AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro Cigar review & Pairing

NEW WORLD DORADO TORO

You rarely get to experience something unique and new in the world of premium cigars. If you enjoy AJ New World line cigars, this has to be the one up to now. The Dorado is a wonderful medium-bodied cigar with medium smooth flavours. It is a creamy smoke. The New World Dorado is unique. AJ Fernandez harvests the wrapper, binder, and filler components from his Dorado farm in Estelí, Nicaragua. The majority of the blend uses leaves harvested from the farm's soil. That makes this new Dorado cigar rare and authentic.

The cigar, the New World Dorado, consists of only Nicaraguan tobacco, mostly from the Dorado farm. It’s topped off by a Habano sun-grown wrapper. AJ produces the blend at the San Lotano Factory in Ocotal.

The Dorado is box-pressed.

AJ Fernandez Cigar Style

A.J. became known for a full-bodied blending style, giving him plenty of eager fans supporting his A.J. Fernández Cigar Company and cigars.

AJ's home base lies in Estelí which includes many farms and one of the Industry’s most successful factories.

His clients range from curious cigar smokers to regular aficionados.

Last year AJ announced the New World Dorado as the fifth blend in the New World line. The New World line started as a value-priced cigar with a surprising level of punchy flavours. The line matured into bigger projects from A.J. and his father.

This includes:

The New World Connecticut in 2015,

The New World Puro Especial in 2017,

The New World Cameroon in 2018

and today, the New World Dorado.

The New World Dorado Cigar

The New World Dorado follows a similar path to the New World Puro Especial, positioned as an Estelí puro. The New World Puro Especial uses tobaccos centred around A.J.’s various farms in the region.

But the Dorado takes the specificity one step further, focusing on a single farm, Dorado. Located in Estelí, the Dorado farm is among his newest growing operations. AJ planted the first sees roughly five years ago.

Translating to Golden, the farm takes its name from its unusual soil. The soil has a golden appearance different from the near-black soil of the Estelí region.

Dorado Profile

• Flavour: Medium-Full

• Strength: Medium-Plus

• Body: Medium

• Unlike the other New World cigars, AJ rolls the Dorado at the northern San Lotano factory, located in Ocotal, Nicaragua.

• This is one of the best New World line cigars to date.

New World Dorado Toro

• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Sun-Grown Habano

• Binder: Nicaraguan Criollo ’98

• Filler: Nicaragua (Condega | Estelí)

• Factory: San Lotano (Nicaragua)

• Production: Regular Production

• Vitola: 6″ × 54 (Toro)

New World Dorado is not only all-Nicaraguan but almost all-Estelí. The blend begins with a sun-grown Habano wrapper, joined by Criollo ’98 in the binder and fillers from Estelí and Condega. The wrapper, binder, and a part of the filler come from the Dorado farm. The rest of the filler comes from A.J.’s other farms of Condega and Estelí.

AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro Appearance

The familiar imagery of Christopher Columbus landing in the Bahamas.

It is a box-pressed Toro cigar shape. The Toro has a double cap with almost no visible veins and seams down to the foot. The wrapper is pretty impressive, with a unique hue. The wrapper has a soft glow in the sunlight with a mild clay and light Habano colour.

The cigar has a soft spongy quality with excellent moisture out of the cellophane. The foot has primary notes of earthy mushroom moisture and mineral. The draw is firm but smooth with voluminous smoke and prominent pepper spice.

AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro Dry Draw

Spice

Herbs

Cereal

Tumeric

Rich soil

Dried Figs

Mushrooms

Yellow hay grass

Mossy flowerbed

Black pepper spice

Hearty Maet spices

Barnyard and compost scents

Flavour-wise, the cigar is an incredibly smooth blend. I pick up dried figs with hints of chocolate and spice. Every scent integrates well with a medium-full profile.

AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro Aroma

Hot Chocolate

Hot Caramel and Coffee Roasting

There’s sweet cocoa, a mixture of barnyard, mushrooms and pepper scents.

AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro First Puff

• Hot caramel and a melted butter

• Almond croissants and hot french pastries

The initial light is a wonderful flavour blend of pastries, caramel, melted butter and hints of sweetness. The cigar smokes super smooth and transitions into aromatic dried fruits and even ginger biscuits.

AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro Smoking Experience

The Dorado is not too intense but has some good spice and zesty elements. The profile follows the earth-toned flavours of musky earth, mushrooms, tobacco barnyard and pepper.

The cigar is smooth and creamy with pepper notes adding light spice. The wrapper has a sweet element that blends well with the pepper and earthy notes.

The Dorado is very aromatic. The medium-bodied and strong cigar offers a mild and smooth puff from start to finish.

The profile is warm and savoury. It is a voluminous marshmallow texture and finishes with hints of warm caramel.

AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro Halfway

The smoke is sweet and velvet-like with slow puffs. Warmer puffs bring back the herby seasonings, red pepper, pastries, and mushroom soil elements.

The cigar is darker in the final stages, but the profile does not come across as harsh, charred, or bitter. It is vegetal on the tongue with a lingering tingling feel.

AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro & Portuguese DSF Verdelho 2020 Pairing

DSF Verdelho 2020 Wine

Everything began over six generations ago in 1834. The family took a visionary’s first step. And the rest is history.

The oldest producer of table wine and Setúbal Moscatel in Portugal, José Maria da Fonseca follows a philosophy of permanent development.

The family continues to invest in research and production, combining the latest techniques with traditional know-how.

A great example of this is the José de Sousa Rosado Fernandes Winery, at Reguengos de Monsaraz, Alentejo. The family maintains the Roman tradition of clay pot fermentation combined with the latest technology.

Wine region - PENÍNSULA SETÚBAL

Domingos Soares Franco is the younger brother in the sixth generation of the family. The family runs José Maria da Fonseca since its start in 1834.

As both Vice-President and senior winemaker of the company, Domingos is a prominent figure in the Portuguese winegrowing world. Although all José Maria da Fonseca’s wines are special to him, some carry the Label “Domingos Soares Franco Private Collection”.

TYPE OF WINE: White

VINTAGE: 2021

GRAPES: Verdelho (the Portuguese one) 100%

TYPE OF SOIL: Clay-lime

WINEMAKER: Domingos Soares Franco

VINIFICATION: Fermented must be in stainless steel at 16oC

AGEING: No ageing

DATE OF BOTTLING: December 2021

WINE PRODUCTION: 11 300 litres

AVAILABLE BOTTLES: 750 ml

STORAGE: The bottles should be laid down at a temperature of 12oC and 60% humidity.

SHELF-LIFE: Drink while young

SERVING SUGGESTIONS: Serve at a temperature of 8oC

ANALYSES: 12,5% Alcohol | 5,6 g/l as tartaric acid| 3,46

pH

Tasting Notes

COLOR: Yellow citrus

AROMA: Fresh, lantanas and exotic fruits PALATE: Exotic fruits, green tea, fresh and long

Reviews

• 2020 Vintage: 17 points + Selo “Boa Compra” (Vinho Grandes Escolhas Magazine)

• 2019 Vintage: 16,5 points (Vinho Grandes Escolhas Magazine) / Award Choice of the Market (Concurso Brancos de Portugal)

DSF Verdelho 2020 Scents

Pineapple

Fruit salad

Sweet fruits

Passion fruit

DSF Verdelho 2020 Taste

Dry

Sugary

Pineapple & Papaya

Fruit salad in a glass

Perfect balance for a white wine with light acidity. The wine has tasty flavours and a beautiful golden colour in the glass.

DSF Verdelho 2020 & AJ Fernandez Dorado Cigar Pairing

The Verdelho wine drinks are smooth and easy. It is not a boozy white wine although the colour is a wonderful darker yellow.

The wine does not have a heavy oaky taste but expresses a bold fruity and balanced character.

Once the wine warms up in the glass there is a waxy, oily mouthfeel. The wine coats the palate perfectly for the cigar pairing.

The wine soothes the palate to compliment AJ Dorado's hot tingling spicy and caramel mushroom notes.

It's a fantastic cigar wine with no overpowering flavours and compliments Dorado's exceptional tobacco blend.

AJ Fernandez New World Dorado Toro Wrap up

I left a small part for a morning coffee. The coffee enhanced everything about the Dorado. The lukewarm coffee aromas lift the earthy musky notes to blend into a delicious hot caramel, marshmallow and cocoa coffee taste and aroma.

I think all cigars pair with coffee but some cigars like the Dorado are a perfect morning coffee puff to put a smile on your face.

It is a great balance of spice and sweetness. The Cigar leans towards a Cuban-styled cigar. Not to compare AJ's New World Dorado to a Cuban, but the flavours are smooth and creamy from start to finish. I am a big AJ cigar fan and believe that he obtains incredible balance with his cigars. It is a medium-profile cigar. The finish has a Cuban-like touch of marshmallow smoothness and smooth balanced flavours.

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Light up your AJ Fernandez New World Dorado