Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The wrapper on the Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist carries a reddish-brown color to it along with a network of decently raised veins. The seams are smooth and the caps well applied. There are two bands, with the primary being the traditional design for the brand is a white and gold color combination. The secondary band is white and gold and filled in with some artwork and denotes the line. The aroma from the wrapper is musty wood and some earth while the foot brings musty cedar, sweet breadiness and some light spice. The pre-light draw brings musty cedar, floral notes and light breadiness along with a mild spiciness on my lips.
Seth: The Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist is finished with a lovely wrapper that is between Colorado and Colorado Maduro in coloring. It has a nice, marbled coloring and sports medium sized veins throughout. Rich reds with antique brown. It is smooth throughout and has a leather texture. The wrapper has aromas of salted wood, spices, leather and tobacco, while the foot gives off rich earth, bread, raisin, tobacco and spice notes.
John: The Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist came in cellophane, had a UPC sticker with the cigar information and a perforated tear tab so it remained intact when opened. There is a primary Davidoff Winston Churchill band in gold and white, and a thin secondary Limited Edition 2025 band. I weighed the cigar at 16.2 grams. For aromas, I was picking out medium strength barnyard and earth from the wrapper. Out of the foot, I could detect sweet tobacco and hay.
Jiunn: The Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist has a gorgeous Colorado Red wrapper shade. Veins are well pressed, seams tight, bunch and roll even and the head is well wrapped and capped. Pre-light aromas consist of barnyard, nuts and aged cedar.

Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with toasted cedar, a meaty mushroom mustiness and some black pepper. At a half inch in, the meaty mushroom note departs and just leaves some general mustiness in the profile. At three quarters of an inch in, some earth joins the profile. The retrohale is toasted cedar, mushroom mustiness, black pepper and light earth. At an inch in, the black pepper increases a bit. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is up front, with black pepper a bit behind and earth and mustiness in the middle of the profile. The strength was right at medium.
Seth: The first third starts out with strong tobacco notes. There is dry earth flavors present as well, and it is paired with pepper spice, leather and minerals. Charred wood notes are present on the finish along with some black coffee notes. Medium-full in strength and body.
John: Spicy tobacco starts the first third with wood and spices teaming up on the finish. The spices ramp up to medium strength, approaching medium-full a few puffs in. Wood joins the finish as the first third begins to settle in. Roughly half of an inch into the review, the spice recedes down to light levels. Some mild chocolate moves into the retrohale a short time later. As the cigar approaches the halfway point, mild, sweet tobacco is in the center of the retrohale.
Jiunn: The first third starts off with an uneventful mixture of baking spices and cedar. Roughly an inch in, copious amounts of lead minerality joins the profile. On the retrohale, there’s a nostril scorching amount of dried red pepper spice, which I find odd because the mouth draw doesn’t have spice at all. The finish is medium in length with minerals and medium tannins. Strength is medium-full and body is medium.

Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist

Second Third

Aaron: As the second third begins, the black pepper is now right behind the toasted cedar. At a quarter inch in, the black pepper mellows back to its previous spot. The retrohale is now toasted cedar and earth with light amounts of black pepper and mustiness. At an inch and a quarter, the earth has increased a bit. At an inch and three quarters, the pepper mellows a bit. As the third comes to a close, the toasted cedar is up front, with the black pepper and earth even a fair bit behind and some mustiness in the back half of the profile. The strength bumped up to slightly above medium.
Seth: The second third is in line with the first. Black pepper and spice notes are present with tobacco and dry earth. Leather and charred wood notes are present as well along with some leather and a return of black coffee. Long finish. Like before, it is medium-full in strength and body.
John: Creamy spices and tobacco start the second third with wood to follow and spices and wood to finish. Some mild, dry wood is present on the post draw. That profile remains stable and consistent to the halfway point. Creamy wood leads off through the bottom half with cedar defining the post draw.
Jiunn: The second third continues to be a mixture of baking spices, minerals and cedar. The cedar does pick up more tannins and a sense of rawness. My favorite part is the retrohale, as it breaks away from the boredom of the mundane mouth draw flavors. Strength and body remain medium-full and medium, respectively.

Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist

Final Third

Aaron: As the final third begins, the black pepper has significantly mellowed. At a quarter inch in, a vegetal mintiness joins the profile. At three quarters of an inch in, the earth mellows significantly as well. The retrohale remains toasted cedar and earth with light amounts of black pepper and mustiness. As the cigar wraps up, the toasted cedar is the primary flavor component, with the earth and black pepper just behind the middle of the profile and the mustiness and vegetal mintiness in the background. The strength remained at slightly above medium.
Seth: The final third continues with the first and second third flavor profile. Charred wood and leather are present upfront with black pepper spices, tobacco and dry earth. The mineral notes are much more pronounced in this third, and the cigar has a harsh finish. Medium-full to full in strength and body.
John: Creamy earth into the last third with wood to finish. Some bitterness develops on the post draw as it settles, and begins to take over the post draw. I’m getting a significant amount of tongue bite as the final third continues, despite my slow smoking rate.
Jiunn: The final third turns sharper in everything. Sharpness and harshness in baking spies, minerals and raw cedar. The rawness is rough to get through, as it takes away from the flavors. Strength and body finishes the same medium-full and medium, respectively.

Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist

Burn

Aaron: The burn was a bit wavy throughout and the cigar seemed a bit damp as the cigar struggled to stay lit in the second half, going out twice, requiring re-lights.
Seth: The burn was decent throughout. Never even, but not a real problem.
John: The burn started wavy, becoming uneven with a section of wrapper not burning. The cigar went out on me in the second third, requiring a re-light. The cigar went out again in the second third, requiring another re-light. The burn continued to be uneven for the remainder of the review.
Jiunn: Burn performance was perfect, providing an even burn, tight ashes and cool burning temperatures.

Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist

Draw

Aaron: The draw was slightly tighter than I prefer, but didn’t cause any issues with the smoking experience.
Seth: The draw was a little off. Had to re-light the cigar twice.
John: The draw was perfect, right in the ideal zone between open and resistant.
Jiunn: The draw was also perfect, giving the ideal balance between air flow and resistance.

Overall

Aaron: The cigar began with toasted cedar, a meaty mushroom mustiness and some black pepper. The meaty mushroom note departed fairly quickly and some earth joined in. The black pepper later increased. The second third saw the earth increase a bit and the pepper mellowed a bit. The final third saw the pepper and earth mellow significantly and a vegetal mintiness joined in. The Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist had a nice start, with a good combination of flavors, but fell off in the second half as the cigar struggled to stay lit and needed some re-lights. The cigar seemed damp in the second half. It may need more time to truly acclimate and provide the flavor profile intended, but for this price point I would have expected a better experience.
Seth: This Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist might be the Gallipoli of the Winston Churchill releases for Davidoff. It’s possibly the worst Davidoff I have ever smoked. The flavors were harsh from beginning to end, the construction was terrible, and in many ways the cigar did not even smoke like a Davidoff. The five/six releases of limited Winston Churchills have gotten worse over the years, and it’s time to put this limited edition run to bed. I am not sure what they were going for with this flavor profile, but I don’t see any smoker enjoying this blend. The mineral, leather, pepper and tobacco notes did not mesh well, and the charred wood notes added to the disaster.
John: I’ve had quite a number of the Davidoff Winston Churchill offerings, and I’ve enjoyed most of them. The Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist didn’t deliver the same rich, decadent and engaging flavors I’ve come to anticipate from the line. Instead, the flavor profile was pleasant, and became discordant and harsh through the final third. The draw was perfect, while the burn was wavy and went out on me twice. I find myself writing this often lately, but if you set the price point aside, I don’t find enough of an interesting flavor profile for me to want to return to this cigar at any price point. When you factor in the MSRP, the burn issues are quite disappointing and overall I don’t think I understood what this cigar was supposed to be. Total smoking time was 2 hours and 22 minutes.
Jiunn: Well that was a disappointment. Not only is the Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist $49, I had to smoke this flavor profile for nearly two hours. The flavors lacked depth and character, especially when harshness and sharpness seeped through. I looked forward to smoking through the final third as fast as I could (and no I didn’t heat up the cigar). This is an easy pass for me.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.65

Cost/Point

$8.67

Scoring System

Seth Geise

SCORE

4.28

Cost/Point

$11.44

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.00

Cost/Point

$9.80

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

5.40

Cost/Point

$9.07

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 The Artist