As the final third gets going, the Arturo Fuente Unnamed Reserve 2021 dives right into a grains-and-pepper combination, holding onto the white pepper that has been part of the profile since the first puffs but now taking the dry pretzel flavor and expanding on it, hitting some multigrain bread flavors, flirts with wheat toast, and then into a breadbasket of expressions that come and go fairly quickly. Unfortunately it still has the mineral and chalk notes from earlier, which have faded just enough to have me think they are more terroir-related than that something might be off with the tobacco, but either way I’m not crazy about them. The creaminess from earlier comes and goes as well, and while I think the profile and body are both better when it is present, it does have the tendency to mute some of the other flavors. Flavor finishes at medium-plus, body right about there as well, and strength just barely clearing the bar for medium.
