Partagas Lusitania Gran Reserva 2013
The Cigar
Considered one of the truly great smokes in modern times, the Lusitania is a benchmark Havana cigar for many aficionados. This release does not disappoint. Sophistication and nuance have been added to the formidable and fiery reputation this cigar rightly owns.
FLAVOUR: Full
VITOLA: Prominente
RING GAUGE: 49
LENGTH: 7 5/8 Inches / 194mm
The Partagás Lusitania, Gran Reserva has been released in the UK and is available throughout the network of Havana Cigar Specialists.
This extremely limited production cigar comes in 5,000 lacquered boxes containing 15 cigars (only 75,000 cigars have been produced for the global market). The blend has been devised by Arnaldo Bichot, the master blender at the Partagás Cigar Factory. The wrapper, binder and filler leaves were harvested in 2007 and then subjected to a long and thorough aging process.
The 2007 harvest actually began in December 2006 and finished in March 2007. Each of the five types of leaf used to make this cigar (three in the filler, one for the binder and the last for the wrapper) underwent the standard curing, sorting, fermentation and classification processes that take up to twelve months to complete. Then they were packed into bales to mature gradually during the last nine months of 2008, all of 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, and the first three months of 2013.
The idea of special productions of Cuban cigars made from aged leaves is not new. Ediciones Limitadas, first released in 2000 were originally dressed in wrappers that had been aged for two years, rather than the standard six months. Since 2007 all of the tobaccos used in these cigars, including filler and binder, have been aged for two years.
The start of 2004 saw the release of the first Reserva, the Cohiba Selección Reserva, a selection of five different vitolas that had been produced using tobaccos that had been aged for three years. Since then there have been three more Reserva releases, each in 5,000 numbered boxes of 20 cigars, 100,000 cigars in total. 2005 saw the release of the Partagás Serie D No. 4, 2007 the Montecristo No. 4 and 2012) saw the introduction of the Romeo y Julieta Churchill (released in 2013).
To date there has only been two previous Gran Reservas. 2009 saw the launch of the Cohiba Siglo VI Gran Reserva, then in 2011 it was the turn of the Montecristo No.2 (released in 2012). Now, in 2013 the Partagás Lusitania assumes its rightful place in this exalted canon
*Not EMS