A Bugatti You Can Afford! The Epicure.

Maserati. Bugatti. Lamborghini. Very high end, sexy sports cars that we wish we could afford. But which one is not Italian? Bugatti – it is a French car company founded in 1909 that sells vehicles with price tags that often reach 7 figures. What does one do while driving a million dollar glove fitting Bugatti automobile? Can’t reach the beautiful model sitting in the tight bucket seat next to you, so have a cigar of course. And Bugatti teamed up with the well-known Perdomo operations to blend and make their own brand of cigars you can smoke while also burning a gallon every 10 miles.

At the 2014 IPCPR Bugatti showcased its full line of smoking materials from sticks to lighters to humidors. In cigars, Bugatti offers 4 sizes in 3 wrappers (Connecticut, Sun Grown and Maduro) to cover the mild to full bodied strength spectrum and I sampled one size of each wrapper. This review is about the Bugatti Sun Grown Epicure, a 6 X 54 toro with a dark wrapper that is a shade lighter than Maduro. Bugatti states that it has seco leaves aged 4 years, viso aged 5 years and ligero aged 6 years. The wrapper is Sun Grown and the binder and fillers are both Nicaraguan.

The Epicure was very firm, almost hard. It had creamy smoke, average in volume with a good but not exceptional ash. There was a little initial sweetness and the flavors included some spice, oakiness and autumn leaves. The flavor was consistent (not complex) and almost no after taste. The draw was average and this medium bodied cigar took 55 minutes from start to finish. The Epicure beat out the other Bugatti’s I smoked (a Connecticut robusto and Maduro robusto) but at an SRP of $7.65 I didn’t think there is enough zoom in the cigar for the price. I rate it a 3 out of 5 and the others photo-finished at less than 3 each.