The notable exception of the leather flavor, which begins to recede quickly, replaced immediately by a generic combination of earth and wood. The black pepper on the retrohale continues to ebb and flow, sometimes quite strong ,especially near the end of the smoke. Construction-wise, the draw remains loose until the end, but the burn evens up a little to finish better than I expected after seeing the first two thirds. While the strength does increase to a solid medium in the final third, the Grand Epicure is an exellent Habano