First up for the new series (and can someone please come up with a better name) looking at some of our Corona Gorda (plural?), H. Upmann Magnum 46. The code, if I can decipher Whipcrack’s scribblings, TOU ABR 19. 

I thought I had probably done this cigar too many times for Kenfessions over the years, so I checked. As it turns out, only twice, including once quite recently. The first time, for reasons that probably seemed appropriate at the time, was when I decided to give a dissertation on funerals, the good, awful and hilarious. It went with a Tassie gin, Dasher & Fisher Meadow Gin, and got 92. The much more recent one, just 86. With a weird Kiwi Orange Liqueur called Rose Rabbit and a terrific Blanton’s Bourbon. No mention of funerals. 

When I first started looking at cigars seriously, I smoked a lot of these. I remember my thoughts being very much that they needed at least three to five years, at which time they blossomed. Earlier than that and not really worth it. Anyway, I went back to my notes (those earlier ones pre-dated these notes) and I was very surprised that my scores suggested that I was far less enamoured of these than I thought. Quite a lot of 86s and 87s. A couple of 90s and even a 91. And one 94. I expected better. 

So, would this be an exercise in redemption or reconfirm disappointment? 

Some days, you get lucky. Hopefully, this is the current standard as it was a cracker. Good construction, slightly oily wrapper. Dark. Began with some lovely toasty notes, a hint of the barbecue and campfire. Settled very quickly into spices, some chocolate, paprika. Richly flavoured, but balanced and complex. Plenty of evolution here. A touch of mongrel. Then we moved into dark coffee and a hint of vanilla. Whacko all round. 94.

Definitely a ‘restore the faith’ cigar.

Drinks? The Holgate ‘Double Trouble’ is another chocolatey stout style from them, with a little age. rich and complex, but we covered this style in more depth very recently. A fine match. 

What really took the cake was the Equipo Navazos ‘La Bota de Ron’ No 65. 

This is a very rare rum and I have featured it once before a while back, with a CoRo. The Equipo Navazos team actually focus on sherry. Truly brilliant sherries. But they also make the occasional rum, whisky, gin and so forth. I should not say ‘make’, as they scour the bodegas of Jerez and surrounds for sherries and have also sourced a couple of spirits. These sherries and spirits were, for whatever reason, surplus to requirements, so they purchase and bottle them. There really is nothing else like them anywhere. 

As I noted previously, it all started innocently enough. Originally, Jesus Barquin (a criminology professor at the University of Granada) and Eduardo Ojeda (the technical director of Grupo Estevez, better known as Valdespino, although there is more to it than just that) were simply two mates who shared a love for sherry – a profession for Eduardo and a passion for Jesus. It was never intended to become a commercial operation. 

They had many similar sherry-phile friends around the world. The two of them would often tour the various bodegas. Needless to say, they had great contacts and saw many brilliant casks, most of which a normal visitor would never get near. On one such visit, back in 2005, the pair identified a special amontillado in the Ayala cellars (no relation, as far as I know), surplus to the producer’s requirements, which had been ageing for twenty years. They decided to purchase it, bottled 600 bottles, and shared it amongst their friends, naming it ‘La Bota de Amontillado’ after the Edgar Allen Poe story. It was “No 1” – all their wines and spirits are numbered in the order of production. The following year, another two sherries were located, bottled and shared with friends. 

Over the following years, more followed. Word spread. Quickly. The international wine community took to these brilliant sherries like never before. Now, every year, we see a handful of new releases from these guys. They are all sold on release, none are retained for museum purposes or a subsequent offering, although sometimes the casks may produce a subsequent sherry. Production is naturally very limited. Some may reach several thousand bottles but others, only a few hundred. For the entire world.

Also, needless to say, prices for these sherries are strictly upper echelon. Those of us who consider ourselves Navazos-philes will grab a bottle here and there, when we can. The chances do not come along too often. But then, nor should they. These wines are very special. They have been referred to as the DRC of fortifieds. 

As I mentioned, not only do these guys do amazing things with, and for, sherry, they have also dipped their proverbial toes into spirits with the very occasional whisky, brandy and rum. 

This was the extraordinary ‘La Bota 65 Ron’.  

First, the bad news. Only 800 bottles were made, so it will not be easy to find. Your best bet would be a retailer who carries Navazos, a seriously good rum bar or Spanish restaurant with a great wine list. For a bottle, expect to pay in the region of A$200 to A$250. 

This latest Ron (Spanish for rum) is not their first. The Ron Navazos Palazzi, from Oloroso casks, was bottled in July 2013. There were 1,500 bottles. Another followed a year later. 

La Bota 65 is also from an old Oloroso cask. It was bottled back in May 2016. As mentioned, only 800 were ever made. The alcohol comes in at 44% and the rum is estimated to be between fifteen and twenty years of age. It is ‘unchillfiltered’, which might be a new word, and there are no additives of any kind. No colouring, sweeteners or aromatics. That is typical of all releases from Navazos. 

It originates from the same series of butts that saw their first efforts, but this is a single cask bottling and the alcohol has been moderated to 44%, not the original 51%, more in line with usual rum practices. The team refer to it as ‘more civilized’ and as “a textbook example of the ideal iron fist in a velvet glove”. That butt was fully emptied for the 800 bottles, so there is no more. This is not a ‘magic pudding’ (an old Aussie children’s book where one could eat the pudding and it would always replenish itself). 

The original source was 32 casks of rum from the Antilles which spent five years in bourbon barrels and was then transferred to newly-emptied oloroso casks. This is one of them, specially selected as being able to stand alone.

For those who prefer sweeter rums, then certainly, there is sweetness but far less than found in some high profile rums. This is not your big sweetie!

Dark colour, lovely aromas, real complexity. There are notes of plums (not something I normally think of with rum), salted caramel, dried fruits, spices, figs, chocolate and stonefruits. A really seductive texture. Lovely length and the finish is clean as a whistle. No cloying at all. I'd happily score this 98. 

The only negative is that it is so hard to find. 

As a match for this or almost any cigar, bravo! 

KBG.