Micallef Herencia Maduro Cigar Review – Heritage Shines Brightly

There is a lot to say about heritage, especially when it comes to the creation of premium cigars. When Al Micallef partnered with the Gomez Sanchez family, he got 130 years of cigar making and tobacco heritage to help his Micallef brand produce some of the finest cigars to hit the market. Of course with such a rich heritage why not give one of your blends a name that praises that. So is the case with the Micallef Herencia, the name of which translates to Heritage, and is one of the many cigars that Micallef introduced at the 2017 IPCPR.

The Micallef Cigars websites proudly notes:

“The Gómez Sánchez family never buckle or compromise the integrity of their craft or product to meet demand. Rather, they hold themselves to that high standard, be it small batches delivered as promised with unparalleled quality. This is their Herencia. (Heritage)”

So what makes up a cigar that earns the name Herencia? Well, it is the selection of a bold blend of quality aged tobacco, expertly rolled to offer a flavorful and trouble-free burn from foot to nub. It also helps to choose a single vitola to wear that name so there is no doubt about what the blend was intended to be.

To start with, the blend of the Micallef Herencia Maduro is described as:

• Wrapper –  4 year old Grade A Pennsylvania Broad Leaf
• Binder –  4 year old aged Ecuadorian Sumatra
• Filler – 4 year old Nicaraguan and Honduran

The Herencia Maduro is available in a single 5.5 x 52 box pressed Torpedo and they come packaged in finely crafted 20-count boxes that when sitting on a shelf catch your eye with the striking Micallef logo centered in the middle of the open box lid. MSRP is set at $14.00/Cigar.

I received a 2-count sampler box of the Herencia Maduro from the Micallef Cigar Company for this review. I really like the pride the company puts into all they do, even down to the small coffin box that contained these samples which you can see below.

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Pre-Light Examination

The Micallef Herencia Maduro is a dark, practically vein-less and beautifully marbled cigar. It is neatly boxed pressed and with simple cap that seems to be a different color than the wrapper itself. Examining closer you can see the beautiful vein network and the light oily sheen to the wrapper.

There are two bands on this cigar. The primary band is the standard Micallef Cigars logo. Each Micallef cigar line uses similar bands with a variation of the background color, in the case of the Herencia that color is forest green.  There is a secondary footer band that uses the green and gold motif with the golden word HERENCIA centered.

I ran the Micallef Herencia Maduro along the nose and picked up rich earth and cocoa aromas off the foot but not much along the barrel.

Cutting back the head of the torpedo about a 1/4 inch, I gave it a few cold draw puffs. It had a perfect restriction and offered some palate pleasing introductory notes of earth, pepper, and cocoa.

With the preliminaries out-of-the-way and my palate graced with teasing flavors, it was time to put the flame to the Micallef Herencia and turn it to ash.

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Cigar Review Notes

• Right from the first puff I was greeted with cinnamon and sweetness
• There is a gentle burn on the nasal during the retro-hale
• Sweetness grows as it moves through the first inch
• Salt and pepper ash rests on a thin char line
• Ash fell at the end of the first third with a flat and centered burn cone
• Earth and cedar enters as it moves into the second third
• Citrus peel finds its way in by the midway point
• I love how the sweetness tones down the citrus perfectly
• Earth is still quite present on the palate and moved into the aroma
• Spice ratchets up in the final along with a pleasant spicy nut aroma
• Sweetness and citrus lies in the background to the nub
• Medium Strength
• Total Smoking Time was just over one hour

Overall, the Micallef Herencia Maduro was not an overly complex cigar but offered pleasant and consistent flavor notes throughout the pristine burn. With the background of natural sweetness in this, I paired the second sample with a homemade Café Cubano which brought the sweetness more up front. Either way this was a terrific smoke that was easy to enjoy and I would recommend to any cigar enthusiast, regardless of their experience. Cuenca Cigars has these available for $252.90/Box which is a about a 10% discount of the MSRP of $280.00.