BACKGROUND: Di Fazio cigars was born in 2008 as the namesake of one Carmelo Di Fazio, a television executive who, because of his love of fine cigars, ventured into the cigar industry by creating his own brand.

Carmelo, who is of Italian descent, started his company in part because he loved to smoke cigars but also, as he tells it: to honor the memory of the family name as "… an eternal promise of courage, struggle, ambition and triumph." He goes on to say that, "when you smoke a cigar, you are smoking a feeling or an experience, and that is our intent."

As a boutique cigar manufacturer, Carmelo Di Fazio puts a priority on consistency of construction and flavor, but more importantly on consistency of the essence of the pleasure of the smoke. He wants to instill the same experience of flavor and aroma and the good feelings associated with enjoying a fine cigar, each and every time a person lights up his cigars.

Currently, Di Fazio has three cigar lines: The Connecticut, the Picoso and the line I'm featuring in this review, the Maduro.

All three cigar lines are produced at the Raices Cubanas Factory in Honduras and their tobaccos come from Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Today's featured cigar sports a Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper, a Honduran Binder and Honduran and Nicaraguan Filler. All cigars come in 4 vitolas and come packed in boxes of 24 or 12 cigars. The featured cigar is the 5-inch by 60 RG Maduro Doble Robusto.

The wrapper leaf is so dark that it looks unnatural in appearance. It is disturbing to see cigar wrappers that are nearly coal black in color. Not that this means anything critical to the quality of the smoke, but it is unsettling to me, nonetheless.

TASTING NOTES: This Maduro starts off with smoky woody flavors and there is a touch of sweetness on the finish. The retrohale brings out rich roasted coffee and notes of rum. The body is pretty light during the first half, which makes this cigar easily approachable to most cigar smokers.

It occurred to me that this is yet another example of where the darkness of the wrapper leaf does not serve as an indicator of strength or body. The body is medium and the strength is light to medium. As a result, the cigar shows good complexity and an interesting mix of flavors.

I smoked three of these cigars in preparation for this show and 2 of the 3 were very well constructed. One of them had a slightly misguided burn, but the one I'm smoking today has a spot on burn line. The draw on all of them has been perfect and, thanks to the large ring gauge, the smoke has been cool and easy on the palate.

The Di Fazio Maduro shows a bit more intensity in flavor during the second half, but the predominant flavors are still notes of wood and a smoky BBQ. The retrohale during the last third of this cigar is luxurious; it is sweet and smoky and displays notes of cocoa.

Once you get past the impression that this cigar may have been painted, the Di Fazio Maduro is a pretty good smoke. It displays a fair mix of flavors and is easily accessible to novice smokers. What it lacks in strength, it makes up for in diversity of flavors. These cigars will likely run you $6.00 to $7.50 per stick, depending on where you live.

~Doc