Basilica C #1 Prelight
Casdagli Cigars was founded back in 1997 by Jeremy Casdagli. Casdagli was formerly known as Bespoke Cigars, but they rebranded under the family name in 2018 to celebrate the growth into a worldwide brand. The handsome gentleman adorning the band is Emmanuel Casdagli, the great patriarch of the Casdagli family, and the founder of the trading company that led to development of the cigar company we know today.
The Basilica C #1 is a Toro with an impressive 4 country blend. Brazilian Cubra wrapper, binders from Nicaragua, and The Dominican Republic, as well as fillers from The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Peru. Casdagli does a great job of creating blends out of unique multinational tobaccos. The Basilica C was blended by Hendrik Kelner Jr, and rolled at the Kelner Boutique Factory. The Cubra wrapper is very good looking, and I really couldn’t tell you why, but I think the exposed foot is a very nice touch. A punch cut reveals a nicely snug draw. Let’s light it up!
Basilica C #1 First Third
The first light of the exposed foot is showing flavors of multigrain bread, molasses, and vanilla cream. As we get to the wrapper the first new flavors I pick up on are some earth, and a touch of black pepper on the palate. The tones on the retrohale are lemon, vanilla cream, cocoa powder and some natural tobacco. The lemon note isn’t a fresh lemon something closer to a candied lemon peel, or a lemon curd, but not particularly sweet. The lemon note and the vanilla cream together are actually reminding me a bit of a lemon meringue pie. The burn line is a bit wavy, but it doesn’t seem to be impacting performance at all. Shorter pulls are really letting the lemon note shine, deeper pulls lean more towards the cocoa.
Basilica C #1 Second Third
As we get into the second third baking spices are picking up in the way of a spiced cream flavor. There’s also a toasted walnut note that’s been slowly picking up. The palate is now multigrain toast, cedar, and toasted walnut. The retrohale is showing that lemon note, spiced cream, and a touch of cocoa. The blend has been very interesting so far – there are a lot of confectionary flavors, but it’s not too sweet at all. The burn line is slowly correcting itself, but again, no harm no foul with construction here.
Basilica C #1 Final Third
Approaching the band, there isn’t much in terms of shifting flavors, but it feels like everything has been ramped up a notch. I’m finally picking up on some fresh lemon as well as the preserved lemon flavor I’ve been tasting. The notes on the palate are toasted whole wheat bread, and molasses. I’m seeing fresh and preserved lemons, clove, and bitter chocolate on the retrohale. The sweet cream note has almost entirely fallen off, so the blend is skewing more bitter here. The flavors started getting a bit muddy after the band, so I decided to put this one down with about an inch and a half left.
Basilica C #1 Conclusions
The Basilica C #1 was very much in line with the rest of my experiences with Casdagli, which is to say it was very good. The construction and aesthetics were great, the flavor profile was interesting, and you can tell the tobaccos used are of very high quality. This cigar was enjoyable from start to finish, but it stopped just short of wowing me. Casdagli is great at sourcing these rare tobaccos, and I would love to see them lean more into those unique flavors. I still have quite a few different cigars from Casdagli that I’m looking forward to trying, so I’m hoping to find the one cigar that makes me fall in love with the brand. Get a solo or a sampler and see how you like it, I’ll be recommending this one to people who are looking to try something new – I’m especially looking forward to trying this one in Lancero.
