Leccia Luchador

Been a hot minute since I've done a review again. Been focusing a lot of my time on getting my driver's license (32 years old and still not licensed, what the shit, man?). Stumbled on this over the weekend (if I keep doing this, I'll never get to review everything that's waiting for me!), and was immediately drawn to its band and perfecto shape. I'm anxious to find out if it's as tasty as it looks!

Cigar: Leccia Luchador

Vitola: Loco Perfecto (6” x 58)

Price: ~$8.75/stick

Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés
Binder: Ecuadorian Habano
Filler: Nicaragua, USA (Pennsylvania Ligero), Honduras
Body: Medium-Full

Rating (out of 10): 9.6

Appearance:
The first thing that grabbed my eye was the band, which features a green, white, and red Mexican-style wrestling mask, which is apparently the theme of this beautiful stick, the Luchador (obviously). The wrapper is, of course, a Mexican San Andrés, with a rich, almost mocha-brown color to it. It's lightly veined, toothier than a great white, and oily to the touch.

Construction:
Construction is solid; it's firm with just a tiny bit of give. Perfectly capped, no tears or damage anywhere I can find.

Aroma:
The barrel smells strongly of wood and leather, with something I can't give a name to, but which suggests a real spicy character to the Luchador. The foot smells mostly of leather.

First Third:
Cut with the Xikar XO, and took a cold draw—leathery, with a sweet mesquite undertone.

I like perfectos, it's much easier to light the narrower foot.

WOW. There's an almost barbecue-sauce flavor to this thing, with a powerful spicy kick on the finish. The spice tones down pretty quickly, and notes of wood (maple?) and leather begin to come through on the palate. Lot of flavor at the start, this thing's easily a medium-to-full bodied smoke right out of the gate.

Beautiful, toothy, lightly marbled white ash in this beauty, and a wavy, but otherwise-even burn line.

Some nice undertones of baking spices a little more than an inch in.

Less waviness in the burn line, too. Slightly less than even, but keeping together pretty well.

Second Third:
Bit more spice as we roll on into the second third.

More oakiness, too. But there's a pretty consistent mesquite nature to this thing.

The burn is far more even in this third, and looks like it will probably stay that way.

Not much complexity in terms of significant flavor changes, but this spicy mesquite character is really doing it for me. I'm really liking it.

Final Third:
The last third carries forward the consistent flavor profile of the Luchador. The spice has faded somewhat, but not entirely. This cigar has not been nearly as fiery as the initial aroma led me to believe. It's spicy, but it's no Jaime Garcia!

I might have spoke too soon... as it nears the end and begins to taper back down to a narrower ring gauge, the spices pick up in intensity, giving this one a serious fighting finish. Damn, is this tasty.

Closing Thoughts:
This one really surprised me. I was expecting something woodier in nature, with a lot of fire and spice, but wound up with a real sweet mesquite and leather character that blended quite nicely with the spiciness. I could absolutely see myself adding a box of these to my collection, once some space opens up in my humidors (or until I make space by adding an eighth humidor— but don't expect me to change the name of this site to “Eight Humidors;” it doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely).It scores a 9.6, but I have to say, 10/10 would smoke this one again.