The Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Sonata is a cigar that plays with the notion of taking cigar leaves to create a flavorful journey on your palate, as a sonata would do as you listen. And as a sonata is often written for only a single instrument, this cigar carries tobacco from only a single country, Nicaragua. The predecessor to the original Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua, the sonata is supposed to bring a slightly milder and toned down experience compared to the original. Rafael takes as much inspiration for this cigar from his love for music, and especially classical music and composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and many more.
Under the Lid
The Aging Room Sonata comes in a 20 count slide top box adorned with a color of motif of yellow and black and looks very clean. There are two bands, one with a black background and gold writing of the Aging Room Quattro branding, and the second band is a yellow background with the Nicaragua Sonata in black writing. The wrapper is a nice smooth dark brown with some oily sheen to it with minor mottling. There are small noticeable veins and a clean wrapper seam. The torpedo style head comes to a nice point.
- Wrapper: Nicaragua
- Binder: Nicaragua
- Filler: Nicaragua
- Vitola: 6 X 52 Maestro
- Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A.
- Release Date: June 2023
- Number of Cigars Release: Regular Production
- MSRP: $13.13 ($262.20 for a box of 20)
The draw during prelight draw one sample was slightly tight but I cut a tiny bit more off the torpedo head and that opened the draw perfectly to where I like it and provided notes of mixed berries and a bread like quality. The foot and wrapper both gave off aromas of musty basement and mild mixed berries.
Performance Notes:
First Third: The Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Sonata opens up with a complex bouquet of flavors of creamy cedar, cashew, mild spice, mild leather, and a hint of honey-like sweetness in the background. As the first third progresses a bit of that complexity drops off and I lose the hint of sweetness that I was getting off the first few puffs. The rest of the first third continues with creamy cedar, cashew, mild spice, and some leather lingering on the finish. The retrohale is creamy cedar, with a note of citrus and orange peel. There is a slight amount of mouth watering from the smoke with no need to reach for water even though it is a bit of a wood forward profile. The tongue feels to be stimulated mainly linear along the tongue with the tip and centre being the prominent feelings.
Second Third: The second third continues consistently with the Creamy cedar, cashew, mild spice, and that hint of citrus is creeping into the profile from the retrohale. The finish still has a lingering mild leather note. As this third progresses I find a mild vegetal note after every 3rd of 4th puff, but then it goes away. As this vegetal note comes into the profile I am finding that each puff is losing complexity and is becoming slightly muddled with a slightly different flavor being at the forefront during each different puff. 1 puff I get mainly cedar, and then the next puff leather will dominate, and the next the vegetal note will come back in. The cashew note is nearly indiscernible by the midpoint and fully gone by the end of this third. The retrohale is still cedar and citrus orange peel.
Final Third: The final third transitions into a mild mineral note alongside the core notes of creamy cedar, mild spice, and mild leather. The flavors are still muddling and offering a slightly different flavor as the prominent note during each puff. The vegetal note combines with a char like note that covers up the cedar and the leather is lingering heavily on the finish. The retrohale is becoming slightly more intense and char cedar with a mild spice is experienced. Occasionally the cashew note is found in the background. As the final third comes to a close it is hard to pull out flavor notes as the mineral and vegetal notes overwhelm the palate and there is a drying effect and bitterness left on the palate.
Core Flavors: Creamy cedar, cashew, mild spice, mild leather, citrus
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Complexity: Medium
Smokin Experience: The Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Sonata started off with a beautifully composed flavor profile that was complex and easy to discern each flavor and they blended in together seamlessly. But as the second and final third developed the notes started meshing together and becoming unbalanced and hard to pull out from each puff. The profile also started introducing some off-putting vegetal notes alongside some clinging mineral-like flavors. In terms of construction there was only need for a minor touch up on one of the samples and no re-lights needed. One of the samples had a bit of a tightening of the draw at the midway point which hindered it a bit. Also, one of the samples, although had a great draw, was producing much less smoke than I expected and required an extra puff or two to get the volume of smoke to really get all the flavors.
Purchase Recommendation: Try a sample
Smokin Facts:
- I would love to come back to this cigar in about 1-2 years and see if some age allows the blend to get rid of the muddling and metallic flavors that crept in during the smoking experience
- It has been over a year since Aging Room has released any new blends until the Sonata
- Both Aging Room Nicaragu cigars are produced by AJ Fernandez
Smokin Wrap:
Cigars smoked for review: 2
Average smoking time: 92 minutes
Score: 86
Mitchell Santaga – Product Reviews
Mitchell Santaga started his journey into tobacco in 2010 by trying different flavored and machine-made cigars while enjoying a handle of Jack Daniels. Shortly after that he yearned for a more premium experience and dove headfirst into pipe tobacco that his local tobacconist blended, and shortly after started trying premium cigars.
