Seth's Humidor

Professionale

The Graycliff Resort has an incredible history and you can trace it back through the foundations of the resort, which are built on top of  and close to the ruins of old English buildings from the 17th and 18th century. The location is home of an English Church from the 17th Century, a Naval Base by the American Colonists from the 18th Century and throughout the 19th and 20th Century it went back in forth between private residency and hotel/inn. The Garzaroli Family purchased the property in 1973 and it was then that they turned it into the Graycliff Resort. The resort is noted for its beautiful wine cellar, and if you look at their selection you would be in awe as well. It was in 1997 Enrico Garzaroli grew tired of looking for the perfect cigar for his restaurant so he launched Graycliff Cigars. It was in the late 1990's that the company hired Avelino Lara to run their factory and blend their cigars for them. Lara had just retired at this time from El Laguito Factory in Cuba, and he was the original blender and roller for the Cohiba line for Fidel Castro. The Professionale line was the second creation from the Graycliff Factory and some consider it to be their finest. The cigar features tobacco from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Brazil in its filler with a binder from Ecuador and an Indonesian Sumatra wrapper. The wrapper is marbled brown with some veins present throughout. It is a well rolled cigar despite its appearance and has aromas of sweet spices, pepper and nuts. The line is available in several vitolas but I chose the Presidente which is 7" with a 48 ring gauge.        

The cigar begins with lots of nutty characters with a definite plethora of pepper as well. There is also some sweet spice present with the smoke and it has a finish of cedar. The cigar is medium in body with a nice long finish and an even burn. As I enter the second third of the cigar I begin to pick up some creamy notes along with coffee and the pepper from earlier has faded. I still have some sweet spicy wood notes and the cigar at this point has a very soft medium body. The burn is still perfect on this treat and and there is a nice amount of smoke with it. Finishing the cigar the spice level returns and so does that nutty character from the beginning. I am still picking up some coffee and cream notes but they are all playing off one another making a very smooth complex finish. I had no trouble with this cigar throughout and I can tell that it was rolled incredibly well.

I was debating my overall impression with this cigar for sometime and I am going to give this cigar a 93 rating. I thought the flavors were great and it was constructed beautifully but it just lacked points in my overall impression category. I always try to put aside the price range on any expensive cigar when I go to review them because pricing differs from person to person and it is unfair to give a cigar a poor rating because of price. If money was no issue with me I would most likely smoke more Graycliff Cigars, but with that being said there are very few retailers who carry them because smokers can't afford them often. If you ever have a chance to buy these cigars when they are on sale I strongly recommend it. I know I always look for specials on these sticks because you can save yourself a lot of money and get some great smokes.

In all reality Graycliff Cigars grow on me the more I smoke them and I really would love try more of their lines. I would also love to visit the Graycliff Resort to see the factory and have a wonderful time, but that is kind of out of the question. Do yourself a favor and grab a Graycliff if you can. 

Professionale Presidente