In my humidor, as I'm sure most of you do, I have a few Reserved top end cigars that I have for my collection, or that I'm saving for something special. But then I thought, Why did I start buying cigars on the first place?. Well the answer to that was to smoke them of course. So, Im delving in the reserved section of my humidor and the first stick to be pulled out was the Fuente Fuente Opus X Perfextion No.4
Once upon a time it was believed that the soils of the Dominican Republic were unsuitable to ever produce a good quality cigar wrapper. That was until the Fuente family arrived that is. The Fuente family created a fabulous cigar wrapper and adorned it to their cigars which in time became the Opus X, probably the first Dominican Puro. And the rest they say Is History
Size: 5 3/16 X 43 (Corona?)
Wrapper: Dominican
Filler: Dominican
Binder: Dominican
Construction and Appearance
The No.4 is defiantly well presented in its cedar sleeve and with the red ribbon adorning its foot. My only criticism here would be the sellotape that is holding the ribbon and cedar sleeve in place. It kind of cheapens the look a little. The infamous band placed perfectly around the cigar. The cap appears to be triple capped, all good so far.
With the sleeve removed, the cigar proved to have no soft spots and felt nice and weighty in the palm of my hand. Slightly oiled veining kept to a minimum and well made I was getting rather excited about firing this one up. Then, I happened to notice an odd shape to the wrapper about a third of the way from the foot. It appears that cigar has at some point, suffered some damage and has been repaired as I could clearly see the glue marks. How this came to become damaged i do not know as the cedar sleeve was protecting this part of the cigar. Could it of been done in the factory and this was a second? (if you know please comment)
Pre-Light Draw
My next challenge in dealing with this cigar was my method of cutting. My method these days is usually punching, but, I am going to clip this one. So this I did it clipped with relative ease. The pre-light draw was on the heavy side I could not get much from it apart from Cedar, a very light note of autumnal leaves, leather and a hint of spice.
Tasting Notes
I have replaced the 3 thirds method with tasting notes for this smoke, and as you read on you will find out why.
I took my time when lighting this prestigious smoke as i wanted to do everything right by it to get the best. But my heart sank a little when I took the first few puffs. Apart from the tight draw, I was not getting much from this at all. The burn was wavy, not much smoke was being produced. But, the smoke that was being produced was very smooth. I decided to re-clip, The draw improved slightly and I did get that sweet spice flavour from the Opus X.
As i entered the second third stage, common sense prevailed and I realised that my Opus X was indeed Plugged !!. I already had a fair amount of tar build up around the cut and this was seriously affecting the flavours. I took the measure of unplugging the cigar but alas, it was far too late. Although the draw massively improved the tar build up was leaving and acrid taste on the palate.
I manage to get to the last third, but, there was only one place for this cigar to go. Yes, I'm sorry to say I ditched it.
I am not put off trying another Opus X, in fact i cant wait to try one that is not plugged. But as I mentioned at the beginning of this review. Imagine how you would be feeling if that special occasion did come along and your stick you had been saving was plugged ?.
