been named Cigar of the Year.Top 2 Best Cigars  E.P. Carrillo La Historia E-III

E.P. Carrillo La Historia E-III

In the world of cigars, it’s hard to find a man more experienced—or more respected—than Ernesto Perez-Carrillo. He got his start in the cigar business making La Gloria Cubanas in a modest factory located in the heart of Little Havana, Miami’s Calle Ocho. Around 1990 he was selling standout, handmade cigars for less than $2 each. A newfound interest in cigars (and an article in a certain magazine) turned his company into a gem, and he couldn’t keep up with the demand. La Glorias went from curiosity to institution, and Perez-Carrillo expanded into the Dominican Republic, vastly expanding the production of La Gloria Cubana cigars.
Perez-Carrillo sold his business in 1999, and left the company in 2009. He set out to try something new, forming EPC Cigar Co. with his children, Lissette and Ernesto III that same year. On the fifth annivesary of the new venture, Perez-Carrillo has hit his stride. His La Historia is decorated with various images, including his grandmother in a Pinar del Río tobacco field and his daughter in Miami. The Perez-Carrillos worked two years on this cigar, and it shows in the final product, which is finished with a luxurious, dark leaf of Mexican tobacco grown in the San Andrés Valley.
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo has created many great cigars in his 40-plus years in business. His La Historia is his best effort in years.
Top 3 Best Cigars   Illusione Fume d’Amour Clementes

Illusione Fume d’Amour Clementes

Illusione cigars have been hot since their debut tasting in Cigar Insider in August 2007, when a vertical brand tasting delivered eight scores of 90 points or higher. The cigars were rich and delicious, created by Dion Giolito, a cigar retailer from Reno, Nevada, who knew what he wanted in a great cigar and wasn’t afraid to push hard to get them just right.

Giolito has an exacting palate and a vivid imagination. Many of his cigars have names that allude to conspiracies, or codes that reveal only part of his message. Despite the quirks, Illusiones have impressed our tasting panel again and again.

This past summer Giolito released his first new Illusione brand in nearly three years, Fume d’Amour, which translates to “smoke of love.” Armed with tobacco from a particularly strong crop year, Giolito had cigars made without ligero (the strongest component of tobacco) and focused on lower, milder primings. The result is a truly delicious cigar with balance and style, brimming with a rich, nutty cashew taste, hints of nougat sweetness and touches of baking spice.

This marks the second time an Illusione cigar has earned the No. 3 spot on Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list. This classic smoke is a memorable cigar.Top 4  Best Cigars  Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial (Tubo)

Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial (Tubo)

One of Cuba’s relatively newer cigars is also one that is smoking beautifully right now. The Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial was introduced to the main Cuban cigar portfolio at the Habanos Festival in 2008. The idea was to give the aficionado more, building on the success of the iconic Hoyo Epicure No. 2, a robusto measuring 4 7/8 inches long by 50 ring. The Epicure Especial, offering another 5/8 of an inch of smoking pleasure, was previously teased an Edición Limitada in 2004. We had mixed feelings about the smoke when it was an EL, giving it scores of 85 and 90 points, but we have always been impressed by the regular production smoke, rating it several times between 89 and 94 points. We have been most wowed by the version packed in a tube.

Most Cuban cigars come in boxes, but if you want the tubed variety of this Hoyo, it is offered only in three packs, making it somewhat peculiar in the Habanos portfolio.

The cigar is very, very rich, with varied notes that include coffee, earth and cocoa powder, and a touch of graham cracker. It’s complex, but not too strong, making it a very approachable Cuban.Top 5 Best Cigars  Rocky Patel Royale Toro

Rocky Patel Royale Toro

Rocky Patel has been in the cigar business for nearly 20 years. His new Royale, which has been on sale since 2013, might be his finest creation ever.

Patel got his start by having cigars made for him in Honduras. Over the years he has sought increasing control over his cigars, and today he relies more on Nicaragua than any other country. The Royale comes from his Tabacalera Villa Cubana S.A. factory, located in the manufacturing mecca for Nicaraguan cigars, Estelí, where Patel is making an increasing number of his cigar brands. In addition to rolling cigars in Nicaragua, Patel uses an enormous amount of Nicaraguan tobacco in his blends. He recently embarked on a plan to begin growing some of his own.

The Rocky Patel Royale is crafted with two binder leaves of contrasting look and style: Connecticut shade, a light, thin leaf known for its mild flavor, and Connecticut broadleaf, a thick, rugged leaf with a brawny earthy flavor. This lends complexity to the blend, which is held together by a comely Ecuador Havana wrapper leaf.

The Royale is a rich, spicy smoke, with pleasant hints of chocolate. It’s a delicious cigar, giving Patel his best-ever showing in a Cigar Aficionado Top 25 test.Top 6  Best Cigars Fuente Fuente OpusX PerfecXion X

Fuente Fuente OpusX PerfecXion X

When Carlos Fuente Jr. was told he merely assembled cigars, rather than making them, he was insulted. When he was told it was impossible to grow fine wrappers in the Dominican Republic, he was transformed into a man on a mission. For nearly 20 years he has shown off the beauty, power and pizazz of Cuban-seed, shade-grown wrapper leaves harvested from his majestic Chateau de la Fuente wrapper farm in the Bonao Valley of the Dominican Republic. Those leaves are the hallmark of the Fuente Fuente OpusX line, one of the most successful cigar launches in modern memory.

Fuente Fuente OpusX hit the market in November 1995 with seven sizes and a consumer frenzy that forced some retailers to limit purchases in many cases to two cigars per customer. Often, the cigars never even made it to the humidor in a cigar shop. The brand has been expanded over the years (and demand has calmed to a more manageable level, although the cigars can still be hard to find) and the PerfecXion X is one of the relatively newer sizes. With the trademark Fuente Fuente OpusX spice and leathery kick, the smoke also has notes of espresso and oaky wood. It’s for fans of full-bodied smokes, and for those who know the Dominican Republic for growing some of the world’s most intriguing wrapper.Top 7  Best Cigars  Padrón Family Reserve 50 Years Maduro

Padrón Family Reserve 50 Years Maduro

Fifty years ago this past September, José Orlando Padrón opened his doors in Miami and began selling cigars marked with his name. It was the most modest of ventures: one cigar roller, cigars that cost 25 cents apiece, and a future that was very far from certain. After a rough start, he listened to a customer who yearned for a fuma, the pig-tailed cigar type that Cuban rollers smoked. He changed his product and packaging and gave the customer the new cigar. Suddenly, he had a hit on his hands.

Padróns have come a long way from those fuma days, and the company commemorated 50 years in business as the most decorated cigarmaker on the planet. Three times Padróns have been named Cigar of the Year, and throughout the 10-year history of the award not only have they never failed to make the list, they have never finished outside of the top 10.

This Padrón Family Reserve 50 Years Maduro is beautifully pressed, and it is steeped in notes of rich earth, coffee and that trademark cocoa bean quality. The cigar comes in boxes. Another, larger, far more limited cigar presented in a commemorative humidor, was due to be released as this issue went to press.

To celebrate 50 years, the Padróns decided that one cigar was simply not enough.Top 8  Best Cigars  Ashton Estate Sun Grown 22-Year Salute

Ashton Estate Sun Grown 22-Year Salute

Ashton cigars come in a host of styles, from the considerably mild (Ashton Classic) to the seriously strong (Ashton Virgin Sun Grown). Closer in strength to the latter are Ashton Estate Sun Growns.

The brand was originally conceived as a way to celebrate Ashton’s 20th anniversary, which was in 2005. The first cigar came out a year late, due to limits on their production by Tabacalera A. Fuente. The cigar is made with a very rare wrapper, a sun-grown, Cuban-seed leaf from Chateau de la Fuente, the home of Fuente Fuente OpusX (which is made from leaves grown under shade). ESGs can have a mellow start but they typically pick up in strength, leading brand owner Robert Levin to dub them “the Velvet Hammer” due to their sneaky strength.

ESG releases have been coming out at irregular intervals, and they often perform well in our blind taste tests. In a vertical brand tasting of the five sizes in the line, conducted in the September 23 Cigar Insider, the ESG 22-Year Salute emerged as the best. The nutty smoke had notes of cream, leather and earth, with a touch of almond on the finish.

ESGs are cigars for special occasions, and priced accordingly. They aren’t inexpensive, but this one is certainly worth the price.Top 9 Best Cigars  Monte by Montecristo Jacopo No. 2

Monte by Montecristo Jacopo No. 2

Altadis U.S.A. Inc. has a library of storied cigar brands. Romeo y Julieta. H. Upmann. Montecristo. These are cigars that people have smoked for decades, and while they have large followings the company has made the ambitious move of taking a hard, new look at each of those landmark brands and offering new versions of each.

Monte by Montecristo is a remake that harks back to what Altadis did with Romeo y Julieta in 2012 (you might recall a Romeo by Romeo y Julieta earned our No. 3 spot in the Top 25 that year). The box is sleek and modern, with a new take on the Montecristo name. But the real change lies in the cigar itself.

Where most Dominican Montecristos are mild, with Connecticut-seed wrappers, Monte by Montecristo Jacopo is blended with Ecuador Havana wrapper, Dominican filler and two binder leaves, one Dominican olor, the other Nicaraguan Corojo.

The box-pressed Jacopo (pronounced HAH-coh-poh) No. 2 size was released in 2013. The cigar has plenty of leather and spice on the palate, with a note of chocolate on the finish. It’s a delicious new take on a celebrated old cigar brand.Top 10 Best Cigars A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Capa Habano SP52

Top 10 A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Capa Habano SP52

Abraham Flores has emerged as a new force in the world of premium cigars. If his name is unknown to you, that’s understandable. Up until recently, the partner in PDR Cigars Dominicana has spent much of his time on contract brands, meaning he makes cigars that appear with other company’s brand names. (Among his works are the Gurkha 125th Anniversary and the La Palina Classic, two cigars from the Cigar Aficionado Top 25 list of 2013.)

The A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Capa Habano SP52 might take the award for longest name ever to appear on our Top 25 list. The 1975 is for Flores’s year of birth, the Capa Habano for the Cuban seed used for the wrapper. Flores makes his cigars in his factory in the Dominican Republic, and he has his workers construct cigars with mounted heads, a style of cigarmaking common to Cuba but seldom seen in the Dominican Republic.

The construction on the cigar, with its sharp box press, is superb. The flavor is even better, balanced and very tasty, with pleasant hints of vanilla, coffee bean and cocoa.

Remember the name Flores. He is making superb cigars.