Cigar Aficionado

Oily and dark, this softly-pressed torpedo has an earthy, cocoa quality balanced by sweet notes of graham cracker and honey. A spicy ginger note emerges on the finish.

Ashton cigars come in a host of styles, from the considerably mild (Ashton Classic) to the seriously strong (Ashton Virgin Sun Grown). Closer in strength to the latter are Ashton Estate Sun Growns.The brand was originally conceived as a way to celebrate Ashton's 20th anniversary, which was in 2005. The first cigar came out a year late, due to limits on their production by Tabacalera A. Fuente. The cigar is made with a very rare wrapper, a sun-grown, Cuban-seed leaf from Chateau de la Fuente, the home of Fuente Fuente OpusX (which is made from leaves grown under shade). ESGs can have a mellow start but they typically pick up in strength, leading brand owner Robert Levin to dub them "the Velvet Hammer" due to their sneaky strength.ESG releases have been coming out at irregular intervals, and they often perform well in our blind taste tests. In a vertical brand tasting of the five sizes in the line, conducted in the September 23 Cigar Insider, the ESG 22-Year Salute emerged as the best. The nutty smoke had notes of cream, leather and earth, with a touch of almond on the finish.ESGs are cigars for special occasions, and priced accordingly. They aren't inexpensive, but this one is certainly worth the price.

There is profound nuttiness to this cigar, which ranges in quality from nutmeg to peanuts to almond paste, all of which are interwoven with earth, cream and leather.

The shade-covered fields of Chateau de la Fuente near the tiny town of El Caribe, Dominican Republic, yield reddish brown, supple and oily tobacco used for wrappers. That leaf was once reserved solely for Fuente Fuente OpusX cigars, but the wrappers now also go to a very small production brand called Ashton Estate Sun Grown. Made for Ashton Distributors, each size in the brand commemorates a year of that company's existence. The 22-Year-Salute is a gorgeous pyramid that packs considerable power beneath that supple wrapper leaf. The cigar is quite intense, full of copious amounts of rich nutty flavors and coffee notes. The cigar not only has a high-octane kick, but shows considerable balance as well.

An intensely toasty-tasting smoke that becomes nutty and coffee-like in flavor. Well balanced with a medium to full body.

A torpedo crafted with a long, pointy head and dark wrapper. An initially uneven burn corrected itself. The smoke is mostly woody with an almond note.

A torpedo crafted with a long, pointy head and dark wrapper. An initially uneven burn corrected itself. The smoke is mostly woody with an almond note.

A torpedo crafted with a long, pointy head and dark wrapper. An initially uneven burn corrected itself. The smoke is mostly woody with an almond note.