Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 – “The Artist”
The Davidoff Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2025 – The Artist is a refined tribute to the creative spirit of Sir Winston Churchill. Crafted in the elegant Churchill vitola, measuring 7 inches by a 48 ring gauge, this limited edition cigar embodies sophistication and subtle power. The blend begins with a silky Ecuadorian wrapper that encases a rich Mexican binder, and deep within, a harmonious mix of Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.
Released in January 2025, this special edition was limited to just 18,000 boxes worldwide. Each one is presented like a work of art, with packaging inspired by Churchill’s own painting, Cork Trees Near Mimizan, featured inside the lid. Even the wooden inlay mimics an artist’s palette—reminding the smoker that this cigar is not merely a product, but a composition.
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A Session of Elegance, Depth, and Contrast
Lit up on a quiet afternoon, this cigar began not with flash but with grace. No pairing, just the solitude of a garage, the hum of stillness, and a torch lighter in place of a wooden match to ensure a precise, even light. The first draw announced the tone: a refined sweetness, powerful cedar aroma rising from the foot, and smoke that mesmerized with its composure.
The First Third – Sweet Cedar & Caramelized Nuts
Early on, retrohaling proved essential. It revealed a beautifully layered spice—white pepper, subtle and controlled—while the mouth drew in sweet, caramelized nuttiness. The wood, unmistakably cedar, remained a constant presence: sweet, spicy, and evocative, like sap-soaked wood warmed in the sun. There were whispers of floral tones and fleeting moments of ripe, grape-like fruit, vanishing almost as soon as they appeared.
The burn was flawless. The ash held in tight, toothy stacks of grayscale strength. The draw offered perfect resistance, generating dense clouds of smoke that carried molasses, toffee, and honeyed tea on their breath.
The Middle Third – Creamy, Balanced, and Deeper Tones
As the cigar evolved, sweetness took center stage again, shifting in character. Crème brûlée surfaced—creamy, scorched-sugar richness that coated the palate. Hints of floral tea and herbal warmth made the experience feel almost meditative. The sweetness lightened, drifting toward white sugar, and then subtly gave way to a more grounded complexity.
This was the cigar “orchestrating contrast”—sweet and spicy, bold and elegant. Even a momentary flash of sour green apple brought intrigue rather than imbalance, a pivot that deepened the journey.
The Final Third – Earth, Oak, and Gravitas
Crossing the halfway mark, the cigar leaned into its darker roots. Dry cocoa, cedar, and finally a surge of dry oak gave the final third structure and weight. The sweetness receded like a closing curtain. A savory saltiness emerged—mineral, earthen, and real—bringing a whisper of terroir and grounding the experience in the soil it came from.
The retrohale softened in spice but intensified in depth. Each puff felt heavier, more meaningful. The smoke grew thicker, the draw richer, and the flavors darker, like transitioning from dessert to a steak grilled over open wood.
It ended with strength—not just in nicotine, which gently made its presence known—but in character. Every note in this cigar had a voice, and none overstayed their welcome.
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Closing Reflection
This was not just a cigar—it was a journey of contrast and composition, a nearly two-hour meditation on how sweetness, spice, wood, and earth can trade places and still feel harmonious. It earns its price not by being flashy but by being complete.
I burned it to the nub—and it gave me everything it had.
The Retrohale Score: A (95)
Elegant, structured, and emotionally transcendent with pristine transitions, floral nuance, and a quiet but powerful emotional resonance — a masterclass in restraint and expression.
