Punch Churchill FR OCSU

Measures: 175 mm x 18 mm

Age: The boxcode dates the cigar to July, 1998. It came from the cigar stash of another Finnish cigar lover.

Setting: Today was the date of Finnish parliament elections. The day started sunny and mild: a perfect early Spring day. By noon, however, the skies had become cloudy, and by mid-afternoon the first snowflakes started to fall. Soon this developed to a snowstorm.

I was glad that I had cast my vote before the snowfall. So my resolve to celebrate the occasion by smoking a good cigar was firm. Therefore, I placed myself on the covered balcony, with plenty of coffee, one-and-half fingers of Larsen VSOP cognac, and the Punch Churchill I had received from trade with a Finnish cigar lover. As things turned out to be, it was actually quite nice to watch the snowfall and puff away, and contemplate how the election results may turn out given that due to the weather some voters will elect to stay home and watch TV instead of voting.

The cigar I had chosen was clad in very smooth and tender colorado wrapper. It exhibited a clear box press. The cigar felt quite light and supple in my hand: somehow it did not feel the big cigar that it actually was. The cigar had a strong rustic and pleasant smell. I cut the cigar and found the draw to be fairly light. The cold aroma matched the smell of the cigar: ripe tobacco with a hint of sweetness.

The cigar launched surprisingly strongly. The first puffs released a concentrated "meaty" flavour that reminded me of a 2001 Punch Punch 2001 I had smoked just recently. After the first inch this nevertheless receded, and the cigar became more creamy and integrated. By the time it was reduced to corona gorda size, the aroma had become very pure and dry tobacco flavour with a nice bite. After half-way, the grassy sharpness of the taste nevertheless increased, and I found that I had to pace myself to keep it it bay: the cigar was burning a bit too fast. Slow smoking kept the cigar in balance and I was able to enjoy its integrated, pure flavour all the way to the end. At the final stages, some of the "meatiness" came back and gave the final inch depth and strength.

All the way, the draw of the cigar was a bit on the light side. Nevertheless, the cigar burned perfectly: I just had to rotate it while smoking. The ash was light and surprisingly brittle: it fell off after every inch, leaving flat surface instead of the more familiar conical shape.

This was a fine cigar that presented the qualities expected of the marca: pure and clean tobacco flavour in an expertly realised package. It appealed to me in a quite different manner from the RyJ Churchills that I have from the same period: instead of the noble finesse of the RyJ, I had the overall impression of a straight-talking, direct cigar that did not speak to me in allusions and subtext.

I believe that this particular cigar, fine as it was, probably did not give its absolutely best performance: it must have been a bit too dry. I still have a cabinet version with almost the same age waiting for a good moment, and I expect it to confirm the high expectations this experience created.