Plasencia Reserva Robusto paired with Myburgh Bros Alenadrie du Muscat Wine 2019 Vintage.

5 Generations starting over more than five times but persisting.

Growing top wrappers, binders and filler tobacco in three different countries.

A top skilled five-generation tobacco family driven by persistence.

Top wrappers, binders and filler tobacco.

The story started in Cuba, moved to Nicaragua, over to Honduras and back to Nicaragua since 1865.

Nestor Andrés Plasencia Torres is one of the largest growers of Tobacco. The family runs a business with more than 6000 employees and eight plantations. They produce approximately 40 million cigars in 4 factories per year. The factories produce cigars in Nicaragua and Honduras. The Plasencia brands you can buy are Plasencia Cosecha 146 and Plasencia Reserva. Alma del Campo, Alma Fuerte and Alma del Fuego.

But, It wasn't always that successful and fertile.

Plasencia History & Story

In 1865, Eduardo Plasencia moved from the Canary Islands across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1890, his nephew, Sixto Plasencia Juarez, joined him. They established themselves as good tobacco growers. Tobacco growth flourished until the first blow, the Cuban revolution of 1959.

When the Cuban revolution hit, Fidel Castro seized all the farms in 1963.

Sixto and his family left Cuba for Mexico two years later with nothing. At that time, Nestor Senior was 15 years young.

Mexico didn't feel right, and they left after two weeks for Honduras. Arriving in Honduras, Sixto Plasencia received two job offers at tobacco companies.

Again, they didn't settle in. After only three months, the family moved to Nicaragua. Arriving in Nicaragua, Sixto worked in Jalapa. Nestor started his studies at the agricultural university. Nestor Plasencia graduated in 1969 and started working with his father's farm.

With dedication and good sales, the family bought their Nicaraguan farm in 1979.

But then revolution number two happened.

During the Nicaraguan revolution, the Sandinistas took over. It became dangerous for Cubans to be in the country. Being Cuban implied being against the revolution.

So again, Nestor Senior set off to Honduras to start over.

Today Nestor Plasencia junior says, "Persistence is in our family blood." The family endured many heartbreaks, and even more, followed.

In 1981 blue mould destroyed one hundred per cent of the family's crops. It was a disaster. They introduced fungicide to the crops. It turned resistant, so the family accepted the blue mould crops. They still had to supply quality tobacco to customers with lower yielding crops.

In 1986 the family sold land to survive. Nestor senior needed a plan. The plan.

Start producing cigars.

Despite all the disasters, the family kept working. Nestor started making cigars for Cigars by Santa Clara and Inter-American Cigars. It started small, expanding fast as brands heard about the cigar quality.

During the early nineties, the Plasencia family moved back to Nicaragua. In 1990 the Sandinistas lost power in the general election. The new president, Violeta Chamorro, gave the Plasencias land in Estelí. Approximately thirty per cent of what the family used to own in Jalapa.

During the Nicaraguan boom years, the Plasencia family produced cigars in Esteli. They bought farms in Estelí and Jalapa. They produced a lot of tobacco and decided to start selling to other brands.

Next Plasencia Generations

Nestor Andrés as a young boy, started working at the family farms during the holidays. He learned everything from fermentation, drying and ageing techniques.

It was finally time to create the family line of cigars.

Nestor Andres approached his father almost straight out of school. He had an idea. He wanted to produce a complete organic cigar. His father supported him to go organic and use traditional methods combined with modern knowledge.

The process includes using garlic to keep the bugs away. They don't like the smell. A fungus in the crops prevents root diseases. They grow velvet beans between the crops to extract nitrogen from the air to put it in the soil. Growing sustainable tobacco will ensure more generations of cigar makers could follow.

Nestor Plasencia senior passion motivated his family to work in the industry. Today almost the entire family work with some part of the tobacco business.

Many brands come to Plasencia for rich, earthy cultivated leaves. The family produces tobacco very close to the taste and texture of Cuban tobaccos. The Plasencia's factories have produced award-winning cigars for years. Look up brands like Rocky Patel and Quesada.

Words from the family:

"It is an incredible process from seed to cigar. A cigar takes about three years to make. Tobacco is a great plant. There are no other plants that can have three different flavours in them. The goal is to grow sustainable tobacco. That will encourage cigar making generations that follow.

The Plasencia family Goal

"We're in the business of giving pleasure to people, and the vehicle is the cigar."

The goal, light up a Plasencia with family and friends and forget about all your problems.

Today the Plasencia family own two factories in Nicaragua and two in Honduras. It is a proud, hard-working success story through many difficulties.

Persistence drives the family.

Production facts:

Cultivated area: 1,200 ha (3,000 acres): in Nicaragua (Jalapa, Estelí, Condega, Ometepe),

Honduras (Jamastran, Talanga, San Agostin), also small areas in Costa Rica and Panama.

Plasencia sells 50 per cent of its harvest as raw Tobacco.

The other fifty per cent goes into cigar manufacturing.

Main markets:

USA

Europe, especially Germany

South Africa

And Thailand.

Plasencia Reserva Original Robusto

• Brand: Plasencia Cigars

• Range: Reserva Original

• Reviewed Vitolas: 4¾ x 52 Robusto

• Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano

• Binder: Nicaraguan

• Filler: Organic Nicaraguan Japala & Condega

• Factory: Plasencia Cigars, Estelí, Nicaragua

• Handmade: Yes

• Body: Mild-Medium

• Estimated Smoking Time: 70 Minutes

• Pricing: Check website

• Plasencia Reserva Robusto Price

The Plasencia Reserva Original is available in seven sizes:

• Churchill (7 x 48)

• Corona (6 1/4 x 44)

• Cortez (5 3/4 x 56)

• Nestico (4 1/2 x 36)

• Piramide (6 3/16 x 52)

• Robusto (4 3/4 x 52)

• Toro (6 x 50)

Reserva Original Robusto Flavour Profile

Plasencia Reserva Organica Robusto cigars are handmade in Nicaragua. It is 100% Certified Organic tobaccos grown similar to the Nicarao Indians 500 years ago. The tobacco grows in Nicaragua's Esteli & Jalapa regions and ages five years.

Plasencia uses the best leaves of aged tobaccos only in their cigars.

It is a well-balanced cigar with nutty and earthy aromas. The cigar has creamy sweet notes. It features nuts, fruits, vanilla and caramel notes with hints of cedar. The Reserva original is medium-bodied, harmonious, and flavourful.

Plasencia Reserva Original has a taste that captivates audiences worldwide.

Myburgh Bros Alenadrie du Muscat Wine 2019 Vintage

The Myburgh family purchased Joostenberg in 1879, and ownership remained with the family. In 1947 winemaking stopped, and for the following 52 years, they sold grapes to the local co-op. In 1999, brothers Tyrrel and Philip Myburgh resumed the winemaking tradition. The two brothers are 5th generation Myburghs. Today Joostenberg is a small, family-owned and managed wine farm. They produce an exclusive range of wine with a special emphasis on individuality. They promote natural winemaking and environmental accountability through organic farming. The Joostenburg farm achieved full organic status in 2012.

Myburgh Brothers, Philip and Tyrrel honour the simple, winemaking techniques. Their approach looks back to the ways of their great-grandfather. It was a simple process in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today they use Cinsault, Hanepoot and Viognier. The brother's source grapes from two organic farmed vineyards in Paarl.

The two brothers believe in bush vines and dry farming. They promote old oak and wild yeast ferments in their winemaking.

Wine Description

Muscat d'Alexandrie is more known as Hanepoot in South Africa.

The brother's harvests grapes from a 24-year-old dry-farmed, bush vineyard. The vineyard is on Klipdam farm next to Joostenberg.

They press two-thirds of the grapes in whole bunches. The fermentation happens in well-seasoned 225 litres of wine barrels.

A third ferments on the skins for a week. Before then, the fermented grapes go into well-seasoned 225 litres smaller wine barrels.

Bottling took place after a nine-month maturation period on the lees. The wine contains no additives apart from sulphur.

Bottled at 11.5%

Bottle size 750ml

Nose:

Very aromatic, honeysuckle, pineapple and other tropical fruits

Palate:

Very fruit-driven wine. Midpalate, light-body, making it very approachable. Lots of notes of litchi, pineapples, pear and apples.

Finish:

Light acidity balances out the fruit sweetness. It's a perfect wine served chilled on a hot summer's day.

Very aromatic honeysuckle, pineapple and other tropical fruits. The palate is fruity, and the finish is dry.

Wine Nose

The wine ripe fruity raisins and dry fruit aromas swirl in your glass.

The scent is sweet and nutty.

Taste

The first sip releases dried fruit sweetness, combined with a nutty fullness. The residual sweetness on your palate is like riesling but sweeter.

Plasencia Reserva Robusto Dry Aroma

You pick up hints of crushed peanuts.

The cigar has moisture with light tobacco barn aromas. The scent moisture blends with a milky caramel and cedar woody aroma.

Dry Draw

The first dry inhales releases scents of caramel and creamy nuts. The dry draw is smooth with a nutty saltiness. The draw is easy and light from a v cut.

First Puff

The cigar smells creamy and nutty as you light up the aged tobacco. Caramel and dried fruit spice blended with vanilla and cedar fill your palate.

Cigar Construction

The cigar has a beautiful construction with a golden Habano wrapper. Light veins cover the entire perfect wrapper.

You can taste a salty peanut flavour with biscuits, and honey butter completed the draw. Fresh ground cinnamon is present with earthy notes.

Cigar Evolution

Dry spice settled in, you started to get some cedar and earth.

The first third was finishing up. I started to get some nut flavour.

Smoke production is light, but the mouthfeel is creamy. The smoke is dense. It is a good medium strength smoke with heavy salt flavours and firm white ash.

It makes the perfect coffee cigar. The blend is mild and creamy. It should pair with almost any style of coffee. Be careful of espressos and americanos.

Plasencia Reserva Original is a fantastic, versatile cigar. It's mild but not too subtle and has various complex flavours. It will also please cigar enthusiasts.

Wine & Cigar Pairing

The pairing is a tasty combination of caramel blocks blended with sweet honey. The wine complements the cigar and lifts the creamy caramel and woody notes. The wine and cigar develop a light salty, nutty creaminess.

Conclusion

It is a perfect pairing. Sweeter wines work very well with cigars. The caramel flavours fade into creamy peanut saltiness. The Muscat Alexandrie wine enhances your smoke experience with the wines dry sweetness.

Unlike many other cigars I tried, the Plasencia Reserva has a creamy Cuban quality. The smoke to the end is smooth. I never feel smoke fatigued or any bitterness to the end.

If you enjoy odd wine varieties. This pairing is brilliant. I can smell the early morning vineyard in the wine. Wake up with a coffee, light up and take your first puff. Pour a glass of chilled wine and walk into the vineyards. You can taste the cape Winelands fresh breeze in the wine. Then take a puff and add the pastry and nutty balance to start your day.

According to winemakers, the morning is the best time to taste wine. Walk into the vineyards while swirling your wineglass.

Light a Plasencia Reserva cigar when you enjoy your morning coffee or a glass of wine, no matter where you are.

Click the link to buy your Plasencia Reserva Robusto