About Byron & Selected Tobacco
Havana’s very own Nelson Alfonso joined the tobacco industry in 1995. He studied as a visual artist and eventually became the creative director of the Spanish design firm, Golden Age. Habanos S.A. contracted Golden Age to revamp their branding and industrial design across their portfolio. Nelson went on to design humidors, ashtrays, and boxes for every Cuban marca. Nelson won multiple awards for his designs, with his most well-known design being the legendary Cohiba Behike. In 2012, Nelson ventured off to create his own brand, Selected Tobacco S.A in Costa Rica. Selected Tobacco launched with two flagship brands, Atabey and Byron. Atabey is the mother goddess of the Taino people, the indigenous people of Cuba, and a not-so-subtle reference to Cohiba’s Taino logo. Byron is a revival of the now-defunct Lord Byron cigars, a Cuban marca founded in 1848 by Nelson Alfonso’s great-great-great-grandparents. Selected Tobacco is well known for its exotic post-roll aging process, which involves raising and lowering humidity in aging rooms lined with cedar from Cuba, Spain, Lebanon, Brazil, and Mexico. This process allows the cigars to absorb flavors and aromas from the rich environment.
Blend Details
Byron’s 21st Century line launched in 2016. The 21st century is available in four vitolas. The Aristocatas in 8 x 52 Double Corona, Honorables in 7 x 60 Double Churchill, Elegantes in 6.125 x 55 Toro Grande, and Distinguidos in 6 x 55 Toro Gordo.
The blend details for the Elegantes are left purposefully vague. The wrapper is a shade-grown Ecuadorian, with a Peruvian binder, and filler leaves from Peru and the Dominican Republic. The filler leaves are aged for a minimum of 4 years, and the cigars are then aged post-roll for an additional 5 years in the exotic cedar-lined aging rooms detailed in the opening paragraph.
Visual Inspection & Pre-Light
The wrapper is smooth, oily, and cappuccino colored. The aromas on the foot and wrapper are of cedar and vanilla. The draw is perfectly snug, with more notes of fragrant cedar.
First Third
The smoke output starts at medium-plus. The palate has notes of sweet cedars, dried earth, and toasted wheat. I’m picking up on notes of raw walnuts, vanilla, cream, fragrant cedar, clove, and mace on the retrohale. The strength of flavor is right at medium. The finish is soft, with fragrant cedar, vanilla, and clove. The overall profile is seductive. It’s sweet, inviting, and complex. The construction is top-tier, with a monolithic ash and a sharp burn line.
Second Third
The notes on the palate are sweet and savory cedars, soft earth, and hay. The retrohale is showing raw walnuts, florals, vanilla, fragrant cedar, cream, musty cinnamon, and a tingle of mace. The strength of flavor remains medium. The smoke output remains medium-plus. The finish is soft with notes of cedars and florals. The sweetness has ticked down, with florals and fragrant cedar at the core of the profile, and undertones of sweet vanilla and cream. Ash, burn, and construction remain stellar.
Final Third
I’m seeing toasted cedar, soft earth, hay, and oak on the palate. The retrohale has tones of vanilla, light roast coffee, florals, fragrant cedar, and musty cinnamon. The strength of flavor remains at medium. The smoke output has decreased slightly to medium. The finish is medium with notes of toasted cedar and vanilla. The overall profile is leaning more towards toasty flavors, with cedar and florals remaining at the core. The ash is flaky, but the construction is otherwise excellent. Past the band, a few bitter notes crept into the profile, but it remained overall consistent.
Conclusions
The Byron Elegantes delivers a complex and nuanced blend that’s still sweet and inviting. The bouquet of cedars, subtle sweetness, florals, and cream were standouts in the flavor profile. Nelson Alfonso and the team over at Selected Tobacco have put together my new gold standard for shade-grown cigar blends. The construction on the Elegantes was just as impressive as the flavor profile. The burn line was razor sharp, the draw was perfect, and the ash was nothing short of gorgeous. I know a lot of people will scoff at a cigar with a $40 price tag, but this blend goes above and beyond in every single category. Find a good reason to splurge, or celebrate, and pick up the Byron Elegantes. You will not regret it.
