Play Misty For Me
-
Kevin Godbee - Jan 20, 2014
- 8 min read
E. Roberts
No, this won’t be a review of the 1971 Clint Eastwood film—rather, it’s a thriller of a different sort. By the time this goes to press, Vincent Manil’s ‘La Brumeuse’ will for the first time be available in the US. Semois tobacco, produced in the Ardennes Valley in Belgium and taking its name from the Semois River, is a peculiarity in the tobacco world. It was the subject of a recent NY Times article, prefaced by none other than our own Greg Pease; from this brief exposure to the American pipe smoker’s radar, fueled by forum discussions and isolated reports of its wondrous smoking qualities and singular taste, enough interest was generated for relative newcomers The Pipe Guys to seek out the gentleman mentioned in the Times article as the premiere producer of the stuff, Vincent Manil, and arrange for its import.
The Pipe Guys is a venture in well-curated pipery for the modern connoisseur, the brainchild of, well…two pipe guys, Jon Guirguis and Phil Assad. What started out as a shared enjoyment of pipes and tobaccos grew into a blog by September 2012, and within a year became a full-fledged Internet retailer. It’s a small operation run with a passion that is evident in every facet of their presentation, from the website to the remarkable customer service. My request for a phone interview, submitted through their site, was answered within thirty minutes—with a personal call from Jon, who was happy to reinforce that their business model was built around their personalized service. Jon had read the Times article himself, and like many had been intrigued not only with this curious tobacco but with the remarkable story of it as well. "This guy [Vincent Manil] and his small-batch artisanal tobacco really fit in with the whole philosophy of our business," relates Jon. Noticing the buzz that was developing in the online pipe community about the mysterious Semois, he figured it would be worth a shot to contact Vincent directly.
"If you want to taste Semois, you must taste Semois" — Greg Pease.
Fortune favors the bold, and the timing proved to be serendipitous for The Pipe Guys to reach out to Vincent. For years Mr. Manil had been fielding the occasional request to send his tobacco to curious customers from all over the world, but he is truly a one-man (*and his charming wife) operation, producing this marvelous concoction in his basement, and had never felt comfortable with the prospect of delving into commercial production and the vagaries and pitfalls of international shipping. But the buzz had grown to a point he couldn’t ignore, and when the connection was made it just seemed the right time, and with the right people. Speaking with Jon, it’s easy to be infected with the enthusiasm he has for pipes and tobacco. It took months of regulatory hurdles and reams of paperwork, and finally on Monday, January 20th, pre-orders for La Brumeuse begin, to be shipped by the 30th.
La Brumeuse thick-cut.
Package: It will initially be offered in 100-gram packets at the price point of $24.90, limited to one per customer. While this may seem rather precious, it’s important to note that the tobacco is presented absolutely dry—you’re not buying any water weight whatsoever; compared to an average tinned tobacco at roughly 20% RH, it’s a significantly larger portion. The dry presentation is in part due to the processing techniques employed for Semois; it’s hand-toasted in a large drum roaster, similar to coffee beans, in order to bring out its unique flavor characteristics. For some more in-depth study of the peculiarities of Semois, I’ll refer you to Arno’s excellent blog, Dutch Pipe Smoker. While it’s perfectly suitable to smoke bone dry as presented, I found it complimentary to gently hydrate it in small portions by placing it in a bail-top jar with a humidifier for a couple days. Because it is utterly additive-free, with no mold-retarding agents, it will be susceptible to unwelcome growth if not kept dry, so I’d recommend against preparing more than a serving at a time in this manner. As dry as it is, though, it exhibits its remarkable terroir-laden pungency with aplomb, and gains added dimension with a modicum of moisture added. How to even describe the aroma? It’s rich, musky, and floral, and truly has a barnyard mélange about it—the (pleasantly) fetid aroma of manure, fresh-tilled soil, moldering bales of hay, and yes, the misty fog-laden valley air for which it was named. After some days spent humidifying in the jar I get a definite carrot-cake batter aroma, replete with allspice and roasted walnut. The color of the coarse ribbon is a rather uniform olive-brown range.
So I’m packin’ my bags for the misty mountains…Photo © Bart Heirwig
Char: From the moment flame touches leaf, it’s apparent that this is not your average tobacco. It initially offers a tart, oily flavor most akin to cloud-grown Ecuadorian-Connecticut cigar leaf; stout, yet somehow couched in velvet. When very dry it’s unlikely you’ll need a second match to smoke to the bottom of the bowl, and it should be noted to smoke quite slowly and pack a bit tighter than you might normally.
Top: Lingering behind the opening salvo of cigarishness is a panoply of flavors ranging from delicate yet definite florals like violet, lavender, and clover, to the richer vegetal range and tart top notes like fortified wine or a frothy ale. The spicy cigar-range flavors predominate, though, and set the tone with their cinnamon and cedar notes.
Mid: As the bowl progresses rather quickly to the midpoint, the flavors deepen and expand appreciably. Clear turpeny, tannic, woody notes of cedar, cask oak, piñon on a barbeque pit commingle with more salty umami tastes like sourdough pretzel, burned tomato sauce, and winter squash. Smoking as much as I could pack into a Missouri Meerschaum Danish egg out in a chilly mid-winter rain, the earthy, vegetal nature really shines through, offering a notably different smoke than when at home in my warm, dry office. I could close my eyes and imagine being in a barn, brushing down a Brabançon just in from a day in the field, the hay and barn wood and flickering oil lamp and animal musk mingling in my sinuses. This is free verse in a pipe, it’s Dylan going electric, Miles Davis recording Bitches Brew, Burroughs shuffling the manuscript to Naked Lunch like a deck of cards—it’s all over the map.
La Semois et La Val Ardennais
Finish: Somewhere between mid-bowl and heel my eyelids began to sweat. In the way that insanely hot peppers are felt by our bodies in ways far more complex than mere taste, the profound flavors and appreciable nicotine content of this tobacco are felt. It’s been mentioned before, and I’d be remiss not to mention it again: it will ghost a pipe readily. Repeated bowls may linger indefinitely, in fact; dedicated cobs are a great option, and it excels in them, picking up a nice sweetness from the corn and burning effortlessly in the larger bowls. The flavor stays heavily on the palate, and will shape the taste of food or other smokes well after the bowl is done. Pairing can thus be difficult—I had mixed success with beers, found it better with strong port and rum and cokes, and was completely stymied with teas, even my strongest blacks. Much more research will be needed in this area.
K. Anastosopoulos pipe (also available through ThePipeGuys) and antique meer for testing.
Room Note: Fire up some Semois in a crowd of cigar smokers and you’ll likely make some friends, if not converts. At the monthly pipe club meeting, too, this will pique the interest of anyone within range, particularly Lat smokers. Those unfriendly to rich, redolent clouds of pungent tobacco may complain. Much of the cigar-like range and some of the floral and earthy range translate quite directly to the secondary smoke.
Rating: 92
The quaint packaging belies this tobacco’s ultra-boutique, handmade, one-at-a-time nature. The cut and color are intriguing, and well suited to ease of smoking. The remarkable bouquet speaks volumes as preamble to the smoke. 13 for presentation. Burning a bit quickly when fresh from the package, it still doesn’t threaten to bite, though will tend to get a bit hot in the chamber. I recommend gentle humidification for a day in advance to release even more flavor and temper the speed. 32 draw & burn points. A cultivar of burley, it’s easy on the palate heat-wise, never biting, although its intensity and mouthfeel are not to be trifled with. Pairing with beverages was a noted challenge. The sheer complexity and pungency are off the charts, and difficult to quantify. It truly does stand in a category of its own, this Semois—with limited experience in comparable Ardennes Valley leaf, I’ll give this a provisional 47 for flavor and aroma, based on its utterly unique profile.
Cellar or Smoke?
I’m to understand that La Brumeuse is the most full-flavored of Vincent’s blends; hopefully we’ll soon see additions to the import list with his milder blends as well. For those who also enjoy cigars, trying some of this is a no-brainer. Latakia aficionados will likewise find remarkable strength, depth, complexity and plenty of smoky character to wrap their palates around. If this stuff rings your bell, start stocking up as and when you can, remembering that it’s a truly small-batch boutique tobacco with limited availability, and store it carefully, noting that it’s susceptible to mold growth due to its lack of additives.
Brand: Vincent Manil Val Ardennais Pur Semois
Blend: La Brumeuse
Blender: Vincent Manil
Type: Semois
Country: Belgium
Cut: Coarse ribbon
Tobaccos: Semois (burley cultivar)
Strength: Strong
Room Note: Strong
Tin Size: 100g paper packet
Tin Age: New
Tin Description– The Ardennes Valley — Thick Cut Pipe Tobacco — Grown and Processed in Belgium.
American / English Packaging Art
Order Vincent Manil La Brumeuse Semois Exclusively from ThePipeGuys.com
Written by Kevin Godbee
More Pipes and Tobaccos Articles
9 Responses
Smokingpipes.com Updates
17 Fresh Brebbia Pipes |
12 Fresh Estate Pipes |
3 Fresh Ser Jacopo Pipes |
9 Fresh Ashton Pipes |
24 Fresh Brulor Pipes |
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. It was something now completely lost to time. Until it wasn’t. Memories are powerful things, and there is no sense more tightly bound to memory than our sense of smell. One whiff was all it took to carry me back in time, conjuring a vivid recollection of something long submerged in the inky depths of a subconscious mind. Look, I know as well as anyone that pipes are meant to be smoked, and that many feel it almost sacrilegious to have a pipe and not set it to its intended task. In this case, I simply can’t. I won’t. Ever. Rationally, I am fairly certain this pipe would probably be a great smoke. It was too well loved by its previous caretaker to be anything less than that. My choice not to smoke it is an emotional one, not something rational. Of the thousands of pipes that have passed through my hands over the years, this is the only one to create such a singular and vivid, almost Proustian recollection of temps perdu, of lost time. It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
The little bit of this stuff that I have tried was rather off-putting. I’m a guy who really likes his Latakia, but I was rather unimpressed with Semois. It is way too flowery/floral for my tastes.
It will be interesting to see if this follows other over hyped tobaccos: large increases in the planting of the crop with a subsequent decline in the quality of the product.
In any event, we wish Mr. Manil and the Pipe Guys the best of luck in their effort to bring Semois to the U.S.
Happy smoking for the ones who manage to obtain this rustic, unique tobacco!
Many thanks for the information!
WAY 2 GO PipeGuys!
As soon as I read the Semois articles last September, I searched for a way to obtain some Semois Tobacco from the source. With the internet, I was able to find Mr. Vincent Manil and using the Dictionary.Com translator, I was able to communicate with him about how I could buy some tobacco from him. He indicated that he needed to get through the red-tape of tobacco exports and find a distributor.
Mr. Manil kept my email address and to my surprise sent me an update earlier this month to let me know where I could soon purchase this long awaited tobacco! On January 20th at 7PM EST I logged on to ThePipeGuys web site and placed my preorder … I am now watching for the package to arrive and pondering which pipe to use (I thinking a new Meerschaum Bent Acorn) ~ Thank You to all who’s efforts have allowed this to happen & Happy Smoke Trails!
This is a massive good thing for the pipe world. I was able to order some so should be smoking it within a week. Many thanks to Mr. Roberts for this article/tobacco review, the best I’ve read yet about this fabled tobacco. I haven’t looked forward to smoking an exotic tobacco this month since Tambolaka arrived on the scene and was disappointed by its nondescript flavor. I don’t think this Semois will suffer a similar fate.
I have a feeling this may be somewhat of a polarizing tobacco–either loved or reviled. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever tasted, but it’s certainly unique, utterly so; I’ll be sure to have some on hand to scratch that occasional itch for its flavor profile. It’s definitely worth trying out and passing around to the pipe club buddies just for the reaction. I can see this gaining more than a few rabid devotees for sure. I’d love to hear from others their reactions and opinions of it when their shipments arrive!
Scored 100 g and am eagerly awaiting receipt of what I am sure will be a very different tobacco. So far I haven’t read any articles on blending with Semois, but I am sure that will happen given the availability.
I’ve also read that it ghosts, but in my experience such ghosting, with unflavored tobacco, is minimal. Maybe what was meant is that it ghosts like Latakia, which ghost for me can be overcome with only 3 or 4 bowls of the new tobacco.
Regarding blending, I did actually experiment a little with mixing in some pure Latakia, Basma and Bursa leaf I had kicking around; the Semois really has some very chameleonic character in small quantities in the mix, though it can easily overpower. And as regards ghosting, well, believe the hype–it lingers more than many of the strongest Lakeland styles I’ve tried, significantly more. Though the tobacco itself is “unflavored”, as far as no additives, in and of itself it is profoundly flavored. You’re not going to overcome it with a few bowls of anything lighter than napalm. 😀
Thanks for an excellent article. This doesn’t sound like something I’m likely to smoke unless it finds its way into the blender’s arsenal. In time that may very well happen since it seems that it could season Virginias and Orientals quite nicely. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Pease has already considered it.