What Aged Virginia Blends Are Available?

I have heard, on here, in fact, that Klondike Gold is aged two years before it's sent out and it's my understanding that those two years are in the tin, although I'm not 100% sure on that. Either way, I'm sure it's amazing as R.L Will is the man behind it.
It's not necessarily true that all the McCranies Red Ribbons are tinned in 2012. I have a tin that was sealed in 2015. Just so's ya know's...

Every Virginia tobacco is aged before it is sold. Christmas Cheer is just from a single crop

of Virginia. McClelland holds tins 2-3 years with their brown and black labeled Personal Reserve

blends before release. There are occasionally limited edition releases but there aren't any aged releases you missed.

The secondary market provides many opportunities to pickup aged blends...for a price. Put away blends now for the future. It arrives

faster than you think!
Mike S.
Mik

Really, any tin "could" have some age on it before you get it. If it is at a B&M, you could always ask the owner when he got the shipment in or how long it has been on the shelf. Non-aros don't move very fast at all in a B&M, so most likely any tin will have at least "some" time on it. But, if it is an online vendor, it is hit or miss.

I believe that C&D dates their tins, as so does GLP, but then you'd have to deal with their dead lifeless Virginias, which are ok. But, yeh, I wish all tins came with dates on them. It should be a crime not to date them.
But, you're not going to find a tin at a B&M or an online vendor that has any substantial time on it. 2, 4, even 8 years is not going to really blow your tastebuds out of the water. It's nice to have a few years on the tin, but I would hesitate to brag about even 12 years. What I have noticed is that about 20 years is the magic number to really knock your tastebuds for a loop. Which means that you want to start setting back tins now, or look for already aged tins. At my age, I will be well into my 70's, hitting 80, before I would be able to enjoy tobacco with that kind of maturation. But, that's my goal, when my teeth are gone and I can no longer smell my own stink, I will be smoking the "good" stuff, ha ha.

About tins with no date codes, I don't get it. It seems that there is no downside. Who would not want an 'old' tobacco?

Mike nailed it. Just age it yourself.

I've found that the Mclelland "aged" Va's don't seem to be aged in a similar way as my own "aged" Va's. I'm not suggesting that they aren't aged, I just find the stuff I hold for a couple of years seem different.

Don't live by my taste buds. It's a process of discovery, IMO. Maybe someone else's taste buds get rocked at 2 years, IDK. That was just my own taste bud's discovery.

Who would not want an 'old' tobacco?

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Apparently, deliberately aging tobaccos for pipe started in the U.S. European blenders argue that that the tobacco they ship is at peak age for consumption. J.F. Germain folks appear to be particularly adamant about it and I think a lot of our friends across the pond think we crazy Americans let perfectly good "fresh" tobacco go bad.

jmatt - I have a fairly deep cellar and many aged blends as you know. I have to interject one thing here. While in many cases virginia blends improve with age, is it worth sitting on them for 10 years on purpose? No! I'm of the opinion that if you didn't buy it aged, then you buy a few tins, you open one and put the rest in the cellar. Next time you order more tobacco you do the same, but maybe with a different blend. Pretty soon the stuff you bought gets pushed to the back and "forgotten" about to age.
This is the same advice as building it yourself. But if I had a tin of VA I wanted to open, I wouldn't hesitate to, just for the sake of sitting on it for 10 years. If you are purposefully sitting on it for 10 years and mentally telling yourself you can't open it for that long or you will ruin some sort of "greatness", then when you do open it, I fear that build up you've made in your mind will leave you sorely disappointed.
I have tried many an aged blend and all I have to say is, either buy it aged from someone like Pipestud, or trade for it like you have recently done . . . or build your cellar yourself without focusing on hitting milestones. The changes in my opinion are not worth the 10 years of patience and effort it takes to anxiously wait. Enjoy what you can, when you can as tomorrow is promised to noone.
If you need any more aged VAs let me know. I'd send you some if I had any currently opened.

It is was told to me that klondike Gold is aged 2-3 years in the tin before it hits the retailers shelves. Now who told me this or I heard it somewhere, I am not sure. I want to say Brian Levine said it but my memory sucks so I cannot be positive.

I believe our friend Greg Pease said that you get the most improvement by aging just two three years and that the vast majority of the "finish" aging is achieved within 5 years.
I'm not sure when aging peaks but I've heard that there is little or no improvement beyond 10 years.
I have more first hand experience aging cigars than pipe tobacco. Aging cigars produces more dramatic results in a shorter window. Personally, I've noted that aging cigars one to two years, e.g., Eddy Ortega's and Erik Espinosa Murcielago's aka Bats, can produce gorgeous smokes. Bats are excellent cigars and smoke great after you settle them a month or two. But put a year on them and they are a fantastic smoke. In other words, age a solid $5.00 stick for a year and and you'll have a cigar that smokes like a $15 or $20 stick.

+1 Harris, I remember that Brian was explaining on the radioshow (back when he worked for Bringham) why it was taking so long to get Klondike restocked in stores. It had to set for two years in a Canadian warehouse, or something along those lines.

I'm not sure when aging peaks but I've heard that there is little or no improvement beyond 10 years.

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Whoever said that is a moron. Or, else they just have no idea what they are talking about.

It's a personal thing, but you can get the benefit in far less than 20 years. The most profound changes happen in the first few years and after that it's incremental. Escudo is one blend where the character changes over years, becoming fruitier, darker, and less peppery. I like aged Escudo, but I also like it fresh. So sometimes it's a change in the flavor, not necessarily an improvement.
I've had many opportunities to smoke vintage tobaccos. Last year I had a couple of vintage Capstans, one from 1938 and another from 1941. The 1941 Capstan tasted like...........wait for it.............Capstan! Who would have thunk it! But while the tobacco was very smooth, its flavors were slightly muted, kind of Capstan in miniature. The 1938 tasted like.............wait for it............sludge, dirt, mushrooms and strangeness. It was long over the hill and it was vile.
I used to smoke Balkan Sobranie when it was Balkan Sobranie, not the Germain strangeling. It was a favorite of mine. I've smoked 35 year old and older Balkan Sobranie and you know what it tasted like? Sorta like Balkan Sobranie, but somewhat deadened because the Latakia had lost most of its smokiness. See, some types of tobacco have a limited shelf life.
Years ago, most people didn't cellar. They bought a tin at their local tobacconist and enjoyed it. The stuff was meant and blended to be consumed. Aging has its benefits, flavors marry, and some weeds develop a richer and/or darker flavor, but the stuff's not bad as it is.
Here's GL Pease on the topic:
Pease On Aging Tobacco

Whoever said that is a moron.

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I had to double check to make sure that I wasn't the one who said that, ha ha. But, I think someone is getting the message confused. After a certain point, the effects on the aging slows down, but it does in deed keep getting better. I have had the pleasure of sampling some 30-40 year old Capstan in a taste test, and blam, it was out of this world with strength and flavors. Like the difference between eating raw veggies and cooking them in a stew. I have had a few others, not a huge amount, but I've had enough to know that older is way better. For my tastes.

I've never heard anyone say likewise, but there's always someone out there who isn't going to like something.

I didn't say that there were no benefits before 20 years.

The 1938 tasted like.............wait for it............sludge, dirt, mushrooms and strangeness. It was long over the hill and it was vile.

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See, ha ha. Many other people who tried it was astounded by the flavor.
Tastes are a funny thing. so, most of anything you read might or might not be total bullshit to your own taste buds.
Sometimes, I think saddlebrush just likes to post the exact opposite of me to keep the conversation flowing, ha ha. But, it does show how we can see the same exact thing differently.