Viaje WLP The Rise of Claudenstein

The origin of this cigar came about in 2019 while smoking a cigar with Andre Farkas at our retail store. We had been after him to design a blend for SBC for quite some time. The name came as an homage to Claude the Dog who just had major back surgery. I wanted to build off other releases that Andre and I put our heads together on, and Claudenstein had such a nice ring to it. Well, the first release came and went rather quickly, so in 2021, we went to work on the next release. We expanded on the original blend by tweaking it and giving it a new size. The one-off size is a trademark of Viaje limited releases. A customer at the lounge designed the secondary cigar band for us. The Rise of the Claudenstein was released on 7/22/2022, which means that our stock has nearly two years of box aging.

– KatMan via Andrew of Small Batch

 

Bought from – 

Small Batch Cigar

 

Information:

Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano Claro)

Binder: (Nicaragua)

Filler: (Nicaragua)

Origin: Nicaragua

Factory: Aganorsa

 

Aging (if any): 2 years post purchase

Single (MSRP): $16

Box (MSRP): $160

Availability: Limited Small Batch Cigar Release

 

Size:

6 x 52

 

Band/Packaging:

Simple with a fun design of Claudentein

 

THE REVIEW

Wrapper: 

Brown and veiny

 

Construction: 

Firm packed

 

Cold draw: 

Slight pepper, creamy,  Slight chocolate

 

First third: 

Red pepper, chocolate, slight cedar, lemon citrus, vegetal notes, cinnamon, black pepper

  

Retro:

Pepper, sweet cedar, lemon

 

Second third: 

Milk chocolate, nuts, cedar, dark fruit, black pepper (flavor no spice), slight citrus, caramel

 

Burn: 

A few small touch ups, no major issues 

 

Smoke: 

Large clouds

 

Final third: 

Caramel, chocolate, slight orange, nuts, oak

 

Retro: 

Chocolate, red pepper, caramel, nuts

 

Duration:

1 hour 47 minutes 

 

Conclusion: 

This is the first Viaje I recall smoking. I may have smoked one previously before I started really paying attention to notes and specifics of cigars, but this is a great introduction to the brand for me. First third was interesting and not bad, but as the second third hit, man it got good. The chocolate caramel note really hit well, and the subtle fruit and nuts added a nice compliment.