With more than 15 months of aging in my humidors, the El Rey del Mundo Flor de Llaneza is at a great age to determine its potential for aging. The cigar is named in honor of the famed Villazon cigarmaker Frank Llaneza.

I extract a likely candidate from my humidor and proceed to go outside for the prelight inspection. The wrapper on this stogie is velvety, yet a bit mottled in appearance. The vein structure is delicate and the wrapper leaf still holds a bit of oil that glistens slightly as I rotate the cigar in the sunlight.

One thing about storing cigars in a humidor drawer is that they tend to lose their outer aromas. As I put the cigar to my nose, I am greeted with only the remnants of what used to be a healthy dose of roasted nuts and tobacco. Chalk up another reason to age your cigars in their original box.

After clipping the head with my Xikar Xi, I proceed to light with my trusty Blazer Pocket Torch, which produces a fine glowing ember.

The draw over the first inch seemed a bit stiff, or hollow, I wasn’t sure until I tapped off the ash at the 1-inch mark. Upon dislodging the ash I viewed an absence of tunnels so the real culprit of the tight draw was a densely packed cigar.

The flavors of wood and tobacco were not quite as full as the last time I reviewed this smoke. There was also a nuttiness that was slightly acidic.

The burn, though even throughout, was marred by a tight draw, which made me work a bit too much. Though I should have used them earlier, I decided to intervene with Henry’s cigar tools at the halfway mark to open the cigar up. The tools greatly improved the draw.

Overall, this was a medium bodied, medium flavored smoke. The extra aging has mellowed the flavors and given it better balance, however, the cigar was pretty one-dimensional and kept coming at me with a narrow flavor profile. Still, it’s a good smoke and one that would appeal to a wide range of flavor preferences. Since the burn and draw have been consistently good in the other cigars I have smoked from this batch, I didn’t ding it too badly on the Burn score.

Rating Potential Score: C = this cigar may age beneficially for the first two years, but we recommend smoking within the first two years.

~Doc