Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro

Aging Room cigars premiered in 2011 and the Dominican brand has been making waves in the cigar industry ever since. Created by Oliveros’s president Rafael Nodal, the Aging Room cigar line specializes in limited short-batch cigars made from very good and very rare tobaccos that are available in quantities too low for most brands’ production quotas. In 2012, Nodal created a spinoff company called Boutique Blends Cigars which features the Aging Room cigar line as well as his other line, Swag Cigars.

The Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua hails from Nicaragua (bet you didn’t see that one coming!) and was honored as the #1 Cigar of 2019 from Cigar Aficionado with a rating of 96! A puro through and through, everything about this cigar screams Nicaragua with the wrapper, binder, and long fillers all coming from there. Medium to full in body, you’ll find this smoke is full of flavor with chocolate, wood, caramel, and toasted almond. Our panel recommended pairing this smoke with a Don Papa Rum 10 Year after dinner.

The Nicaraguan cigar industry originated when Cuban cigar makers escaped the revolution and re-established their livelihood in Nicaragua with Cuban-seed tobacco. Blessed with dark, rich soil, their new home was ideal for tobacco cultivation and Nicaragua quickly became known for cigars that rivaled Cuban quality. Unfortunately, revolution and war came to Nicaragua in the 1980s and devastated the industry, but it’s rebounded dramatically and is once again producing tobacco considered by many to be the finest in the world.

The Esteli Valley is in many ways the heart of Nicaraguan production and is known for its very powerful and spicy tobacco. The Jalapa Valley produces arguably the finest tobacco in the country: somewhat sweeter and less intense than Esteli, but extremely complex. The tobacco of the Condega Valley is often described as a blend of the other two regions.