The Arganese Double Wrap comes from the relatively new venture of Arganese Dominicana, S.A. owed by real-estate developer Gene Arganese. The cigars are made in the old Tabacalera Don Rogue, located in the Santiago Province of the Dominican Republic. The factory is near the villages of Tamboril and Villa Gonzalez and right in the center of the country’s choicest tobacco growing area. The cigar is a ‘barber pole’ type with alternating light and dark leaf tobacco on the
wrapper. It measures 50
ring gauge by 7” in length, and is considered to be a medium to full bodied cigar. The tobacco has been aged for several years before being rolled into cigars.
Flavor and Aroma
The cigar tasted a little bitter at first, then kind of woodsy that seemed to touch the back of your mouth. The wood flavor was joined by a slight black pepper taste. The aroma matched the taste but I have to say that just into the cigar about an inch it smelled much better than it was tasting. The woodiness in the aroma reminded me of a visit to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery and the great smell of those large oak casks that were once filled with bourbon. About half way though the cigar the taste got real strong, kind of like eating fresh arugula, a rich peppery green leaf that grows wild in the Mediterranean Sea region of the world and used to spice up your salad. In Slovenia you can have an entire salad of arugula, which I have had on occasion. I lived and worked there for a couple of years but that is another story. Okay, back to the cigar. The strong taste calmed down and I finally said to myself, “This is a red wine cigar.” I went to my wine chiller and picked out a nice Australian Cabernet/Merlot and suddenly the cigar got 100% better. The oaky-woody flavor of the cigar was complimented quite nicely by the dryness of the wine, which also had a strong oak flavor. Now I was able to sit back and enjoy the rest of my smoke.Draw and Construction
Here is the break down on this cigar:
Wrapper is Connecticut Shade and Brazilian Maduro,
Binder and
Filler are Dominican.
The cigar is quite firm and looks nice with the alternating dark and light leaves. In fact, the two different leaves were almost seamless. My punch went through the end easily and the pre-light draw had no resistance at all. I thought this would be an easy smoke. After a brief toasting I lit the foot and it held a nice consistent red glow over the entire surface as I lightly blew on it. I usually like to let my cigar sit for about 30 to 60 seconds before smoking. In this case 60 seconds was too long and the cigar went out. On the re-light I anticipated some problems and sure enough, the burn was uneven. The Connecticut Shade wrapper was burning way ahead of the Maduro however at about 2” they pretty much caught up to each other but the lighter wrapper was still burning slightly faster. Other than that I did not notice much else wrong. The ash fell off at 2 ¼” and cigar went out with 2” left. I decided to re-light and smoked it down another ½” just to see if it remained cool which it did. A habit I got into when I was in Kabul, Afghanistan stationed at Camp Eggers was dissecting the butts. This way I could inspect the tobacco, see if the leaves were good quality and so on. When I cut this one I saw the problem with the uneven burn. There was a large vein at least 3/32” thick that looked like it ran right through the center of the cigar from top to bottom.
Value
This is a tough call. The cigar sells for about $180 for a box of 25 which puts them at $7.20 per stick, and I know that I paid close to that at my local tobacconist. Was it worth it? Well it is a novelty type cigar and not an everyday cigar, so for that urge to try one I think it is okay. It is much cheaper that other ‘barber pole’ or double wrap cigars from other cigar makers, so in that respect it is a bargain. Another thing to keep in mind is that this cigar took a good 1 ½ hours to smoke and that is a plus. I know the troops back in Afghanistan would like them, and I will probably send them few.
