experts can explain better than I, but it is common. Here is excerpt from a CA article.
"Those patches are a genetic characteristic of Cuban-seed tobacco, particularly the shade-grown variety.
They appear on Cuban-seed wrapper grown in Cuba, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The patches don't affect the flavor per se, but they can be used as a way to identify the wrapper's origin. Of course, Cuban-seed wrapper -- no matter where it's grown -- is considered by many to be the world's richest and strongest. If you favor strong cigars, a wrapper riddled with green patches may be worth a try."
I sometimes take issue with CA, this is no exception, lol. They contradict themselves here:
1) Green patches are typically on
shade-grown wrappers (agree)
2) Cuban-seed wrappers are "considered ... richest and strongest." (agree)
3) "If you favor strong cigars, a wrapper riddled with green patches may be worth a try." (huh?)
The last sentence makes no sense. If it's shade-grown, it's not going to be a strong wrapper, period. It could be that these are middle-of-the-plant leaves, but that's not shade-grown then (just less sun).
What I've heard elsewhere about green spots being on shade-grown wrappers hold true with what I've experienced, whether Cuba-seed or Connecticut-shade wrappers (green spots are common on those). I have no idea if the Monte PE is supposed to have a shade-grown wrapper or a sun-grown, but since I see those green spots, I'd guess shade. Either way, Monte PEs from '06 sound like something i'd like to smoke, lol!
This also brings up the "dark wrapper vs light wrapper" debate, which is something I'm interested in. Those #4 wrappers are particularly dark! It would be fun to try to set up a controlled experiment with several tasters involved.
