Produced on a limited basis just twice per year (generally around Christmas and Father’s Day), the Anejo line of Arturo Fuente cigars is one of the family’s rarest and most coveted. To craft this truly exceptional cigar, veteran producers at the firm’s Tabacalera A. Fuente factory in Santiago start with rich maduro Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper leaves and gently age them at least five years in oak Cognac barrels.
After wrapping the matured leaves around choice vintage tobaccos cultivated at the Fuente family’s mineral-rich Chateau de La Fuente estate and sealing them with a Dominican binder, the firm’s skilled rollers fashion the end product into some of the world’s most extraordinary and desirable cigars.
Chief among this line’s vitolas is the Number 77, or “The Shark,” as it’s informally known, which achieved a 93 rating from Cigar Aficionado in a blind test. It’s a torpedo-shaped stick that metamorphoses from a rounded parejo style at one end to a square-pressed form at the other. As far as can be ascertained, this is the first cigar in the world to be fabricated in such a way, and it’s a fitting format for a smoke in a line that’s been as acclaimed as the Anejo.
A number of reviewers have sworn the depth and complexity of flavors in the medium-full-to-full-strength Anejo range are without compare, as the sticks’ flawless construction and smooth, even draw generate powerful, dense clouds of deep, heavy, cool smoke. An intricate tapestry of tastes is woven, incorporating a mixture of spicy, woody and earthy elements, along with smidgens of coffee, fruit and licorice.
These are potent, ultra-premium cigars that fully deliver on the Arturo Fuente promises of incomparable quality and craftsmanship; miss out on them, and you might have to wait half a year or longer before they’re available again.