Italian Pipe Tobacco Blends?

That's an interesting question. Does anyone have pipe smoking contacts in Italy to see what the local

product is? It seems like the Danish especially, and the Irish to some degree, along with our really good

U.S. blenders, have a lot of the market. I don't know of an Italian tobacco growing industry, but I think

the Danish and the Irish work nearly entirely with imported leaf. The Italians must have some home-blended

tobacco, but it doesn't seem to show up as an import in the U.S. Hmmm.

I hate to break it to you, but Brebbia pipe tobacco is not made in Italy, just like Peterson tobacco isn't made in Ireland. The only thing Italian (or Irish) about these blends are their name. I believe Brebbia is made in Germany and Peterson is made in both Germany and Denmark (but their blenders have changed a lot over the years, so I could be wrong about that).
As far as I know there are no blends coming out of either Italy or Ireland right now, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

As far as I know Peterson is still using Kohlhase and Kopp for their blending. I believe Brigham is using them as well with their new tobacco line. K&K is based out of Germany.
Savinelli does have a few blends available, but I have no idea where they're actually blended.
It is kind of surprising that Italy is so huge with pipe makers, yet you don't hear about any Italian tobacco blenders. One would think with the number of pipe makers there'd be at least one or two tobacco blending companies there.

Italian traditional blends are kentucky based. There are three traditional pipe tobaccos in Italy, all of them made by Manifatture Sigaro Toscano (MST). They are "Comune", "Forte" (it means "Strong", and it's an appropriate name: nomen omen, as we say) and "Italia". Comune and Forte essentially are pure kentucky ("natural" as it's written in the package; we call them "trinciati naturali" because they have no aromatization or chemical manipulation... oh, well, I'hope so). Not particularly reach for bouquet and flavor in general, they have a typical taste, very strong and also a little rough (it's not a bug, it's the real essence of these tobaccos). I'm not able to describe them better (not only for my poor english, also because) they are very far from each other tobacco I know; the best thing i can suggest is just to try them, if you visit Italy and don't surrender at the first impression. "Italia" is the less difficult to understand and appreciate, especially for a not Italian smoker, with a few (or none) experience with Toscano cigars. It's essentially a mixture of oriental, kentucky and virginia tobaccos. I think it's the first italian tobacco I'will suggest to a stranger, after all. The most typical, although, is the "Forte" (that's also the elder one; the pipe tobacco that our grandpas used to smoke in last centuries).

I usually smoke Comune, Forte and Italia, as well as not exactly italian blends, like Squadron Leader or Commonwealth (EM, of course). I like Italia too, pure or mixed with toscano cigar, with or without a drop of whiskey (usually: Jack Daniel's). If you mix Italia with latakia you'll have a sort of EM (almost an EM, really, for the presence of kentucky).

About distribution and diffusion, these three tobaccos are definitely not the most smoked in Italy, but they have their own public of "aficionados" customers.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italia_(tabacco)

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forte_(tabacco)