In July, D’Crossier announced the newest line of cigars to come out of the Costa Rica-based Pure Aroma Cigars S.A. factory. The D’Crossier L’Forte, which translates to strong in French, is an annual limited edition release that uses Dominican and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos wrapped in a Costa Rican wrapper. Only 6,000 cigars were produced of each vitola, and are sold in individually numbered boxes of 12.

There are four different vitolas in the D’Crossier L’Forte line:

The boxes that the D’Crossier L’Forte come packed in are unique, in that they are made entirely of Cedrela Odorata, a varietal of Spanish cedar, from Brazil. Isaias Santana Diaz of D’Crossier told halfwheel that the cedar was aged in the forest in a natural process before being covered in 18 layers of lacquered. 

The D’Crossier L’Forte Bullet is visually interesting, almost NUb-like with a torpedo cap and covered in a rustic dark espresso brown wrapper that sports quite a few obvious veins. The wrapper is parchment-like to the touch and the cigar has a bit of give when squeezed. Aroma from the wrapper is earth, leather, sweet fruit, oak and maple, while the cold draw brings spices, sweet oak and generic fruit along with a touch of pepper.

The L’Forte starts off with flavors of creamy oak, earth, nuts and hay. There is some light but distinct licorice sweetness on the finish and a noticeable spice on the tongue, at least at first. A significant amount of black pepper invades the retrohale for a time, but seems to be dissipating as the first third comes to a close. Construction-wise, the burn is far ideal, but also far from problematic, while the draw is excellent. Smoke production is well above average, and the overall strength hits a point just below medium by the end of the first third.

An interesting smokey barbecue note invades the profile of the D’Crossier L’Forte during the second third, which combines well with the black pepper on the retrohale that is still present, albeit much reduced from the high of the first third. Other notes of gritty earth, leather, peanuts and barnyard flit in and out as well. The sweetness on the finish has morphed into more of a vanilla note, but is still not all that overt and the spice on the tongue disappears completely by the halfway point. The burn has evened up nicely and the draw remains excellent. The strength has increased noticeably hitting a solid medium by the end of the second third.

The creamy oak note becomes the dominant note in the final third of the L’Forte Bullet, along with other flavors of leather, dark chocolate, bitter espresso, nuts and hay. The sweetness that has been present in the first two thirds is much reduced by this point, and does not seem to be making a comeback. While there is still some black pepper on the retrohale, it is also reduced, but the overall strength increases slightly to a point just above the medium mark. Both the burn and the draw continue to be excellent until about an inch and a half before the end of the cigar, when the nub gets too hot and bitter for me to continue, forcing me to put it down.

Flavor-wise, the D'Crossier L'Forte Bullet was quite good, with a dominant creamy oak note interspersed with an interesting smoky barbecue note and some slight sweetness. However, the size of this specific vitola really held back my enjoyment, with awkward combination of large ring gauge and torpedo cap along with the fact that each of the samples became quite hot with about two inches left to smoke. While not as complex as the Golden Blend 10 Years, the profile is interesting enough that I will definitely be giving some of the other vitolas a try.

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.