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Cigar Aficionado’s 2019 Cigar of the Year, Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro in stock, is a Rafael Nodal Boutique Blend made in Nicaragua by A. J. Hernandez. This cigar is one of the Aging Room Blends that create and continued during Nodal’s portfolio revamp. This cigar masterfully creates and constructed by A.J. Hernandez at his factory in Nicaragua and included in Nodal’s four main categories of his Aging Room cigar blends.

Nodal began his career in cigars after immigrating from Cuba to the United States. He and his partners began selling cigars online at first and sold standard, but easily forgettable cigars. It after a lack of business growth that Nodal had the idea to begin creating his cigars in small batches and the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro in the stock brand was born. The Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro is one of those successful, small-batch-made cigars.

At first look, the cigar appears to be a box-pressed torpedo, measuring 6″ x 52. With a slightly oily sheen, the firmly pressed dark cocoa wrapper, completely made and sourced in Nicaragua, has incredibly tight, nearly invisible seams, very few visible veins, and zero blemishes. Both the binder and filler are sourced from Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan wrapper is created from Sumatra seed and all of the tobaccos have aged for over ten years. This cigar is presented in a box of twenty and is noted to be a full-strength blend.

The corners are tightly pressed and there are no visible soft spots along the entire length of the body. The head of the cigar is tightly and sharply pressed, resembling the tip of a newly sharpened pencil. The Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro has the basic Aging Room band. The typical Aging Room band is black with white and gold details, so this cigar has that portion in addition to a bright orange-colored band below with Nicaragua inscribed in metallic gold.

First Light

After a smooth and earthy cold draw, the first light provides smooth initial puffs. The draw is nearly perfect and with the initial portion of this cigar. You will find plenty of peppery, earthy notes. The peppery notes quickly fade out and become just a slight flavor that blends well in the background and does not overpower the rest of the experience. Chocolate becomes a major player later in the experience. But you will notice slight instances of cocoa in the beginning and initial portion of the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro as well.

First Third

Throughout the first third, flavors of earth and slight pepper stuck around but quickly made way for more significant instances of chocolate and leather. Some fruity notes make their way in as some of the earthy overbearing notes make their way out. Not reflective of the last two-thirds of this cigar, the first third burns through quite quickly. The structure is solid and it holds its shape well. But this first portion will end significantly faster than the last two-thirds. The ash stays white and tight throughout this first third and while the burn is quick, it burns extremely evenly.

Halfway

During the second third of Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro and around the halfway point, some of the fruity flavors become more prevalent and the earthy and peppery notes continue to move into the background while continuing to be present and slightly noticeable. Chocolate continues to move towards the front during this portion of the cigar and some slight notes of coffee cannot overlap with the cocoa notes. The strength of this cigar note as full and this portion is where it moves from a medium strength to that full-bodied strength that is noted in descriptions of this cigar.

The strength is slightly overpowering, but definitely not a turn-off if you are someone who typically picks up stronger strength cigars regularly. The burn continues to be fairly even throughout this portion of the cigar. The color of the ash continues to stay fairly white. Some portions of the ash may burn slightly unevenly, but really only require small touch-ups to maintain a tight structure. The burn begins to slow down a bit during this portion. This is nice considering how fast the first third burns through.

Last Third

During the last third of Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro, flavors that were upfront during the first two-thirds continue to move towards the back to make room for creamier flavors instead of earthy, peppery, or woody ones. It should noted that the flavors throughout this whole experience do not overpower each other. Each note takes its time at the front and then moves towards the back to make room for the later notes and flavors. Nothing overpowers anything else too much throughout the whole experience. So you cast taste a variety of notes at different points in the burn.

The creamy cocoa and coffee round out the last portion of notes and flavors during this whole experience. The great thing about this cigar is that while those notes have made their way forward. You can still get slight hints of the earthy and peppery notes that dominated the first third of the burn.

The ash continues to maintain its structure during the last portion and continues to slow down in burn time. This tight structure and burn shows how truly high quality the tobacco in this cigar is. The masterful construction continues to show through as well. The strength moves down from full strength to medium-bodied, so the experience ends on a neutral, pleasant tone.

Overall, the key takeaways from the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro are that Aging Room continues to maintain its high-quality construction. This cigar shows that they continue to lead the way with construction and structure maintenance. You get a wide variety of flavors throughout this experience and not a single one will unpleasantly overpower another. Each flavor has its peak, you enjoy the peak. Then that flavor moves towards the back so you can enjoy the peak of a different note. Everything balanced really nicely and the burn maintained its evenness throughout the experience.

Aging Room continues to produce high-quality, consistent products and the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro is no different.