Leave it to Nick Melillo to combined the world of cigars, history, British nobility, and a BBC drama all in one project. The cigar in question is the newly released Highclere Castle, one of the most exciting releases of the year. It may have one of the coolest back stories of any cigar in recent memories and with Nick at the helm, it is an outrageously good cigar.
Before we get into the blend lets tell the tale of this cigar. The line is named after the legendary Highclere Castle, located in Hampshire, England. It was designed and built dating back to the 17th century. It was renovated and finished in the 1800s, giving it its current Jacobethan style. It is the home of the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, George Herbert, who is responsible for the Castles current popularity. He offered up the estate for the filming of the historical drama, Dowton Abbey. Since then, the Castle has become an icon and a symbol of British nobility.
The Earl of Carnarvon is an avid cigar smoker, and toured the fields and factories of Nicaragua. After meeting Nick Melillo, the Earl wished to create a cigar named after his home and reminiscent of the cigars his ancestors would smoke with foreign heads of state. Nick went to work in the Castles archives and found the receipts dating back almost 200 years, depicting the kind of cigars they were purchased.
Using this as a base, Nick began to craft his blend. He created an outstanding mellow-medium smoke. It uses aged Nicaraguan tobaccos from Jalapa and Ometepe for a rich and flavorful center. It is then cloaked in a creamy Connecticut shade wrapper, adding in light citrus notes with dashes of leather.
Highclere Castle was one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2017, and it lived up to the hype. Try them out today at Cigars.com