The Particulars

The Review

This review for the My Father Don Pepin Garcia 20th Anniversary - Gran Toro (6.5 x 52) is based on the journal entry dated 2026-09-04

Appearance & Construction (0-3):  Good (3)

Sometimes a wrapper is labeled rosado but barely has any red to it, but that’s not the case at all with the DPG 20th. It has a reddish-orange milk chocolate brown hue, glistening with oil and nicely mottled. If it’s anything, it’s not what I would consider Oscuro dark, but it’s definitely got the red. The veins are all thin and light, the seams are tight and blend right in, and the triple cap is perfectly applied—and we’re not accepting anything less given that price. The blue and gold of the beautifully detailed label work perfectly with the natural hues of the leaf and are accentuated by the royal blue foot band. Overall, this is a beautiful cigar.

Draw (0-3) & Burn (0-4):  Good (3) / Great (4)

The draw is spot-on, and the burn starts crooked, but quickly adjusts and settles in. The burn line is uneven and wavy, but the edge of the burn is razor-sharp and it does keep trying to self-correct. The ash is a medium gray with tons of minute oil crystals blending in. The stack is holding well with wide striations and large, gappy cracks. The ash holds just past the first third before falling, and the burn line is near dead-even with a beautiful self-correction. It’s a slow-burning smoke too, lasting almost two full hours.

Flavor Profile (0-5):  Great (4)

Mmmm… Malty cocoa, strong cinnamon and baking spice, roasted cedar, mild red pepper, zesty lemon sweet, and a mild saltiness greet me right on light-up. There’s a light, earthy, sourdough breadiness that gives immediate soft pretzel vibes along with light almond notes. By the end of the first inch, refined leather is replacing the toasted cedar as the dominant base note, and that lemon sweetness is bringing in more tartness and sourness. Clearly, age isn’t slowing the DPG 20th down at all. A really enjoyable start to this cigar, and the complexity is on point. We’re hitting almost every part of the flavor wheel with great aplomb.

If I was Ricardo Montalbán, I’d be talking about rich Corinthian leather, but that would be marketing fluff. Did you know that Chrysler’s “Corinthian” leather was actually made in New Jersey and had vinyl inserts in the seatbacks? I mean, did Corinth even excel in the leather trade? But I digress… Into the second third, the robustness of the flavors pulls back a bit. There’s even more rich leather, a slight increase in pepper, and the salted sourdough pretzel breadiness is becoming dominant while the sweetness, cocoa, and cinnamon have receded. Espresso was mild in the first third, but it’s a hair stronger now. The blend seems to have found its stride with a good, medium-strength set of flavors. The pepper leaves a nice mouth tingle, and the sour notes still tickle the tongue. It’s super smooth, though, and it’s really developing a sweet and creamy butteriness on the finish.

After a midpoint relight because it’s a wet and humid morning, the flavor intensity is up a bit more with extra pepper and sweetness. It’s still driving with the leather and salted pretzel that, combined with the lemon sweetness, leaves that delightful sour note. It’s always interesting how the exact same flavor can be amazing or make you want to retch. This sour is the tangy, creamy sourdough mixed with a zesty lemon sour. It’s certainly not sour milk. 😂 But we’re still more at a medium on most of the flavor notes. Cinnamon, espresso, and cocoa pull back again, but the earthy qualities of baking spice, toasted sourdough, and leather are in full force. Still smooth, still creamy.

With the final third, there are no real changes. But for all the platitudes, I’m just not head over heels here. It’s complex and nuanced, but also quite leathery and bready with a lot of toasty and earthy qualities to it. It tastes brown, lol. If there had been more sweet and less sour; if more of the opening flavors had held throughout the smoke, it would have been amazing. The downside is it’s not your traditional My Father blend and it lacks the signature “Pepin Spice” you come to expect from their lines.

Overall Experience (0-5):  Excellent (5)

This is a difficult cigar to give a concrete assessment of. It’s a really fantastic blend, but not one that blew my socks off. It’s not a traditional, robust Nicaraguan puro, and it lacks that signature “Pepin spice,” but it gives you a well-aged and refined experience that definitely favors complexity and nuance. It’s medium at best in body and heavy on the leather notes, but it does feel fancy as fuck to smoke. If you’re looking for more flavor intensity that punches you in the mouth at this price point, you’ll want to look at other options. But for a long, soothing, and relaxing smoke that brings something different, this is spot on. The bottom line is, if $40 is at the top end of your budget and meant to be a treat, there are more robust options out there that will probably make you feel like you got your money’s worth. The biggest selling point here from a value proposition is the exceptionally long smoke time. If you’re a big My Father fan looking for something a bit more unique, or you’re more of a baller where $40 doesn’t even give you a second of pause, then go for it. I think this cigar is best for quiet introspection because it delivers such a relaxing experience.

Overall Score and Individual Journal Entries

While the review is based off one instance of journaling this cigar; there's a number of reasons you can have different experiences smoking the same cigar multiple times. A blend can evolve with age (for better or worse), palates evolves, preferences change, and sometimes you just get a bad example!  This section captures the ratings from each journal entry and the related journal photo.  Below you'll find an aggregate score based on every time the cigar has been journaled. Unless it was a gift or on-off smoke, this section will be updated every time I journal this cigar!

The Flavor Wheel

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.