Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro

Recently, I’ve been seeing “War Room,” a social media reality show from Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Inc. In this clip, Dave Bullock, vp of sales for Rocky Patel, complains about an idea to have cigars sold in glass boxes, but also goes on to mention the company’s ever-expanding unofficial gemstones and precious metals collection of brands. There’s a trio of lines already on shelves—Emerald, Gold Label and Platinum—and the upcoming Sapphire.

A week or two after seeing that video for the first time, I’m digging through one of my redux humidors trying to find a cigar for today’s review and stumble across a Gold Label, which I grab for this post. See, social media marketing works.

The Rocky Patel Gold Label was introduced as a core line in 2024. Blend-wise, it uses an Ecuadorian habano wrapper over dual binders—Connecticut broadleaf and Connecticut shade—and fillers from the Estelí and Jalapa regions of Nicaragua.

Despite its name, it’s priced closer to $10 per cigar than $20, which was always a bit of an interesting bit of the marketing.

Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro

• Cigar Reviewed: Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Tabacalera Villa Cuba S.A.
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano)
• Binder: Ecuador (Connecticut-seed Shade) & U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf)
• Filler: Nicaragua (Estelí & Jalapa)
• Length: 6 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Shape: Pressed
• MSRP: $12 (Box of 20, $240)
• Release Date: July 2024
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Redux: 1

While the cellophane feels just a tad dry, there’s no visual indication that this isn’t a new cigar. As always, cellophane is a terribly inaccurate way to gauge how old a particular cigar is. This cigar’s wrapper is mostly covered in paper, but once the large lower covering is removed, I can see that the box press has hardly softened during the brief aging time.

There’s one slightly loose seam, but otherwise, everything looks great visually. I’m quite surprised by how the cigar feels. Despite some visible texture, when I run my finger down a panel of the cigar, it feels as smooth as any cigar, yet it’s not slick and there’s plenty of tactile grip. The wrapper has a medium-full scent of sweet earth with some fresh mulch-like smells coming out.

The foot smells a bit fuller with a smell that reminds me of some sort of chocolate coconut dessert, along with some aged tobacco scents. That chocolate flavor extends to the cold draw, where it’s initially joined by wood and raspberry. As I take a third and fourth cold draw, the sweetness has died down. The draw resistance is good.

The Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro starts out with not much smoke coming into my mouth. As I see smoke pouring out of the foot, I’m searching for flavors on my taste buds. There’s an initial blast of woodiness and some potato before a semi-sweet savory flavor adds itself into the mix, almost like a watered-down Worcestershire sauce, though it’s sweeter than that.

Fortunately, after the second and third puffs, smoke production to the mouth is not an issue. The first inch of the cigar keeps a lot of the same profile, though the potato flavor departs quickly. After an inch, earthiness and woodiness are leading, with cardamon, honey and graham cracker pretty consistently underneath. About a third of the puffs throw in some sort of curveball: sometimes there will be no sweetness, other times I’ll taste a sharp strawberry sweetness, sometimes the pepper is stronger. As the second third nears, some leather emerges. Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro

Retrohales are consistently led by lots of bread flavors with creaminess underneath and then a lot of the same flavors I taste as the mouth presenting themselves as secondary flavors. They finish toastier with some bark. Flavor is medium-full, though with a great richness and detail, the body is just medium and the strength is barely detectable. Construction is impeccable in the first third.Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro

Again, the woodiness and earthiness lead the main profile, but a creaminess has attached itself to the earthiness, which really transforms things. Like before, some generic bread flavors come in with the creamier puffs. After the halfway mark, the creaminess fades and the earthiness gets a more mineral quality. It’s the one bit of non-pepper edge in the profile, the only flavor that isn’t fully smoothed out, though it’s still quite rich. Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro

The finish is drier, initially with leather and saltiness, though as the cigar progresses, it’s more of a nuttiness and eventually it dries out to remind me more of a very dry plain popcorn flavor. I have to make two different touch-ups in the second half of the cigar: one for an uneven burn and later for declining combustion. I wonder if the touch-ups are the cause of the major change to the flavor profile, which is losing its smoothness. Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro

The Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro is still smoother than most of the cigars I review these days, no doubt helped by the extra aging, but the way the profile presents itself has completely changed. As far as the individual flavors, it’s fairly predictable. Earthiness, woodiness and some of that popcorn flavor, now a bit more burnt than before. Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro

The finish reintroduces the mineral flavors, now saltier than before. Retrohales are much more intense with saltiness and lemon preceding an earthy core before the pepper kicks back in. Again, it’s not as smooth, though it provides some of the contrast that has been missing for so much of the last two and a half hours. Flavor finishes full, body medium-full and strength still barely detectable, maybe creeping into the middle parts of the medium range. Rocky Patel Gold Label Toro