Release Date: December 2020
Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3
Visually, the Alec & Bradley Kintsugi Corona Gorda is covered in a dark brown wrapper that has a bit of tooth, but very few overt veins or signs of oil. On this particular vitola the two bands take up more than half of the available real estate of the cigar and it is nicely spongy when squeezed. Aroma from the wrapper is a combination of sweet hay, milk chocolate, sweet cedar, manure, leather, barnyard, earth and honey, while the cold draw brings flavors of strong floral and dark chocolate, along with espresso beans, hay, leather, bread, white pepper, cedar and a distinct candied pecan sweetness.
Photos/Peter Garritano
After five decades in the cigar business, there isn’t much that Ernesto Perez-Carrillo hasn’t done. He sits here in the aging room of his factory in the Dominican Republic.
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr. has every right to be cocky. After five decades in the cigar business, his name resonates throughout the industry as a beloved, well-respected figure whose distinguished career lead him, in 2018, to the highest award any cigarmaker can receive
Cigar Aficionado’s Cigar of the Year. He’s also been inducted into the
Cigar Aficionado Hall of Fame, turned a local Miami cigar into a national brand and continues to produce cigars at his own factory on his own terms in the Dominican Republic. Of course, he isn’t cocky at all. Fifty years of toil seems to have had the opposite effect. Despite his enviable resume of achievement, he’s one of the nicest guys in the industry. So what does the guy who’s done
86.5
These ratings indicate a high level of quality throughout the cigar market, as 109 of the 267 cigars we rated (41 percent) scored 90 points or higher. And 66 cigars scored 91 points or higher, earning our accolade of Humidor Selection. Every major cigar-producing country contributed cigars to that list, though 30 of the cigars in this segment hail from Nicaragua. Currently, Nicaragua exports more premium cigars to the U.S. than any other country, and its proliferation of high ratings speaks to both the high quality of tobacco on the agricultural end as well as meticulous cigar production on the industrial side.
If you’re looking for a 90 pointer, you’re more likely to find it from Cuba than any other country. We rated 24 Cuban cigars this year, and 16 of them (66.7 percent) scored 90 points or higher, a larger percentage of 90s than any other major cigar-producing country. (Though 80 percent of the Mexican cigars rated this year scored more than 90 points, we only tested f