CAO Black VR (Maduro) Toro (6 x 50)
Posted by Dicksbain on 10 Jul 2007 at 08:05 am | Tagged as: Cigar Reviews
Lately, CAO has decided to start sticking Maduro wrappers on classic cigars such as the CAO GOLD and now the CAO Black. Not knowing CAO cigars, one might think the Black is a maduro already, however the original featured a Connecticut wrapper and was a medium bodied smoke. Launched in 1995, the Black is almost as old as CAO themselves. I’m pretty sure the Gold is the only cigar series that pre-dates it.
I was not impressed with the CAO Gold Maduro nearly as much as my brother. With the CAO Black VR, I expected something along the lines of the Gurkha Black Puro Toro, which was simply overpowering, had odd flavors, and was not very complex. I was pleasantly surprised with the Black Maduro.
The overall appearance was typical CAO; near flawless. The cigar had a nice, thick oily wrapper. Not too “veiny”, no holes, and the cigar was well humidified and slightly spongy. The pre-light flavors were nutty with aromas of almonds. Burn was great and the draw was solidy throughout.
If you can’t tell from most of my reviews, the #1 factor I look for in cigars is complexity. Nothing is worse to me than a “one note samba stick”. A cigar has to take you on journey. Sure that sounds a little over the top, but to me the $10+ you spend is a plane ticket to another land. If I just wanted a nicotine buzz, I’d smoke cigarettes or swisher sweets.
The CAO Black VR actually adds a very nice layer of complexity to an already good cigar. Unlike the CAO Gold where the maduro wrapper really detracted from the subtle flavors of the gold, the Black VR really enhanced the cigar. The cigar winds up as a medium-full bodied cigar that is not dominated by the maduro wrapper. You can still taste all the creamy spice of the original, with some more body to it. Volumes of smoke were produced by these toros. At the 1/2 way mark, this cigar really calmed down and became a joy to smoke. Where most cigars begin to fail, this cigar kept going till the nub. It never got too hot and the flavors never became “odd” towards the end.
Is this a perfect cigar? No. Is it “the next padron 1964″? No. But it’s yet another great CAO cigar that’s better than most sticks out there and would be a welcome cigar in most humidors. If you were disappointed with the CAO Gold Maduro, don’t turn your head on this one. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised as I was.
LT Rating: 7.5 / 10 
Loading ...
The next Padron? I’d smoke the CAO Black ‘VR’ (what you call the CAO Black Maduro) over any Padron, any day. That’s the beauty behind cigars, every palate is different. I’m glad you enjoyed the cigar. Nice review.
Good points all around. I was referring to the 1964, not those silly Padron 2000 series cigars. The Black VR is a great stick!
Very good review sir. I reviewed this one a month or so ago on our blog. What I can’t get an answer on is if the VR is a Cigar Intl exclusive or not. The Gold Maduro is everywhere, but I can’t find the VR anywhere else. I guess I would be disappointed because to date, CAO hasn’t bowed to the temptation of selling out like Gurkha has at CI. Every cigar CAO’s made becomes one of their main lines, whereas Gurkha and Rocky Patel, etc make a lot of cigars just for certain websites. I hope the VR goes national…damn good leathery smoke. Its the first smoke in my young career I’ve really noticed the pronounced leather taste.
Can’t wait for that CAO America stick.
Elvis, thanks for the comment. I got these smokes from CIGAR.COM 5 for $25, so I’m pretty sure they’re not exclusive to any retailer. I know they just came out, so they’re a bit hard to find right now. I totally agree, the VR is a great smoke!
[…] V. Stogie Fresh lights up a Bucanero Canon Cubano. Cigar Jack reviews a Don Pepin Garcia Blue. Leafy Times smokes the CAO Black VR. Keepers of the Flame goes with the Por Larranga Cuban Grade. Stogie Review […]
Nice Review. I love these smokes. They’re the best thing CAO has put out in a long time.
Smoking one right now for Dominican Mornings. Excellent smoke. It’s great that CAO revamped two classics at the same time. Got this one from cigar.com for $7.00. CAO has the best maduros out there now.
I know some time has gone by here, but I just wanted to say something in response to Elvis. When cigar manufacturers make a product that is exclusive to CI, or any other retailer for that matter, they are not “selling out”. CAO in this case does not develop a blend and go to CI with it, rather CI goes to CAO and requests them to make a custom blend. The guys at CI (in this case) will describe what they’re looking for, and the manufacturer will begin preparing tasting samples. The guys at CI will then smoke the samples, each identified only by a unique number, and the guys will vote on the one they like best and write a deal to buy x number of sticks. This happens in many areas of life - flat screen TV’s for example. This may have changed, but up until a couple years ago there were only about 3 manufacturers of flat panel TV’s, yet 2 dozen brands on the market… Hmmmm! Sellouts? How about when Dodge light pickups were made by Mitsubishi? *GASP* The cigar market would be very bland, full of only a few over-rated famous name cigars if it weren’t for this kind of involvement in product development by companies. They’re doing you a service bro! The nice thing at least with CI is that they don’t price gouge on exclusives, they sell their exclusive stuff cheaper than most everything else they carry, or at least they run insane deals on the stuff. I’m not trying to rally for them, I know it’s a bummer when you can’t walk in the local store and buy certain brands, but I’m just trying to shed some light on the bigger picture. Think how messed up it would be if you owned a store, had an idea for a product YOU wanted to sell, went to a company to have it made for YOUR store, then the company wanted to make extra cash on YOUR product and next thing you know YOUR idea is on the shelves of Wal-Mart - now THAT’s selling out!