Dominion Classic Cigar Review

Last year was the 2nd time I met with Steve Ricker and Dominion Cigars and Steve told me things could not be better. You may not have known that Dominion Cigars was primarily a Canadian cigar company up until late last year. With the company’s growth and demand for it’s products in the US market, they have now opened an office in the United States; Las Vegas to be exact, to better serve the American consumer.

Today I would like to present a review of a cigar which Steve announced at the 2017 IPCPR and was destined for US shops – the Dominion Classic.

As Steve explains:

I started working on this project in early 2016 at Ernesto Carrillo’s factory in the Dominican Republic, Tabacalera Alianza. After several months of tweaking the blend, the outcome is a very smooth, medium body cigar, featuring tobaccos from Ecuador and Nicaragua. It uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, jalapa binder and all fillers are from Nicaragua. The cigars themselves have over a year of aging on them before they hit the US market.

Steve provided me a sample of this US bound Dominion Classic at last years IPCPR, and by now, the cigars should be on US shelves.

As noted, the tasty blend is described as:

• Wrapper – Ecuadorian Sumatra
• Binder – Jalapa
• Filler – Nicaragua

The Dominion Classic is available if two vitolas and come packaged in yellow and black, checker board, 20-count boxes.

• Robusto – 5 x 52 (MSRP $7.95)
• Toro –  6 x 50 (MSRP $8.15)

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Pre-Light Examination

The Dominion Classic cigar is what one might select as the first cigar of the day, It has a  medium tan wrapper with few veins and a solid feel along the shaft.  The head is finished with a well applied triple cap. The foot of the Dominion Classic exudes an enticing mix of cocoa and baking spice aromas along with a vanilla spice running the length of the shaft.

The cigar is adorned with a large outer sleeve that uses the same yellow and black checkerboard motif with the Dominion Cigars logo centered in the middle, on a field of red. Unlike most cigars with an outer sleeve, when I removed it, I was left with a naked cigar that carried no more adornments other than the its medium tan skin of a wrapper.

I chose to use a punch to open this solidly packed cigar and gave it some cold draw puffs that were decently restricted  and surprisingly delivered deep earthy notes. I guess I was not expecting that based on the pre-light aromas, but every cigar is special and that’s why we review them. So review I shall as you continue to follow my journey through the Dominion Classic.

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Cigar Review Notes

• Chocolate and pepper notes get the journey started 
• The pepper is not over bearing, just enough to awaken the nasals on the retro-hale
• A cherry like fruit enters to join the chocolate
• Smoke is full and creamy quickly into the early burn
• Solid white ash builds on a crisp and thin char line
• Baking Spice notes enter near the end of the first third
• Sweetness easily replaces the light pepper in the second third
• The ash is simply perfect
• Cedar joins the sweetness to fill out the profile
• The early spice reveals itself as cinnamon near the end of the second third
• Citrus sweetness engulfs the palate, easing into the final third
• The journey is capped with coffee added to the continued sweetness and citrus
• Mild to Medium in Strength
• Total Smoking time was 1 hour and 20 minutes

Overall, the Dominion Classic was an elegant cigar to smoke with a rich creamy smoke and enticing flavor transitions that pleased the palate with balance and smoothness. It was a mild to medium strength smoke that could be enjoyed by a new cigar smoker but had the complexity that even an experienced cigar enthusiast  would savor. I feel the price of this cigar is right in the wheel house of the average cigar smoker which this an easy buy recommendation.