The term solera describes a popular aging technique for wines, brandy, and other spirits, by where a tiered system of barrels are used to collectively age a given spirit. In other words, the barrels are filled, and after (typically) a year, a portion of the bottom barrel is bottled. The barrel's empty space is filled with liquid from the barrel one tier up, which is then filled from the next highest barrel; this continues upward until the top barrel is filled with fresh distillate. Eventually, the bottom barrel produces a heavily layered spirit with (potentially) decades worth of aging.

Now that we're all caught up on solera aging, let's talk Aging Room Solera Sun Grown cigars. With the Aging Room Solera series, brand runner Rafael Nodal looked to apply a variant of solera aging to tobacco. He accomplished this by aging different vintages of tobacco within a single bale. Normally, tobaccos are baled according to their harvest, and are only blended together during the cigar-rolling process. With the Aging Room Solera, the bales allow the leaves to blend and mature together much longer.

What does the Aging Room Solera Sun Grown cigar taste like?

The Aging Room Solera Sun Grown cigar is one of four blends within the Aging Room Solera series. With this blend, the cigar uses solera-aged Dominican tobaccos within the binder and filler. This core is then wrapped in a Dominican sun-grown wrapper, amounting to a medium-bodied experience with complex notes of red pepper, toasted bread, classic leather, and bittersweet espresso.