Pre-light Experience

Aaron: The wrapper on the Southern Draw Decennium is dark brown with a bit of red and some areas are a bit lighter. There are some thick, but well pressed veins along with some smaller, lightly 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 and in a yellow, holographic silver and green color combination that denotes the company. The foot band is yellow, green, blue and holographic silver and denotes the line name and anniversary. The aroma from the wrapper is a mix of cedar and earth while the foot brings cedar and stone fruit sweetness. The pre-light draw brings cedar and a floral soapy note along with a mid-level spiciness on my lips.
Seth: The Southern Draw Decennium is a cigar that is firm in hand and finished with a nice maduro colored wrapper. There is some lightness in areas, but overall, a solid maduro. It has a great coffee bean coloring. It is coarse and dry in texture, and the cigar has some tooth with small veins scattered throughout. The foot gives off aromas of rich earth and strong spices, while the wrapper delivers some leather and wood notes.
John: The Southern Draw Decennium came in cellophane and had a UPC sticker with the cigar information which tore when opened. The UPC sticker may have been applied by the retailer and not the manufacturer. There are two bands, both featuring holographic accent elements. The primary band indicates Southern Draw Soli Deo Gloria and the secondary band 10 Years Decennium. I weighed the cigar at 14.7 grams and measured the humidity to 65.0% with the HumidiMeter Pro. Aromas from the wrapper included sweet tobacco, hay and barnyard with all of the components at light-plus strength. I wasn’t able to identify anything distinct from the foot.

Southern Draw Decennium

First Third

Aaron: The cigar begins with spicy, toasted oak and some earth. At a quarter inch in, the spiciness attached to the oak transitions to an individual black pepper and the oak gains a light dampness to it. At three quarters of an inch in, the earth and black pepper are even, a bit behind the toasted oak. The retrohale is toasted oak and earth, with a bit of black pepper. At an inch and a half in, the earth moves up to become even with the damp, toasted oak. As the third comes to a close, the lightly damp, toasted oak and earth are even up front, with the black pepper just ahead of the middle of the profile. The strength was right at medium.
Seth: The first third begins by delivering this herbal flavor profile that is paired with black pepper. There are some oak notes present as well with soft finish of tobacco. I would classify the cigar as being medium in strength and body.
John: The initial flavor impressions for me are malty tobacco, spices, earth with tobacco in the center and creamy earth to finish. On the post draw, pepper moves in and immediately starts to build in strength from medium-minus. Roughly ten minutes in, the pepper has calmed down to light-plus. As the cigar continues, creamy wood is leading off as the malty tobacco sweetness and spices define the center of the profile at medium-minus strength. The overall intensity of flavors continues to fall as the cigar is more balanced approaching the halfway point. At the halfway point, some chocolate at light-plus intensity is present at the end of the draw. Some earthiness on the post draw also takes on a loamy quality at medium to medium-plus intensity in the bottom half.

Southern Draw Decennium

Second Third

Aaron: As the second third begins, the damp, toasted oak gains a slight lead in the profile again. At a half inch in, the black pepper mellows a fair amount. The retrohale is now damp, toasted oak and earth with mild black pepper. At an inch and a quarter, the earth recedes a bit. As the third comes to a close, the damp, toasted oak is up front, with earth just ahead of the middle of the profile and black pepper in the back half. The strength bumped up to slightly above medium.
Seth: The second third begins to deliver some more pepper notes and there is some leather with those herbal qualities from before. Oak and tobacco notes are still present as well, and it has this mocha profile on the finish. Medium to medium-full in strength and body.
John: The second third opens with creamy, medium-full earth and a medium-full wood, earth with spices underneath to finish into the post draw. Some malty tobacco and earth team up to define the retrohale. By the bottom half, creamy, sweet tobacco leads off with sweet earth to finish.

Southern Draw Decennium

Final Third

Aaron: As the final third begins, the black pepper is now very mellow. At a half inch in, the toasted oak loses the dampness and the toast level increased a bit. The retrohale is now just toasted oak and earth. At an inch in, the toast level is now very heavy. As the cigar wraps up, the heavily toasted oak is up front, with earth in the middle and mild black pepper in the background. The strength bumped up to medium-full.
Seth: The final third becomes harsh with the profile delivered. It is drier, showing those pepper, leather and oak notes. The herbal qualities are harsher as well. Some acidity present. I would classify the cigar as medium-full in this third.
John: The final third leads with creamy earth at medium, almost medium-plus strength and finishes the same. As the last third settles in some savory meatiness is present on the finish. I find the profile stable and consistent for the remainder of the third.

Southern Draw Decennium

Burn

Aaron: The burn was a bit wavy at times and the cigar went out twice in the final third, requiring re-lights. The ash held on in inch and three quarter increments.
Seth: Burn was good from beginning to end.
John: The burn was straight to start, with waviness occurring at times throughout the review, none of which required correction.

Southern Draw Decennium

Draw

Aaron: The draw was fairly snug and may have constricted the flavor delivery a bit.
Seth: Draw was great throughout.
John: The draw initially started quite resistant, almost plugged, roughly 4-1/2 to 5 notches towards the resistant spectrum. As the first third settled in, the draw opened up to 3-1/2 to 4 notches into the resistant spectrum.

Overall

Aaron: The cigar began with spicy, toasted oak and some earth. The spiciness transitioned to standalone black pepper and the oak gained a dampness fairly quickly. The second third saw the black pepper mellow a fair amount. The final third saw the black pepper mellow some more and the oak lost the dampness and had the toast level become very heavy. The Southern Draw Decennium had an average flavor profile throughout. Very oak driven with a lot of earth through the first half. Not a very exciting cigar and not something I’d see myself coming back to. Chalk this up to an uneventful anniversary release.
Seth: I thought the Southern Draw Decennium was a decent cigar for the first two thirds. I probably would have preferred a combination of the first and second flavor profile throughout. The final third showed a true collapse though, and it became hard to smoke. Nice draw and burn, but that final third really hurt the smoke. Hard to say if I would come back to the cigar. Great vitola though if that means anything.
John: The Southern Draw Decennium started out with some interesting and medium-full bodied flavor combinations through the first third. As the cigar progressed, the flavor profile remained pleasant and consistently over the medium mark, but it wasn’t as engaging for me as the start. I found the burn performance to be great, with the draw starting very resistant and opening to resistant as it continued. It’s difficult to determine whether the draw performance impacted the overall flavor performance, but I think I’d want to revisit the cigar to see if a Decennium with a good draw imparted more complex flavors for the final two thirds. As it currently stands, this isn’t likely something I’d return to, given that Southern Draw has a wide portfolio of cigars I already enjoy. Total smoking time was 2 hours and 3 minutes.

Aaron Loomis

SCORE

5.15

Cost/Point

$2.91

Scoring System

Seth Geise

SCORE

5.05

Cost/Point

$2.97

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.65

Cost/Point

$2.65

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Southern Draw Decennium