The Davidoff Winston Churchill ‘The Late Hour’ Cigar contains tobacco aged for 6 months in the finest Scotch whisky casks. This allows the tobacco to absorb some of the wonderful flavors of the single malt scotch. The distillery or which cask whisky was used in the aging process is not mentioned. The aging in scotch whisky casks bring it a good amount of extra depth and complexity to an already tasty tobacco.
As a fan of whisky and cask aged products, I was more than interested in trying this cigar out. As still a casual and beginner when it comes to cigars, I still on occasion become overwhelmed by the spices and flavors that come with smoking complex and delicate cigars such as these. With that being said, let’s get right into it.
General Information about the Cigar
Name: Davidoff Winston Churchill “The Late Hour”
Country: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Ecuador Habano
Binder: Mexico/Ecuador
Filler: Dominican Republic/Nicaragua
The construction of the cigar is quite beautiful. Tight wrapped around the inner tobacco and a beautiful gold and black decorative labels on the actual cigar. With a few unlit draw pulls I picked up notes of Spices and Oak. Heavy strong spices, so I knew I would be in for quite a treat.
Personally used the V cut on my cigar. I prefer the V cut because it works best for cigars that have a difficult and an almost tightly bound draw. The V cut ended up working out quite marvelously for this smoke.
First 1/3 of the Cigar: 3.5/5
The initial draw brought heavy bold notes of spices, an almost overwhelming amount for me. As someone who is still new to the game of cigars, I didn’t believe personally that I would be able to finish the cigar. As someone who is purely accustomed to smoking cuban cigars, this was very rough on my palate. The spices and nutty flavors were almost too much. However, a good friend of mine told me to keep going until I hit about halfway through the cigar. As he is someone who I respect, I decided that the $20 spent on this one cigar would be wasted if I did not smoke it all the way through.
The second 2/3 part of the cigar: 4.5/5
Wow, pretty much light and day. This is where I began to get the notes that I love in cigars. The creamy velvety vanilla, the nice mellowed out spices of cinnamon and nutmeg. The earthiness and light floral notes began to become available to me. This cigar did a 180 degree turn on me, and boy was it for the best. Then I noticed the Scotch. As a scotch aficionado and connoisseur, I began to pick up the malted barley and the dark chocolate that is very evident in peaty highland type of scotches. The smoke became oily and very smooth. The smoke became elegant almost like a nice luxurious need for something that was very familiar in my past. Had I paired this with a Highland Park 18 or even Lagavulin 8, the pairing would have made sense. And I quite honestly think it would have been wonderful.
The last 3/3 part of the cigar: 4.5/5
As I came towards the end of the cigar, I almost felt sad that I took this beautiful stick for granted in the beginning. The velvety oily smoke worked its way through all the way to the end of the cigar. More notes of wood, cedar, vanilla and even now caramel become much more forward and the forefront of the palate. The scotch notes were still quite prevalent at the end as they were in the middle, but not as strong, they took a wide turned and mellowed out.
This was such a wonderful and relaxing smoke, that I am glad I ended up buying the whole box. If you want something that definitely stands out from the regular themed cigars, and are not ready or looking to go towards the enjoy ability of Cubans, this would be the cigar in my opinion for you. Enjoy the smoke my friends.
