Rattray's Old Gowrie, Made by Hand, For Gentlemen Only (my wife disputes this claim)
First, a history lesson: Gowrie is actually a region of Scotland known for it's rich farmland, often called the "Garden of Scotland". This regions is today known, for the most part, as Perthshire. But more importantly than growing food for the masses, this region is home to waters that provide some really top notch Trout and Salmon fly fishing and to many, even considered the best in Europe. Just let the name of the River Tay roll off your tongue and think of a bowl of Rattray's Old Gow"ray" while fishing the Tay. See how that just grabs you by the short ones and makes you tingle all over.
In any case, Charles Rattray, a Scot through and through, found the House of Rattray in Perth. This tobacco company became one of the largest and most well known tobacco companies in the tobacco world. (See Pipedia and Wikipedia for more detailed information).
Setup: I smoked Old Gowrie in 3 different bowls to test how bowl size might influence the smoke feel and flavor. I settled on the billiard in the photo as my favorite. It for me was the perfect bowl because it produced a copious amount of smoke with a full draw and it would sit patient and cool, requiring only 1 relight as I made my way through the short stores of Norman Maclean, which, by the by, I recommend to everyone. His stories are rough and ready and pull you into his forested world. Especially "Logging and Pimping". I had my usual drink on hand for day smoking, sweet iced tea, and I kept a bowl of blackberries at hand because we have a fridge full. Diamond matches per usual.
Tin Note: Divine, in a word. Fruitcake, Claxton fruitcake with a spicy tension of nutmeg, light cinnamon, and cardamon mixed with dried cherries and raisins with sugared pecans. Steps away and breaths deeply. Now I catch the grassy, hay like quality that every one notes as typically Virginia. I am not getting the Citrus but I have looked for it. Maybe it will come to me. I do smell tobacco and molasses or sorghum or cane syrup. Much like what I think of when I think of Redman Gold chewing tobacco's taste and pouch note (sorry if I refer to chewing tobacco but it was such a rite of passage during my southern baseball days that it seems to be part of my blood).
Visual: A beautiful dark, tan, and yellow tobacco hues mixed throughout a broken flake. I suppose some would call this "rubbed out" but my tin has some larger chunks of flake so I will call it broken flake. As an aside, I did not rub mine out.
What she said: My wife rated this a very nice smell but not as nice as the Autumn Evening and Three Blind Moose samples she had just smelled. She, like me, found it comparable to a fruit cake too but it could be the power of suggestion after I mentioned that is what it brought to my minds eye. BTW, we both abhor eating fruit cake "bricks" but do like helping my mom make them. This gets a solid A.
Wafting Smoke: The smoke was variable in density by pipe (the physics of which I do not quite understand) and also varied once I figured out a good cadence. As my sipping slowed, it thinned out to a nice cirrus feather. The smoke was luxurious to me and my wife enjoyed the smoke as well. And, my non-smoking wife decided to try this one based on the room note and thought it was "ok". The jury is out on whether there is a repeat performance. I think the mooses may bring her in for another try.
The peccant part: This nice, dark flake was a rather enjoyable, mild to medium smoke. I did feel the nicotine but it was a pleasant meeting and we parted on good terms. I used a 3 part fill and the charring light was a bit acrid on 2 of my bowls but this most likely was due to my impatience and not letting the match settle down, thereby I was inhaling a bit of sulfur. My retrohaling is getting more efficient and my tasting is picking up more nuance flavors. This one clicked all of the cues I was hoping to find based on other reviews with the exception of citrus. I cannot find the citrus not for the life of me. What I did find was a pleasantly sweet smoke that must be attributed to the Virginia leaf and a bit of pepper from the Perique...a very small peppery background noise. And cardamon flavored tobacco was always on the front of this smoke and therein may lie the sweetness. A bit of burnt sugarcane or very light cloying notes of molasses (and not bad cloying but enough to know it was there).
In Summary: I like this tobacco. When I can, this is one I would like to cellar so that I can see how it changes over time. I do not need to say it as everyone who has smoked Old Gowrie knows, but this is one fine Virginia tobacco and I look forward to more in the future. Marlin Flake is up next but I doubt it will beat Old Gowrie for my attention. I look forward to smoking this while sitting on a bank waiting for the rise. Or maybe just sitting on the bank and doing nothing.
Highly recommended!
I think I am more of a Virginia and Virginia-Perique smoker at this point based on my limited experience. If anyone has recommendations for a similar Virginia forward tobacco, please comment so that I can seek them out.
First, a history lesson: Gowrie is actually a region of Scotland known for it's rich farmland, often called the "Garden of Scotland". This regions is today known, for the most part, as Perthshire. But more importantly than growing food for the masses, this region is home to waters that provide some really top notch Trout and Salmon fly fishing and to many, even considered the best in Europe. Just let the name of the River Tay roll off your tongue and think of a bowl of Rattray's Old Gow"ray" while fishing the Tay. See how that just grabs you by the short ones and makes you tingle all over.
In any case, Charles Rattray, a Scot through and through, found the House of Rattray in Perth. This tobacco company became one of the largest and most well known tobacco companies in the tobacco world. (See Pipedia and Wikipedia for more detailed information).
Setup: I smoked Old Gowrie in 3 different bowls to test how bowl size might influence the smoke feel and flavor. I settled on the billiard in the photo as my favorite. It for me was the perfect bowl because it produced a copious amount of smoke with a full draw and it would sit patient and cool, requiring only 1 relight as I made my way through the short stores of Norman Maclean, which, by the by, I recommend to everyone. His stories are rough and ready and pull you into his forested world. Especially "Logging and Pimping". I had my usual drink on hand for day smoking, sweet iced tea, and I kept a bowl of blackberries at hand because we have a fridge full. Diamond matches per usual.
Tin Note: Divine, in a word. Fruitcake, Claxton fruitcake with a spicy tension of nutmeg, light cinnamon, and cardamon mixed with dried cherries and raisins with sugared pecans. Steps away and breaths deeply. Now I catch the grassy, hay like quality that every one notes as typically Virginia. I am not getting the Citrus but I have looked for it. Maybe it will come to me. I do smell tobacco and molasses or sorghum or cane syrup. Much like what I think of when I think of Redman Gold chewing tobacco's taste and pouch note (sorry if I refer to chewing tobacco but it was such a rite of passage during my southern baseball days that it seems to be part of my blood).
Visual: A beautiful dark, tan, and yellow tobacco hues mixed throughout a broken flake. I suppose some would call this "rubbed out" but my tin has some larger chunks of flake so I will call it broken flake. As an aside, I did not rub mine out.
What she said: My wife rated this a very nice smell but not as nice as the Autumn Evening and Three Blind Moose samples she had just smelled. She, like me, found it comparable to a fruit cake too but it could be the power of suggestion after I mentioned that is what it brought to my minds eye. BTW, we both abhor eating fruit cake "bricks" but do like helping my mom make them. This gets a solid A.
Wafting Smoke: The smoke was variable in density by pipe (the physics of which I do not quite understand) and also varied once I figured out a good cadence. As my sipping slowed, it thinned out to a nice cirrus feather. The smoke was luxurious to me and my wife enjoyed the smoke as well. And, my non-smoking wife decided to try this one based on the room note and thought it was "ok". The jury is out on whether there is a repeat performance. I think the mooses may bring her in for another try.
The peccant part: This nice, dark flake was a rather enjoyable, mild to medium smoke. I did feel the nicotine but it was a pleasant meeting and we parted on good terms. I used a 3 part fill and the charring light was a bit acrid on 2 of my bowls but this most likely was due to my impatience and not letting the match settle down, thereby I was inhaling a bit of sulfur. My retrohaling is getting more efficient and my tasting is picking up more nuance flavors. This one clicked all of the cues I was hoping to find based on other reviews with the exception of citrus. I cannot find the citrus not for the life of me. What I did find was a pleasantly sweet smoke that must be attributed to the Virginia leaf and a bit of pepper from the Perique...a very small peppery background noise. And cardamon flavored tobacco was always on the front of this smoke and therein may lie the sweetness. A bit of burnt sugarcane or very light cloying notes of molasses (and not bad cloying but enough to know it was there).
In Summary: I like this tobacco. When I can, this is one I would like to cellar so that I can see how it changes over time. I do not need to say it as everyone who has smoked Old Gowrie knows, but this is one fine Virginia tobacco and I look forward to more in the future. Marlin Flake is up next but I doubt it will beat Old Gowrie for my attention. I look forward to smoking this while sitting on a bank waiting for the rise. Or maybe just sitting on the bank and doing nothing.
Highly recommended!
I think I am more of a Virginia and Virginia-Perique smoker at this point based on my limited experience. If anyone has recommendations for a similar Virginia forward tobacco, please comment so that I can seek them out.
It needs a professional refinish but will do as is... She also found me a Weber VD Bullcap for 7USD that is a looker and nice smoker with nice grain. Lucky on ebay.