Pre-light Experience

The wrapper on the Highclere Castle Robusto is light brown and has a network of lightly raised veins present. The seams are smooth and the caps well applied. The band is off-white, gold, red and blue and carries the lines logo. The aroma from the wrapper is lightly dry and sweet hay while the foot brings a combination of hay and leather. The pre-light draw brings a very musty hay.

First Third

The cigar begins with toasted wood and dry hay. At a quarter inch in, a light sweetness from the hay appears. At a half inch in, a light mustiness joins in as the sweetness departs. The retrohale is musty, toasted wood, hay and mild black pepper. At an inch in, a mild black pepper joins the profile. As the third comes to a close, the musty, toasted wood and dry hay are even up front with some mild black pepper in the background. The strength in this third was slightly below medium.

Second Third

As the second third begins, the wood is becoming dry which has brought a decent level of overall dryness to the profile. At a half inch in, the profile is quite dry as the musty, toasted wood is very detailed and now makes the hay note hard to pick out. The retrohale is now musty, toasted wood and dry earth. As the third comes to a close, some bitterness joins the wood and some dry earth becomes present. The strength in this third remained at slightly below medium.

Final Third

As the final third begins, the musty, toasted wood along with mild bitterness along with some dry earth is what the profile now consists of. The retrohale is now musty, toasted wood with light bitterness. At three quarters of an inch in, the bitterness picks up and has a very long finish. The strength in this third bumped up to medium.

Burn

The burn was slightly wavy at times, but never needed any attention. The ash held on through each third.

Draw

The draw was perfect, with just the right amount of resistance that I prefer.

Overall

The cigar started with a nice profile, but as the dryness became fairly dominant, the profile became average and then the final third dropped down another level as the bitterness picked up and had a long finish. My issue with the Highclere Castle Robusto is the dryness and bitterness as the cigar evolves. These components just degrade the flavor profile and make it a bit unpleasant. While I found this vitola to smoke slightly better than the Toro, it’s just not something I see myself coming back to.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.65

Cost/Point

$2.48

Scoring System

Personal Cigar Review: Highclere Castle Robusto