Its been an exciting summer for me so far! Summer filled with great stogies, new shops, events and most importantly, wonderful people. One of those wonderful people that I got to briefly meet was H. Granville Smith. Granville is the President of Signature Enterprises Inc which operates Signature Cigars here in the MD/DC area. With stores in Bethesda & Rockville MD and a store in Washington DC, Signature Cigars is quickly becoming one of my favorite establishments to visit.

One weekend I was doing my husbandly duties and went with my wife to her hair salon. I had never been and was curious to see just where the $250 was going to. Who knew it takes 4 hours for women to get their haircut? Well I had brought a couple stogies with me to help pass the time. I decided to go for a stroll while I enjoyed my stogie when I stumbled on the Rockville location of Signature Cigars. Be sure to check out the Stogie Events module on the sidebar for upcoming events at Signature Cigars like Camacho Day in September.

I walked in and an elderly gentleman greeted me with a warm welcoming smile that just made me feel right at home. Granville and I started small talking and soon enough I was inside their well stocked walk in humidor with the echo of a dozen or so other customers behind me enjoying Fox Saturday baseball on the plasma TV and playing a round or two on the Golden Tee arcade game.

I spent some time in the humidor as I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular since I stumbled upon the shop. Enough time that Granville checked in on me five times to make sure everything was cool or if I needed help or had any questions. I finally decided on picking up some Camacho El-Legend Ario, Rocky Patel Edge, Partagas Serie S and the cigar I’m reviewing today, the Oliva Grand Maduro.

The Oliva Grand Maduro was introduced in 2000 and comes in six different sizes. It contains a Nicaraguan filler and binder, wrapped in a Costa Rican maduro wrapper. The Churchill size weighs in at 7 x 50 and the wrapper is dark, oily, flawless to the eye and box pressed.

The dark, oily and flawless wrapper really catches your eye. No visible veins and a nice subtle sweet creamy mocha scent bouncing off of it. Used my Xikar cutter on this one and that was probably a mistake. As I cut the Oliva Grand Maduro some of the filler spilled out and it looked like I had a punch cut within my straight cut.

You definitely get the sweetness on your lips as you place the Oliva Grand Maduro in your mouth. Upon the initial light you get the feeling that the stogie could’ve used some time to dry out. I was met with a little sizzle and wheezing sounds coming from the foot. Initial draw was even and effortless.

Not much flavor upfront and that didn’t really bother me so much as you still had an abundant amount of sweetness on your lips to keep you interested. What did bother me was the burn and the fact that I couldn’t keep it lighted. Even with the wonderful lighting tips and burn tips from our friends at Stogie Guys, there wasn’t anything I could do to fix the early burn and poor lighting properties. Again, I think this comes back to the point I made earlier that this stogie could’ve used a drying out period.

Flavor wise, I couldn’t be any more happier. Sweet and creamy are the distinguishable flavors. Like I said, not much at first. About two inches in is where the flavors start to surround your senses. Sweet tastes on your lips, creamy flavor in your mouth and a wonderful mocha aroma in the air. The Oliva Grand Maduro finishes smooth with very little bite or after taste for this medium bodied stogie.

I honestly think I would’ve enjoyed this cigar a lot more if I wasn’t distracted by the erratic burn and constant relighting that I had to do. Flavor wise it was enjoyable but not memorable. Unfortunately, the memorable part of the Oliva Grand Maduro were the many downsides. To be fair, I plan on reviewing this stogie again after the remaining sticks have some time to adjust, age and dry out a bit in my humidor.

Stogie Review Rating Sheet – 79/100

Links In This Article:

Signature Cigars – http://www.signaturecigars.com/

Oliva Cigars – http://www.olivacigar.com/

Stogie Guys Lighting Tips – http://www.stogieguys.com/2006/06/stogie-tip-lighting-your-cigar.html

Stogie Guys Uneven Burn – http://www.stogieguys.com/2006/08/stogie-tip-fixing-uneven-burn.html

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