Smoked: Illusione Epernay Le Ferme Marque de Luxe

Smoked at: Fairfield, Ohio

Illusione Epernay Le Ferme Marque de Luxe is a Nicaraguan puro made in Honduras. Hey, it happens. You have to like the updated, more elegant band now used vs. the original ordinary looking cigar band. It’s a tribute to the Champagne region of France, hence, Epernay, so it should look the part. The rough oily wrapper is Café Rosado, which I had never even heard or known before encountering the Epernay. The wrapper has a number of visible veins, including one long Frankenstein stitches-looking vein. Well, it’s almost Halloween.

The flavor profile opens with spice in the nutmeg, cinnamon range (although there are more spices in there – just hard for me to identify). You can add cedar, leather, honey, cream, cocoa and doughy bread notes. There are also subtle hints of black cherries, tea and mixed nuts – all in the background. During the second third, I get the impression that the cedar is mingling with oak and another wood – hickory, sandalwood, balsa? I find it tough to identify, but the wood notes have changed. A taste of hay is mixed in as well.

There’s something unusual about the core flavors, especially the wood. The only words that come to mind are “dry” and “dusty.” It’s not unappealing, just different. The spice changes as well. More pepper and less cinnamon and nutmeg by the final third.

Construction: the draw was perfect start to finish and the stick gave off volumes of smoke. The downside – the ash was flaky and fell off numerous times and the cigar got mushy during the final third.

Illusione Epernay has enough flavors, transitions and complexity to keep me interested. I found myself coming back to explore some of the unusual notes in this cigar. Cigar Aficionado gave it accolades in 2009 on its Top 25 cigar list. I second that motion – or is it I Second That Emotion as Smokey Robinson claims? This is an enjoyable medium-bodied, medium-strength cigar.